Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-11-30

4 glHcefy QedQ AMIDST the
furnaces! Captain, dead in the gang
way! Passengers, dead in the cabinl
Buried in the great cemetery Of dead
steamers, beside the City of Boston, the
Lexington. the President, the Cambria
waiting for the a~rchangel's trumpet to
split up the decks, and wrench open the
cabin doors and unfasten the matches.
l thought / had seen storms on the
sea before, but all of them together
might have come under one wing OF that
cyclone. We we're only 500 or BOO miles
from home, and in high expectation OF
soon seeing our friends, for there
was no one on board so poor as
not to have O friend. But it
seemed as IL we were to be disap-
pointed. The most of US expected
then and there to die. There were none
who made light Of the peril, ave two.
One was an Englishman, and he was
drunk, and the other was an American,
and he was q fooll Oil what a time 1t
vast A night to make ones hair turn
white. We came out Of the berths and
stood in the gangway, and looked into
the steerage, aad sat In the cabin.
While seated there. we heard overhead
something like minute guns, 1t vas
the bursting Of the sails. We held on
with both hands to keep our places.
Those who attempted to ross the floor
came back bruised and gashed. Cups
and glasses were dashed to fragments,
pieces OF the table getting loose, swung
across the saloon. 1t seemed as IL the
hurricane took that great ship OF thous-
ands OF tons and stood it on end, and
said: 'Shall / sink it, or let it GO this
once?" And then it came down with
such force that the pillows trampled
over it, each mounted of q fury. We
felt that everything depended on the
propelling screw. If that stopped for
an instant we knew the vessel would fall
off into the trough of the sea and sink,
and so we prayed that the screw, which
three times since leaving Liverpool had
already stopped, might not stop now.
Oh! how ~anxiously We listened for the
regular thump of the machinery, upon
which our lives seemed 10 depend.
After q while some one said: THE
screw is stopped" No; its sound had
only been o~verpowered by the uproar of
the tempest, and We breathed easier
again when we heard the regular
p~ulsations Of the over-tasked ma
chinery going thump, thump,
thump. At 3 o'clock in the morning
the water covered the ship from PROV
to stern, and the skylights gave way!
The deluge rushed in, and we felt that
one or two more waves like that must
swamp us forever. AS the water rolled
back and forward in the cabins, and
dashed against the wall, it sprang
half way up to the ceiling. Rushing
through the skylights as it came in with
such terrific roar, there went up from
the cabin a shrek Of horror which l
pray God l may never hear again. l
have dreamed the whole scene over
again, but God has mercifully kept me
from hearing that one cry. Into il
seemed to be compressed the agony of
expected shipwreck. 1t seemed to say:
II shall never get home again! My
children shall be orphaned, and my wife
shall be widowed! / am launching now
into eternity! In two minutes l shall
meet my God!"
There were about five hundred and
fifty passengers in the steerage, and as
the water rushed in and touched the
furnaces, and began violently to hiss,
the poor creatures in the Storage i'm
agined that he boilers were giving way.
Those passengers wrfthcd IN the water
and mud, some praying, some crying, all
terrified. They made a rush for the
deck. An officer stood on deck and beat
them back with blow after blow. 1t was
necessary. They could not have stood
an instant on the deck. Oh! how they
begged to get out of the hold OF the
ship. One woman with q child in her
arms, rushed up and caught hold OF one
of the officers and cried: "Do let me
out. l will help you'll Do let me out! /
cannot die here!' Some got down and
prayed to the Virgin Mary. saying: 30
blessed mother! keep us! Have mercy on
u.s." Some stood with white lips and
fixed gaze, silent in their terror. Some
wrung their hands and cried out: 20
God! what shall l do? What shall 1
do?" The time came when the crew
could no longer stay on the deck, and
the cry of the officers was: Below! all
hands below!" Our brave and sympa-
thetic Captain Andrews-whose praise |
shall not cease to speak while / live
had been swept by the hurricane from
his bridge, and had escaped very mar
rowly with his life. The cyclone
seemed to stand on the deck, waving its
wing, crying: This ship is mine. 1
have captured i'll Hal ha! / will COM
mand i'll II God will permit, / will
sink it here and now! BY a thou
sand shipwrecks, / swear the doom
iof this yessel!" There was q lull
in the storm; but only hat it might
gain additional fury. Crash! went the
lifeboat on one side. Crash! went the
lifeboat on the other side. The great
booms got loose, and, as with the heft
of Q thunderbolt, pounded the deck and
beat the mast-the jib boom, studding
sail boom. and square sail boom, with
their strong arms, beating time to the
awful march and music of the hurricane.
Meanwhile the ocean became phos-
phorescent The whole scene looked
like Ore. The water dripping from the
| rigging, there were ropes Of IRE; and
there were has of fire. and there was
. deck OF fire. A ship of fire, sailing
ON q sea of fire, through Q night of fire.
May / never see anything like it again!
Everybody prayed. A lad Of l2 years
of age got down and prayed for his
mother, If I should give up" he said,
II do not know what would become Of
mother" There were men who, I think,
had not prayed for thirty years, who
then got down on their knees. When q
man who has neglected God all his life
feels that he has come to his last time,
IL makos n vary husv NIGHT All Of our