The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-02-04
TOSSED LIKE A CHIP.
Terrible Experience Of the Will
mington in the Storm.
NARROW ESCAPE FROM WRECK,
Leaking, and with Machinery Crippled,
She IL Driven Back From the Coium-
bis to Cape Flattery.

ASTORIA. Or, Feb. Especial. The
steamer Wilmington arrived here tonight
in a terribly battered condition, four days
overdue. Last Monday she left Victoria
and anchored in the Straits of Fuca till
the following morning She then proceeded
out, and on reaching Cape Fiattery ran
into fearful storm. The wind blew from
every point Of the compass. and the vessel
began 10 roll heavily. As soon as she got
fairly around the cape he forward port
lifeboat broke away and had its keel
smashed, but after a long struggle
was secured to the main deck. Matters
went from bad to worse, and at daylight
on Wednesday the wind and sea rose
higher than ever. Without any warning,
the Wilmington was laid On her
beam ends. Her mainsail was car
ried away in about three minutes,
and her spanker boom was torn
completely from its boItings, coming down
with crash into the after-cabin. smash
ing that par; of the steamer to splinters.
The boats and life RATS got adrift and her
new lifeboat, the largest on the Coast,
obtained in Portland on her last trip.
was broken to pieces. Every other
boat on board was battered to atoms and
the RATS were twisted and torn out of
shape and piled up on the deck like kind
ling wood. Twenty feet of deck railing
on the port side was carried away COM
pietely, and to add to the confusion
the large water tank in the forehold
broke adrift and rolled round among the
cargo, smashing dozen barrels of lime,
which had to be carried up III buckets
and thrown overooard The tremendous
ha fn IL
and her cargo of lime and lime rock shifted
necessarily.
Toward night the ship gave a terrible
lurch, and twenty-five feet of her stern
and upper works were carried away in
stantIy. Through this big gap the water
poured in in tons. Then the wind fell
little. All hands were set to work
placing a temporary patch on the
exposed side of the vessel. and
her head was turned towards the Column
hia river. off which she had been beating
for thirty-six hours. On Thursday night
it came on to blow another hurricane, and
the Wilmington was driven clear back to
within a few miles of Cape Flattery.
When off Gray's Harbor the terrible strain
on her machinery by reason of the heavy
seas caused a big break, the air pumps
and other parts giving way. The engines
were then stopped for over forty hours TO
allow the break to be patched up. and DUR
ing this time she drifted to within mile of
the breakers. The jibsail was rugged and
this held her under steerageway till the
repairs were completed. Then in a blind
ing snowstorm she slowly made her way
down the coast and into Astoria.
The captain said he never had a closer
call in his life, and that the weather dur
ing the whole trip was frightful.
No vessels of any kind were
sighted by the Wilmington, but
this fact was not surprising, as
she was blown many miles out of her reg
ular track. AS she lies at her dock tonight
her shattered appearance gives every evil
dence of the awful gales experienced.