The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1892-07-06
A BOAT WITH A HISTORY.
Memento of the Most Fearful Volcanic
Upheaval in Modern Times.

Tourists who visit Batavia nowadays
are quite out of the fashion, says the
Philadelphia Record, if they fail to
make the passage through Sunda
strait, and see all that is left of Kraka-
tau, and the vestiges of the ruin
wrought by the terrible eruption of
1888. If they push up the Bay of Lam
pong, on the Sumatra side of the chan
mel, they are likely to land on the low
shores occupied by the village of
Telokh-Betong, and hire carts for a
short jaunt into the interior; and when
they have gone about two miles they
will pause to take in a curious scene,
for here is seen one of the most inter-
esting results still visible of the great
wave of Krakatau.
There was just one man amid all
that wild scene of death and devasta-
tion who was not overwhelmed in the
common ruin. He escaped, while forty
thousand perished. He was the light
house keeper who lived alone on an
isolated rock In the strait. 1t was
broad daylight when Krakatau burst
asunder, but in a few moments the
heavens were so densely shrouded by
dust, mud and smoke that the dark
ness of midnight covered all the chan
mel. The guardian of the lighthouse
was in the lantern 200 feet above the
sea level. Here he remained safe and
sound in the midst of the terrible COM
motion.
He felt the trembling of his light
house, as it was so dark that he could
not see the threatened danger. He
did not know that tremendous wave
had almost overwhelmed the light
house, and that its crest had nearly
touched the base of the lantern. He
did not hear it because he was deaf
ened by the awful detonation of Kra,
katau.
In a few moments, however, the
wave, over hundred feet in height
had swept along total coast line o.
nearly a hundred miles on both sides
of the channel
Scores of populous villages were
buried deep beneath the avalanche o.
water. Great groves of cocoanu1
palms were leyeled to the ground
Promontories were carried away. New
bays were dug out of the yielding lit
toral Every work of human hands
except that lighthouse, was destroyed
and 10000 persons perished in the del
uge that mounted from the seas or be
meath the rain of mud that filled thu
heavens.
A little side wheel steamboat wa
borne on the top of that wave through
forests and jungle over two miles int
the country, and was left as the way,
receded, 1t will be remembered tina
for weeks before the final cataclysm a
Krakatau, the volcano was in a stat
of eruption. Pleasure parties wer
made up at Batavia to visit the vol
cano. Not few people landed on tn
island, little dreaming that in tn
twinkling of an eve two-thirds of
was to be blown into the air as thougl
shot from gun. They wished to ge
as near as they thought they Nigh
safely venture to the growing, steam
ing crater. This little steamboat, O
the day before the explosion, carrie
one of the parties to the island. Their
were only twenty on board besides th
crew. They spent a couple of hour
around the island, and then steame
up the deep and narrow bay of Lam
pong and it is supposed they anchore
for the night in front of the big tow
of Telokh-Betong, which was one {
the largest settlements on the sout
coast of Sumatra.
The ill-fated pleasure party wa
never heard of again. 1t is suppose
that the boat was turned over an
over like an egg-shelf in the surf.
had every appearance of such roug
usage when it was found some montl