The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-18

resident OF this city, was an officer of the
! steamer North America at that time, and
reached St.Thomas on the day after the
tldal wave. In speaking Of it recently he
/ SAID The harbor was a scene of wreck
| and desolation. Everywhere ships were
! ashore, and old wrecks, which for twenty
| years had lain at the bottom of the bay,
buried IN the mud and forgotten, were
| torn from their graves and flung upon the
/ beach. The water had swept through
| the town up to the bases of the hills
People said that when the water ran out
OF the harbor they saw the bottom rise
| and great rocks poke them selves through
it. We were bound for Brazil and when
we came back north we put into ST.
Thomas TO coal II was Sunday when we
got IN there, and we expected to coal ship,
as we had frequently done before on that
day. But the effects of the earthquake
and the tidal wave were still patent, and
and not negro on the island would put
a hand 70 basket on the Sabbath l
never saw more religious community
THAN ST. Thomas was at that time.
by this great tidal wave forty
schooners, besides many other craft. were
wrecked In the harbor of St Thomas
The earthquake which ~afflicted St.
Thomas by bringing upon it this great
rush OF waters was. as explained. felt all
through the Windward Islands and
/ u
was It's eject at Santa Cruz, On that
island the shock Of the earthquake was
greater than at st. Thomas, but the
devastation to shipping by reason of the
resulting tidal wave was less
The most memorable thing
about the tidal wave at Santa
Cruz was that the American man-of-
war Monongahela, which was lying in the
haroor, was lifted bodily by the wave, and
left by the receding waters in the mar
ket place of the town with all her crew and
armament on board. She was afterward
successfully launched and returned to her
place as sea a rover.
MAN-oF-wAR LEFT IN THE HILLS.
One other so-called tidal wave, often
spoken OF, was the one which occurred in
1850 on the west coast of South America
and which struck with particular force
at lquique, then on the coast of Peru, but
now Gillian territory. The United
States snip Wateree was in port at that
time, and it was lifted by the wave and
carried back of the town to be deposited
on the foothills of the mountains. When
the wave receded the officers and crew of
the Wateree saw fifty feet below them the
expanse Of the Pacific Ocean. The town
was wrecked, but not annihilated. OF
how many lives We're lost there is no
official record. but it must have been that
was for many years after her strange trip
used as store ship, and her remains are
still on the hull back of Iquique This
tidal wave like the one at ST. Thomas,
was accompanied by a shock of earth
quake.
In 1885 in Manzanilla Bay, the road
stead of Colon, there occurred a tidal wave
which was not accompanied by a shock Of
earthquake. The sea, which always.
under the influence of the constant trade
winds, rolls in that bay suddenly began
to get higher and higher. The wave
became so high tha5 no vessel could hold
its anchor, and q great sea rushing in
swept them all ashore Fifty lives were
lost on that day and much property was
destroyed. All these great and sudden
risings Of the waters of the ocean referred
to, except the one which struck the Allan
State Line steamer, have taken place in
fair weather, with at least moderate seas.
When the tidal waves which were accom-
panied by earthquake shocks took place
they were preceded by unusually calm
seas.