The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-21
A BOAT WITH A history.
The Most Fearful Volcanic Uphesval
in Modern Times.
From the Philadelphia Record.

IN MODERN TIM s.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Tourists who visit Batavia nowadays are
quite out of the fashion il they fail to make
the passage through the Sunda strait, and
see all that is left Of Krakatau. and the
vestiges of the ruin wrought by the terrible
eruption of 1888. If they push up
the Bay of Lampong on the
Sumatra side of the channel
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 the curious scene presented, for there
is seen one Of the most interesting results
still visible of the great wave Of Kratatau.
THE MAN IN THE LIGHTHOUSE.
There was just one man amid all that
wild scene of death and devastation who
was not overwhelmed in tire common ruin.
He escaped while 200 persisted He was
the lighthouse keeper who lived alone on an
isolated rock in tho strait. 1t was broad
daylight when kratakau burst asunder, but
IN few moments the heavens were SO
densely shrouded by dust, mud and smoke
that the darkness Of midnight covered all
the channel. The guardian Of the light
house was in the lantern l3O feet above the
sea level. Here he remained safe and sound
in the midst of the terrible connection.
He felt the trembling of his lighthouse,
but it was so dark that ne could not see the
threatened danger. He did not know that
tremendous wave had almost over
whelmed the lighthouse, and that its crest
had nearly touched the base of the lantern.
He did not hear it because he was deafened
by the awful detonatlon of Krakatau.
AN AVALANCHE OF WATERS.
In a few moments. howeve.', the wave,
over 100 feet in hight, had swept along a
total coast of nearly 100 mites on both sides
of the channel.
Scores of populous villages were buried
deep beneath the avalanche Of water Great
groves Of cocoanut palms were leveed to
the ground. PromontorieS were carried
away. New BAYS were dug out of the yield
ing lttoral. Every work of human hands,
except that lighthouse, was destroyed, and
10000 persons persisted in the deluge that
mounted from the sea or beneath the rain of
mud that flied the heavens
THE BATAVIA STEAMER.
There was little sidewheel steamboat
that was borne on the top of that wave
through forests and Jungle, over two miles
into the country, and was left there as the
wave receded. 1t will be remembered that
| for weeks before the final cataclysm at
| Krakatau, the volcano was in a state OF
| eruption. Pleasure parties were made up
| at Batavia to visit the volcano. Not a few
people landed on the island. little dream
| ing that in the twinkllng of an eye
| two-thirds Of it was to be blown in
to the air as though shot from a gun. They
wished TO get as near as they thought they
! might safely venture to the growing, steam
| ing crater. This little steamboat, on the
| day before the explosion. carried one of
these parties to the island. There were
| only twenty on board besides the crew.
} They spent couple of hours around the
1 island, and then steamed up the deep and
narrow Bay of Lampong. and it is supposed
| they anchored for the night in front of the
big town of 1elokh- Betong, which was one
| of the largest settlements on the south coast
| of Sumatra.
OVER AND OVER.
The Inflated pleasure party was never
heard Of again. 1t is supposed that the
boat was turned over and over like an egg
shell In the surf 1t had every appearance
of such rough usage when it was found
some months later The machinery and
strewn about IN the greatest confusion.
But the vessel held together and was finally
| set down in good shape erect on her keel.
Only two bodies were found in the vessel.
They we're, of course. below deck. AS it
was morning when she was picked up by
the wave it is supposed that nearly every
body was on shore Not a vestige remains
of the villages that lined the water edge
But the hulk of this little boat still stands,
battered and broken, though as erect as
when she plowed the channel, and she is the
most curious and interesting relic of the
greatest volcanic eruption of modern times.