The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1894-06-30

me Terrible 1xte Wh1ch Betell
the Central America.

the Central America.
And Who that remembers can hear
without thrill the name Of the steam
ship Central America, which sank il
great storm on Sept. -, 1857, With most
of her officers and crew, nearly 400 pas
sepgers and 1900, 900 10 goldI
The Central America Was crowded with
treasure laden people from California on
their way to New York. After leaving
Havana, on Sept. 8, abe ran into storm ).
The steamer began to Leaf, and Captain
Hernden called upon the passengers to
form lines and pass the buckets. Hour
after hour the tempest howled. and the
huge vesse! groaned as the immense seas
broke against her. Hour after hour the
men with the buckets tolled for their
lives; slowly the waters gained on them.
The officers exhorted the bucket gangs
not to pause for moment it the ship was
to be saved. The wind reared and the
storm increased in fury. Every passeu-
ger stuck to his post and worked until he
fell to the deck exhausted. Then the
women offered to take the places of their
WORKOUT, fairting husbands and brothers,
but none of the men would allow it. As
the. horror of the situation gradually
dawned on the minds of the women and
children the air was filled with sounds
of terror, but above the raging hurricane
and the cries of lamentation, rose the
chorus of the bucket men:
Heave, oh ! heave, oh stamp and 60,
Wen be jolly blather, oh!
All day long they sang this song and
fought for life against the steadily rising
water. Mrs. Easton, bride on her honey
moon trip, passed bottles of wine to the
heroic men to strengthen them IN their
desperate work All night long the
struggle was continued, and still the
ocean gained inch by inch. The women
begged with tears in their eyes to be al
lowed to help. They cheered the brave
fellows and wept when they saw them
fall to the deck with white faces and
trembling limbs. ey4ras,a txfgt.
During the next day the peril OF the
steamer was increased by the lack OF food
and water. The hurricane tossed the
sinking hull about and shattered her
spars and masts. While the tired and
sleepless men stuck to the buckets, the
women knelt and prayed to God for as
sistance. - asz4 r~r
About two o'clock in the afternoon q
sail was seen to windward. Guns were
fred and signals of distress hoisted. The
strange vessel, which proved to be the
brig Marine, of Boston, answered the sig
mails and tried to approach, but the gale
blew her about three miles away. 2
Then the boats were made ready, and
the women and children prepared them
selves. They had to strip off nearly all
of their clothes and put on life preservers.
Many of the women bad gold which they
could not carry with them. Two of them
went to their state rooms and took out
bags of $40 gold pieces, which they threw
down in the cabin, inviting the others to
take what they pleased. The money
rolled and jingled about on the floor,
while the weeping women explained that
they were returning home to enjoy the
fortune which they had made in Califor-
MIA, and that they would be beggars if
the ship was lost. None OF the women
dared to take more than two pieces of
gold lest it might weigh them down.
The men still remained at their work,
saying that they would remain on board
until another ship arrived, as the Marine
could not take al the passengers, and
the women and the children must be
saved first. Among those heroes was
Billy Birch, the famous minstrel.
Two of the life boats were smashed by
the sea, but three boats were filled with
women and children, many of the latter
being infants. The last boat to leave car
ried the chief engineer. He solemnly
promised the captain to return, but the
moment he got into the boat he drew
knife and threatened to kill any one who
followed him. Later on, when the women
and children were put on board the Ma
rine, the chief engineer, like the coward
and liar he was, refused to return.
Now the sinking steamship was 90 low
in the ocean that almost sxsry wave swept
her deck. Some Of the passengers got
into the rigging, while others tried to
build raft. Night came on. The storm
continued to rage. The ship quivered
and careened. Rockets scared up into
the believing angry heavens. Slowly the
vessel filled with water, and the doomed
hosts clinging to her deck and rigging
prepared tor death. There was no weep
ing and no shrieking, no wringing of.
hands. The captain stood at the wheel
to the last.
All at once the ship. as if in agony of
death herself, made plunge al an angle
OF % degrees, and with m appalling
shrek from the engulfed mass she dis.
appeared, and nearly 400 hundred hum an
beings were left struggling among the
fierce waters. The scene was horrifvin0.