The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-03-28
Narrow Escape Of a cunarder.

Narrow Escape Of Cunarder.
The leaning of the public mind to.
ward a determination to find q victim
for public censure who shall be held re-
sponsible for the loss of the Columbus
inclines me to send you a statement that
may in some way modify the existing
state Of things concerning the late wreck.
In the summer of 1867 I took passage
in the China, of the Cunard line, for
Liverpool. We had a very dismal run
across the Atlantic, rain alternating
with thick fog for twelve days, the ship
rolling necessarily. and every night be-
coming a new horror in the constantly
increasing fear that something would
happen to the steamer. Fastnet Light"
off the coast of Ireland, was seer for a
few minutes during q fog-lift on the
evening of the thirteenth day, and the
captain told us, one and all, that our
wretched passage would soon be over.
The night that followed was intense
ly black and very stormy, but the ship
was under full sail, and was driven
through tremendous seas with all steam
On. | turned in about ten o'clock and
slept, l should say, two hours when an
irresistable-and to thisday u%naccount-
able-infiuence compelled me to get up
and dress myself. The ship rolled
fearfully, but l managed to reach the
deck and grope my way, hand over
hand, by the deck railing to the smoke
pipe, where I stood a few minutes thor
oughly appalled, at the blackness of the
night and the mad plunging of the YES
sci. 5
Suddenly this terrific cry came up
from the deck below me: "God Al
mighty help us! we're going ashore.
Put the ship about" l family saw the
white waving Of an arm in shirt sleeve,
and the next minute was thrown from
my feet by the sudden change of the
ships course brought about by an Of
ticer's telegram to the wheelhouse. II
Everything was in instant confusion,
not bettered by the fact that the dark
rocks of the Irish coast were plainly Wis
ible to many of the frightened passen-
gers. The ship shook like a reedin the
fierce wind that blew, for every sail was
aback and Roadway seemed utterly i'm
possible to make. It was a long time
before the vessel answered her helm,
and nothing but the naval discipline of
! the sailors saved the China from becom-
ing q total wreck.
/ may mention here that the captain
of the ship Three Bells-the savior of
the San Francisco's passengers after
she was dismasted-was with us, and he
assured us that in all his long life as a
| sailor he never had so narrow an escape
from instant death. The ship was near
ly upon the rocks, and at the rate she
was going she would have smashed her.
self to pieces in a very short time.
After breakfast the next day some
one said: "Let us have up the man
who gave the alarm" for we had
learned that the man L saw
at midnight was a steerage passen-
ger; and soon he appeared among us, a
gray haired son of the sea, seventy years
of age or thereabout, who modestly
said to us as we gathered about him
Good friends, give thanks to God, and
do not praise me. / only smelled the
land growing nearer and nearer, and
was but His humble instrument to save
you"
The fact is we were drawn in some
mysterious mi eight miles out of
out course. Captain Hockey was
widely censured by the London papers
and has never been seen, so I have
heard, upon the ocean since. Possibly
the magnetism of the land, or the effect
of the iron and steel in the ships con-
str1lction, OF some powerful element of
the stormy atmosphere, produced q
deviation of the needle of the compass,
and perhaps counter-currents or other
contrary forces of resistless tides made
the great ship a plaything for the treach-
erous seas.-Letter to Boston Journal.