The morning news., 1889-04-14
4 TALE OF THE STORM.
A Young Lady Describes Her Expert
ence on the Chattahoocnee.

ence on the Chattahoochee.
A young lady of Savannah, who was a
passenger on the Chattahoochee on the
voyage to New York, in writing home TO
friends gives a graphic description Of the
perils of the passage, The Chattahoochee
left here on the morning tide on Friday,
week before last, and reached New York
the following Wednesday. The young lady
having written on board the steamer the
day before arriving in New York, when
the incidents Of the voyage were fresh IN
her mind, her description will be fouLd In
teresting. She says:
Saturday night was so rough that all
we could do was to cling 10 the side Of the
berth to keep from being dashed on the
floor. Sunday morning there We're scarcely
any of the passengers who got up for break,
fast / managed to crawl, or rather to fall
out Of my berth. At about II O'Clock we
heard a terrible rush of water down stairs.
On looking over the rail we discovered
that the lower cabin was flooded. The
water seamed to me to be about five feet
deep. Every time the ship would roll we
would ship heavy sea. The men, as usual,
lost their presence of mind, and began
screaming for life preservers, and the poor
women were left pretty much to them
selves.
"All the windows on the shore side were
stove in, and Oh my, how the sea rushed
in Such l never experienced BEFORE and
never wish to see again. All this time the
wind was blowing at the rate of eighty
miles an hour, and the steamer seemed to
be rocking at the rate of 150 miles. After
an hour or so the crew succeeded in patch
ing up the side Of the ship and bailed the
water partially out of the cabin. 1t was
very desolate all day Sunday. Nearly
oil NaFn I1nA haaV IFnlr
open, and We were unpleasantly
moist. to say the least of it, so we poor
shipwrecked passengers camped out in the
social hail. We had TO lie on the floor and
brace ourselves against the side Of the ship
to keep from being hurt. Tho walters
passed around crackers and coffee during
the day, but do not think any one ate
very much. A more terror-stricken set of
people / have never seen. We were COM
paratively quiet, though.
SUNDAY light we had the beds and
blankets brought out into the saloons and
we made ourselves as comfortable as possi-
bic. which was terribly miserable. We had
n very pleasant party In our camp, we four
girls sleeping, or pretending to sleep, in a
row across the cabin floor. Jane, the
stewardess, chaperoned the party, aud in a
hall near us we made one of
the most trustworthy walters sleep. About
mlQnlghJ tne TlrsD lnaUe came IN anQ cnoefe0
us up considerably by informing us that we
had passed Hatteras at 3 O'Clock Saturday
afternoon. AS we were now only thirty
miles north of Hatteras after eighteen
hours, was not that consollng. After the
mate left we passed around crackers and
lemons.
"At o'clock Monday morning we were
not able to move about much, in fact not
at all, and the steamer rocked considerably
during the day. Monday night we passed
a lightship drifting about wildly; we cir
cled around 1t several times trying TO find
out if we could render it any assistance.
"After all the danger was over we had a
jolly time laughing over the many queer
things which occurred. There are several
stories going around about a Savannah
gentleman. Some say he put two life pre-
servers on himself and one on his sacnel.
A lady passenger put on her best wrap.
and velvet bonnet, preparing to be drowned
in style.
"You cannot imagine what our fear and
anxiety have been for the past three days.
To-day the weather is charming We can
not sufficiently express our gratitude to
Capt Daggett, who is the finest seaman
ever knew