Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1892-06-01

EFFECTS Of A WAVE.
A Steamer High and
Dry Two Miles Inland
A MIGHTY TIDAL WAVE
Destroys Everything Before II and
10000 Lives.

Tourists that visit Batavia nowadays
are quite out OF the fashion if they fail
10 make the passage through Sunda
strait and see all that is left of Krakatua
and the vestiges of the ruin wrought by
the terrible eruption of 1882. Ii they
push up the Bay Of Lampong, on the
Sumatra side of the channel, they are
likely TO land on the low shores occu-
pied by the village of Telokh- -Betong,
and hire carts for short jarnt into the
interior; and when they have gone about
two miles they will pause to take in the
curious scene presented; for here is seen
one Of the most interesting results of the
great wave of Krakatau.
There was just one man amid all that
wild scene of death and devastation who
was not overwhelmed in the common
ruin. He escaped while 40, 900 perished.
He was the lighthouse keeper, who lived
alone on an isolated rock in the strait.
1t was broad daylight when Krakatau
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 lighthouse was in
the lantern 1870 feet above the sea level
Here he remained safe and sound in the
midst OF the terrible commotion.
He felt the trembling of the light
house, but it was SO dark that he could
not see the threatened danger He did
not know that "A tremendous wave had
almost overwhelmed the lighthouse,
and that its crest had nearly touched
tho base of the lantern. He did not hear
it because he was deafened by the awful
detonation of Krakatua.
In fow moments the wave, over n
hundred feet in height, had swept along
coast line of q hundred miles on both
sides of the channel.
Scores ofpopulous villages were buried
deep beneath the avalanche of water
Great groves Of cocoanut palms were
leveled to tho ground. Promontories
were carried away. New bays were dug
out of the yielding littoral. Every-work
Of human hands except that lighthouse
was destroyed, and 10000 persons per-
ished in the deluge that mounted from
the sea or beneath the rain of mud that
filled the heavens.
A little sidewheel steamboat was borne
on the top Of that wave through forests
and jungle. over two miles into the coun-
try, and was left as the wave receded
It will be remembered that for weeks
before the final cataclysm mt Krakatau,
the volcano was in O state of eruption
Pleasure parties were made up at Ba-
tavia to visit the volcano. Not few
people landed on the island, little dream
ing that in the twinkling of an eye two
thirds of it was to be blown into the air
as though shot from agun. They wished
to get as near as they thought they might
safely venture to the growing, steaming
crater.
This little steamboat, on the day be-
fore 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 is
land and then steamed up the deep and
narrow Bay of Lampong, and it is sup
posed they anchored for the night in
front of the big town Of Telokh- Betong,
which was one of the largest settlements
on the south coast Of Sumatra.
The i'll fated pleasure party was never
heard of again. 1t is supposed that the
boat was turned over and over like an
eggshell in the surf. 1t had every ap-
pearance of such rough usage when it
was found some months later. The ma
chinery and furniture were badly broken
and were 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 were, of course, below
deck. AS it was morning when she was
picked up by the wave it is supposed
that nearly everybody was ON shore.
Not vestige remains Of the villages
that Gnel the water edpe -