Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-04-03
ROBBED By THE WAVES.
,.,,eeANo KILLED AND BOY DROWNED
WAS THIS WoMAN'S LOT.

4 Nra II. Nns
/ Ha. "a Terrible Experience hns-
hand Was the Captain of an Ill Fated
ship--wrecked In "a Series of Typhoons
The steamship City of Rio de Janeiro
numbered among her passengers lady
whose experiences involve tale OF are
shinwreck and sad bereavement. Mrs.
p q Fownes is tall, rather slightly
bnilt woman, whose pale face still bears
only too plainly the marks of the terrible
onfferings she has had to endure, and yet
tells tale of no common courage ana OF
rare fortit ude. She was called upon at
tbe residence of her sister, Mrs. b. X.
Keith, 1876 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. Is, 1890, from
Nayaeali with ballast bound for Puget
sound For the first twenty-four hours
all went well, but on the night of the 10Th,
when she was out about 100 miles, IL De-
Gan TO blow a hurricane, which quickly
changed to the revolving winds OF the ty-
nhoon. 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 1t
the Irgotul and many other vessels were
lost while the Lizzie Troup was re-
proved.
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 a moments notice, a 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, Ticking every inch of can
vas from the masts, smashing the spars,
and hurting them away in splinters,
: and breaking the mainmast and foremost
and even tearing the copper sheathlng
from the vessels sides.
i, 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 Okin in the Loochoo
group, which she had for so many hours
= fought to free herself from. The first
e blow on the reef carried away the bows,
r a second knocked the bottom clean out,
carving away the keel entirely, and let
5 ting all the ballast fall out, while the re-
mainder of the hull was tossed like a
: broken egg shell high on a reef not 100
/ yards from land.
q Capt Fownes, the husband of the lady
= who told the story, did all that a man
: could, and acted as brave man should.
=, He stood by his vessel, encouraged his
= nj yuha, tbay had hanu tn11
. to save themselves as best they might, he
looked to his wife and 2-year-old son.
e st won't last long" he said; "our
II time has come. Let us meet the end
IS courageously."
5, He took the child in his arms and
IS steadied himself and wife against the
g deck house. Hardly had he done so
Y when Il huge wave came crashing in on
# top of them. smashed in the decks and
<, carried all who chung to the planks into
Ia 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 tine decks were broker
Vi in | felt myself carried forward, and wa;
20 thrust up by the force of the water,
NJ through an opening in the fore part Of
-, the ship. There | was held fast, "a wire
:. cable around my ankle and my body
jammed in between the broken beams
:! From this place | could see my husband
u had clambered onto a portion of the
7r deck house which remained, but the
~ child, my boy, was gone! Hardly know
ing what | was doing l managed to fret
id my foot, and by tearing my clothes of
Up from the waist down was able to liberatt
a my body. In he meantime my husband
b. signed to me to try to crawl over tht
,e rocks to the shore. One of the sailors
N had succeeded in landing, and, bringing
!, natives with him, managed to drag sew
10 eral ashore, and "A rope was passed t.
a me and they laid me on the beach.
CAST ON A FOREIGN SHORE.
Capt. Fownes himself was rescued
but only to die There was no doctor a
hand when he landed, and in two hour
he succumbed He was very badly in
lie jured internally and his ribs were broker
tie in. An aged carpenter named Georg,
Kobe, of Hamburg, Germany, was ais,
q brought ashore. but died five days after
i, ward from exhaustion. OF those tina
III llltd W SttN Z llltHLoelftS tue second Iudl
" and eight sailors We're carried off int
NJ the surf and were never seen again.
One fearfully mangled body was al
~ the sea gave up. The people saved mum
-, bered ten, including the first mate. TIL
~ entire number of persons on board wa
\ twenty-five. Nine men and the bah
boy were drowned, the captain and car
penter died after being rescued, an
nine men and Mrs. Fownes survived.
CT The natives of the little island ha
e- never before had white people anon
them, though they are well acquainte,
IL with the customs of Americans, and thei
IL laws are similar. An inquest was he'll
Dis by the natives, and the bodies were re
- spectfully buried, and a sto.e monu
1t ment, properly inscribed, shows wher
IT, Capt Fownes rests. He never rallie
r. after being brought ashore, and his wifi
al never knew how the child was torn frol
= his arms
M The rest of her story is very simple
;; No steamers ever calling in at the close
u port, she was taken in a junk to Dukin
~ thence to Kagoshima, Kobe, and fnall
II to Yokohama, where she remained fu
seventeen days. At each stopping plac
Sc the japanese held an official inquiry int
he the po11cS Of +ho