The record-union., 1894-06-23
Five Members of the Crew Arrive
at Port Townsend.
STORY TOLD BY THE THIRD OFFICER
OF THE BARK.
The Vessel Struck on Hidden Reef
. lring the Night and Was Soon
Completely Out of Sight-Forty-O One
Men, Including the Captain, Miss
ing, and are Believed to Have Been
nr,nr
Drowned.
Special to the REcoRD-UN1ox.

Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.
PORT TOWNSEND, June 22.-The bark
entine John Wooster, eleven days from
Unalaska, arrived to-day with five of the
crew of the lately wrecked whaling bark
James Allen. Forty-one men, including
Captain Huntley and the first and second
officers, are missing. The vessel is a
total wreck. Two men-ofwar visited
the scene of the disaster two weeks later
and found not vestige of the wreck.
Joseph Dewatt, third officer of the Allen,
came down on the Wooster, and tonight
gave the Associated Press correspondent
the following account:
1.-THE accident occurred about l1:30
o'clock on the morning of May llth. l
was on watch, the weather being very
thick, foggy and cold, and a drilling
rain was falling. The sun had been hid
den four or five days, and we lost our
exact reckoning and believed we were
further east than we really were. Sud-
denly, while laying to. the vessel struck
q hidden reef which Jared the bark from
stem to stern and brought all hands on
deck. A few seconds later she struck an
other reef with an awful crash. tearing
the keel to pieces. Before the pumps
could be started the water began coming
in through the lower matches. The first
two boats lowered were smashed to pieces
against the side of the ship. The first
mates boat was first TO go, and he
changed off into the second mates boat.
Captain Huntley had charge of the
deck, and was busily engaged in launch
ing boats and getting the crew off the
sinking ship. All hands had gotten into
four boats, and 1 was ready to embark,
when Captain Huntley went into the
cabin. Everywhere it was pitch dark,
and the only way to distinguish person
was by the voice. 1 went to the cabin
and found it full of water, with float
ing debris. 1 called the Captain loudly
three times, and got no answer. The
ship began TO heave and lurch, and 1
hastily embarked and pulled away, when
the ship lurched forward and sank.
st is barely possible the Captain might
rave gotten to one of the boats, although
our cook says the Captain did not come
out of the cabin. My boat was partly
stove in, and by great effort we kept it
free of water. We sailed thirty miles
west, landing on a barren island without
food, and waited for the weather to
moderate. We patched up the boat and
proceeded i smother island, where we
found some natives, who assisted us to
repair our boat and gave us plenty of
food.
1.-THE storm, which had been blowing
incessantly for ten days, moderated
slightly, and the natives started to pilot
US to the North American Commercial
Company station. After going short
distance we met the steam schooner Dora,
and she took us few miles distant to the
man-of-war Petrol.
1.-The disaster occurred on the reef at
the last end of Emily Isle, near p pass,
three miles from shore. The Petrol went
Immediately in search of the crew. We
cruised in the vicinity several days
searching the adjacent islands, and the
only trace we found was crushed skiff.
The day following the wreck, three miles
distant, we saw boat under sail, but
were unable to ascertain which one of
our boats it was. AS my boat was max
ing water, we were unable to catch up
with the other boat, and the thick
weather soon obscured her from sight.
1t may be possible that she landed on
some of the western islands and part of
the crew thereby saved"
The following members of the crew
were saved: Joseph Dewatt, third officer;
TT, 1, T1I,x,
Roath, boat steerer; Tom Gordoge, cook;
Peter Peterson, seaman; Max Gohore,
seaman; Fred Hill, seaman; and one
other, name unknown, boat steerer.
Three of the men remained in Unalaska
and the others came down on the Wooster.
The men who arrived here tonight are
foreign born and have told several con-
flicting stories on the passage down. At
one time they averred that the mate and
Captain were drowned in the cabin.
This they now deny, and state that the
mate got into the second mates boat.
Stories about the Captains disappearance
in the cabin are also contradictory.
The survivors tell dreadful tales of the
privations from hunger and cold expert
enced after the accident. They subsisted
on fish caught on the beach eight days
after the wreck.
Three or four revenue cutters and men
of-war left Unalaska for Emily Island
and vicinity to thoroughly search for the
missing men. The general opinion pre-
walls that all the missing men are
drowned. The stormiest weather ever
experienced on the coast prevailed about
the time of the wreck. The revenue cut
ter Bear came into Unalaska and took the
news of the wreck of the Allen, which
carried whaling supplies to Point Barrow,
the rendezvous of the fleet.