Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-06-15
Highest of all in Leavening U S. Govt Report RzaI BakiRg Baking!
 ABSOLUTELY PURE
ABSOLUTELY PURE

held on to the boat for half sn hour
 later with marvellous tenacity. It kept turning over, but every time came up
 I found her hanging on to some portion of the boat and l helped her all could. Once l got astride the keel and held her
 up by leaning over to one side and hold
 ing her hrmly by the hand But this
 could not be sustained long, and as the
 boat tipped l went over. As l came up
 tried to tip the boat on it's keel, and
 then lost Mrs. Irving. She sank from | sheer exbaustioa after noble battle for
 life. Peters sank, too, but l never saw
 him again, though he was saved. INA CYCLONE. "When we vera in the water the worst | trouble began, for it was only then that
 the hurricane struck us with it's full force. The day was blackened and the | rain fell in solid masses. It was not cyclone but a circular whirlwind that caught us in it's very center and would draw the wreckage together in a circle for great distance. Yet, bodies, strug- gliDg men and women, life rafts and
 battered boats all went into the dreadful
 vortex. Then s tremendous wave would
 rise from underneath, like a mountain
 bursting forth, and scatter the wreckage everywhere around. It was in this vortex that those who escaped from the ship were stunned or killed outright from being literally ground to death by drIftwood.
 "How did I escape? If I saw log OF mass of wreckage coming down upon my head ten feet above me jumped from my boat and dived. The only thing to do to avoid being cut or killed was to dive and then come up again and swim for your raft.
 "The water was stremely buoyant and l would come up anyhow, though at one time l thought it would be better to die. All night long 1 sat in the sub- merged boat, and when I got cold would crawl down into the water be- tween the seats. Fortunately the water was very warm and comfortable. I was about twenty three hours ID the water when picked up by the San Juan. About an hour or two before sundown the ocean was calm as an island lake, all strewn with bits of the lost Colima. At one time 1 was close to the shore and could see the rocks distinctly, but at daylight the next morning I found to my reEet that l was drifting far out to sea with only dim outline of mountains where the coast was.
 ''I saw the San Juan at or o'clock a. m, but was not picked up until II o'clock. My boat was very low in the water, almost under the surface, and SO it was long after I sighted the San Juan that their loOkouts fouEd me.
 ''Jhe captain oI tine San Juan made circuit of thirty miles and started north about noon. He might have picked up more if he had stayed cruising around all the afternoon. I don't think I wac two miles away from the rest of rafts that he picked up."
 ''Was anybody to blame for the wreck of the Colima?"
 "They have not got a ship that would have lasted five minutes in that hurri- cane. It was beyond human skill to madenver ship through 1t successfully. The hurricane, or whatever class of storm it was that caught the Colima, wouldscrush the stoutest ship afoat, as if 1t were tiny toy. Look at the terrl- ble force of the waves. They tore every stitch of clothes off of us before we were ten minutes in the water. Men and women alike were shorn of covering by the wind and the sea. When l saw Professor Whiting for the last time all he had upon him was the shoulders of his coat; the rest was torn to atoms and blown away. Poor fellow, he had lost his mind. The terrible fate that befell his wife and children for he must have known full we'll they were swept down to frightful death in that churnirg wreckage-it took his senses from him. I believe he could not realize his posi- tion shortly before he went under the waves"
 "The captain stayed by his post to the last. Just before the explosion l saw him clinging to the railing of the bridge; as l was whirled away in the water he gave two faint blows of the whistle. But he never left the bridge. He sank with his ship"