Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1886-12-04

Two Enormous Waves, Nearly Forty Feet
High, Sweep the Deck of the Vessel
Six People Killed and Thirteen seri-
ousiy Iniured-The Dead Buried at Sea
STORY of the Second Oficer.
JERSEY CITY, n. j., Dec. A frightful
disaster, involving the death Of SIX men and
the infiction of serious iujurieS to thirteen
others, was reported Thursday afternoon
upon the arrival of the steamship Western
land. On Saturday afterno on, Nov. "a, n
huge cross-sea was suddenly encountered and
it fell with terrific force upon the forward
deck of the steamship The Nesterniand
was then seven days out from Antwerp The
deck was crushed in and buried the unfort-
unates beneath mass Of wood and IRON
debris The next instant the water swept
along the gangways Of the main deck, carry
ing several persons with it. The crash was
terrific, but before the appalling nature of
the accident was realized by the passengers
the officers of the ship had all the men avail
able engaged in the work of rescue. Inc IN
iured we've carried to the intermediate cabin,
which was transformed into hospital.
The list of the killed is as follows: Ras-
mus Sandozen, aged 50, a seaman of Ant
werp, skull crushed TO jelly; Gustave Du-
dart, aged 43, a seaman of Antwerp, crushed
to death by an iron beam, leaves family;
Emile De Cock, aged 26, seaman of Ant.
werp; Henry Jaehrs aged q, seaman OF
Antwerp, legs broken and throat cut; MAX
Franks, aged II, German steerage passeh-
ger: Gabriel Levaderie, aged Il, a steerage
messenger from Constantinoplc.
Franks .bdomen was cut open and his
| skull frac. sd. He died at 80 O'Clock Sun
day morning. Levaderie sustained internal
| injuries which caused death five hours alter
| Franks expired Seaman De Cock was
found pinned to the main deck by the Jagged
end of an iron stanchion which had pierced
his abdomen The dead were buried at sea.
| The list of the injured follows: Joseph Le-
vaperie, steerage passenger, brother ol
| Grahriel, both arms broken; Max hagl a
passenger. leg broken; Julius We'll, passen
| ger, severe contusions of the back and abdo
| men; Francis Tassani u passenger, three
| ribs broken and lungs punctured; William
| Harconb, of New York, a passenger, les
| broken and arm dislocated; Eugene Sohmer
a passenger, severe scalp wounds, GUstaVt
Brenn, a passenger, severe contuslonS anC
face badly cut; Joseph Chrstman, passen
ger, arm broken; Martin Nieser, a passenger
ankle sprained and back bruised; Neil Han
sen. second boatswain leg and arm broken
Lis Olsen, a seaman, both legs broken, jar
dimus de Jough, seaman, leg broken an
otherwise hurt Henry Nefstraeten, sea
man. leg broken and chest bruised.
When the Westernland reached port th
injured passengers were transferred to hos
| .,Ft bs X-aSsal afprlps
some idea Of the terrible blows she had +,
ceived The crushed deck was known as III
J forward whaleback 1t was constructed {
four-inch pine planks resting upon masslv
} iron beams These in turn were upheld b
three-inch iron rod stanchions. The va
volume of water strnck the whalebacI
about fifteen feet from the stern and crushe
+ in section twenty-nine feet long and e.
: tending the full width of the steamship
Second Officer Ehoff made the followin
: statement: We left Antwerp on Saturda.
Nov 90, with sixty mine cabin and 514 stee
e age passengers and full cargo. At -
: o'clock Saturday afternoon, Nov. y, y
were in latitude A degrees 50 minutes, long
r tude a degrees 81 minutes. was on Il
1t main bridge when ! noticed an enormo
| wave on the starboard bow. The next l
5, slant another towering wave Joined it fro
the port side. They seemed TO leap into t
e air as they mingled They must have be
nearly ferty feet high, as saw their unit
mass above the lower yards of the forema
Then came crash Of the water upon t
\, deck. II sounded louder than dozen ca
\ mons fired at once The water swept frC
one end to the other Of the main deck a
carried everything before it The disasi
was not met with in a storm. Merely goo
strong breeze was blowing.