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

From q paper on the loss OF the Monitor,
accompanying Captain Ericsson's account
of his vessels in the December Century,
we quote the following: "After a 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 n 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 90 their holds, in their excite
ment to throw another-which / 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 I'M
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 a
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 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
hands grew painful and all the time
weaker, until l saw his strength give
way. He slipped n foot, caught again,
and with his last prayer, go God p saw
him fall to sink, and rise no more. The
ship rolled, and rose upon the sea, some
times with her keel out OF the water, so
that l was hanging thirty feet above the
sea, and with the fate in view that had
fallen 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 l
could not be heard, for the wind shreked
far above my voice. My heart here, for
the only time in my life, gave up hope,
and home and friends were most ten
derby thought of. While l was in this
state, within a few seconds of giving up,
the sea rolled forward, bringing with it
the boat, and when would have fallen
into the sea, it was there. l only recol-
lect hearing an old sailor say, as / fell
into the bottom Of the boat, "where in
did he come from.