Los Angeles herald., 1891-02-19
ROBBED BY THE WAVES.
HUSBAND KILLED AND BOY DROWNED
WAS THIS WoMAN'S LOT.

HUSBAND KILLED AND BOY DROWNED
WAS THIS woMAN'S LOT.
Mrs. b. G. Fownes, of New Brunswick.
Has Terrible Experience Hus-
band Was the Captain of an Ill Fated
ship--Wrecked in Series of Typhoons.
The steamship City of Rio de Janeiro
numbered among her passengers lady
whose experiences involve tale of dire
shipwreck and sad bereavement. Mrs.
B. G. Fownes is tall, rather slightly
built woman, whose pale face still bears
only too plainly the marks of the terrible
sufferings she has had to endure, and yet
tells tale Of no common courage and of
rare fortitude. She was called upon at
the residence of her sister, Mrs. B. R.
Keith, 1,136 Twenty-first street, and the
following is the substance of her sad
story:
The ship Lizzie Troup, hailing from St.
John, N. B., sailed on Sept. 10, 1890, from
Nagasaki with ballast bound for Puget
sound. For the first twenty-four hours
all went well, but on the night of the 18th,
when she was out about 100 miles, it be-
gan to blow a hurricane, which quickly
changed to the revolving winds of the ty-
phoon. There had been time, however,
to shorten sail, and only the lower top
sail was then carried away. This wind
storm lasted thirty six hours, and in it
the lrgotul and many other vessels were
lost, while the Lizzie Troup was re-
prieved.
On Saturday, Sept. 81, until noon the
winds had abated considerably, and all
sail was set to keep the vessel well off the
japanese shores. Suddenly, almost with
out moments notice, second typhoon
came upon the vessel. The wind blew
first from the northeast, then veered rap
idly round to east, southeast south south
east and south, ficling every inch of can
vas from the masts, smashing the spars,
and hurting them away in splinters,
and breaking the mainmast and foremast,
and even tearing the copper sheathing
from the vessels sides.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
All possible means of guidance gone,
the storm tossed waters speedily hurried
the doomed craft to the coral bound coast
of the island Of Okn, in the Loochoo
group, which she had for so many hours
fought to free herself from. The first
blow on the reef carried away the bows,
q second knocked the bottom clean out,
carrying away the keel entirely, and let
ting all the ballast fall out, while the re-
mainder of the hull was tossed like
broken egg shell high on reef not 100
yards from land.
Capt. Fownes, the husband of the lady |
who told the story, did all. that man
could, and acted as brave man should.
He stood by his vessel, encouraged his
crew, and then, when they had been told |
ito save themselves as best they might, he
looked to his wife and 2-year old son.
'It won't last long," he said; "our
time has come. Let us meet the end |
courageously."
He took the child in his arms and
,Ateadied himself and wife against the
deck house. Hardly had he done so
when huge wave came crashing in on
top Of them, smashed in the decks and
carried all who clung to the planks into
the vessels bottomless hold. Mrs
Fownes' own words best describe the |
scene:
I'VE had all been at the stern of the
vessel, and when the decks were broken
in felt myself carried forward, and was
thrust up by the force of the waters
through an opening in the fore part of
the ship There l was held fast, wire
cable around my ankle and my body
jammed in between the broken beams
From this place could see my husband
had clambered onto portion of the
deck house which remained, but the
child, my boy, was gone! Hardly know
ing what l was doing managed to free
my foot, and by tearing my clothes off
from the waist down was able to iberate
my body. In he meantime my husband
signed to me to try to crawl over the |
rocks to the shore. One of the sailors
had succeeded in landing, and, bringing
natives with him, managed to drag sew
eral ashore, and rope was passed to
me and they laid me on the beach.
CAST ON FOREIGN SHORE.
Capt. Fownes himself was rescued,
but only to die. There was no doctor at
hand when he landed, and in two hours
he succumbed. He was very badly in
jured internally and his ribs were broken
in. An aged carpenter named George
Kobe, of Hamburg, Germany, was also
brought ashore, but died five days after
ward from exhaustion. Of those that
tried to save themselves the second mate
and eight sailors were carried off into
the surf and were never seen again.
One fearfully mangled body was all
tEhe sea gave up. The people saved num-
bered ten, including the first mate. The
entire number of persons on board was
twenty-five. Nine men and the baby
boy were drowned, the captain and car
penter died after being rescued, and
nine men and Mrs. Fownes survived.
The natives of the little island had
never before had white people among
them, though they are well acquainted
with the customs Of Americans, and their
laws are similar. An inquest was held
by the natives, and the bodies were re-
sspectfully buried, and stone monu-
ment, properly inscribed, shows where
Capt. Fownes rests He never rallied
after being brought ashore, and his wife
never knew how the child was torn from