Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-12-02
Rescue of the Monitors Survivors.

From paper on the loss of the Monitor
accompanying Captain Ericsson's account
| of his vessels in the December Century,
we quote the following: CATER fearful
and dangerous passage over the frantic
seas, we reached the Rhode Island, which
still had the tow-line caught in her wheel
and had drifted perhaps two miles to lee
ward. We came alongside under the lee
bows, where the first boat that had left
the Monitor, nearly an hour before, had
| just discharged its men; but We found
that getting on board the Rhode Island
was harder task than getting from the
Monitor. We were carried by the sea
from stem to stern, for to have made fast
would have been fatal; the boat was
bounding against the ships sides; some
times it was below the wheel, and then,
on the summit of a huge wave, far above
the decks; then the two boats would
crash together; and once, while surgeon
Weeks was holding on to the rail, he lost
his fingers by collision which swamped
the other boat. Lines were thrown to us
from the deck of the Rhode Island, which
were of no assistance, for not one Of us
could climb small rope; and besides,
the men who threw them would imme-
diately let go their holds, in their excite
ment to throw another-which I found to
be the case when kept hauling in rope
instead of climbing.
1t must be understood that two vessels
lying side by side, when there is any mo-
ton to the sea, move alternately; or in
other words, one is constantly passing
the other up and down. At one time,
when our boat was near the bows of the
steamer, we would rise upon the sea un-
til we could reach her rail; then in an in
slant, by very rapid descent, we could
touch her keel. While we were thus ris-
ing and falling upon the sea, caught
rope, and rising with the boat managed
to reach within foot or two of the rail,
when man, if there had been one, could
easily have hauled me on board. But
they had all followed after the boat,
which at that instant was washed astern,
and L hung dangling in the air over the
bow of the Rhode Island, with Ensign
Norman Atwater hanging to the cat-head.
three or four feet from me, like myself,
with both hands clinching rope and
sh outing for some one to save him. Our
hands grew painful and all the time
weaker, until i saw his strength give
way. he slpped loot, caught again,
and with his last prayer, go God !" saw
him fall to sink, and rise no more The
ship rolled, and rose upon the sea, some
lines with her keel out of the water, SO
hat was hanging thirty feet above the
sea, and with the fate in view that had
allen our much-beloved companion,
which no one had witnessed but myself.
still chung to the rope with aching
hands, calling in vain for help. But I
'ould not be heard, for the wind shrieked
ar above my voice. My heart here, for
he only time in my life, gave up hope,
nd home and friends were most ten
lerly thought of. While I was in this
tate, within a few seconds of giving up,
he sea rolled forward, bringing with it
ne boat, and when | would have fallen
nto the sea, it was there. I only recol-
ect hearing an old sailor say, as 1 fell
ITO the bottom of the boat, "where in
did he come from.