Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-06-15
THE COLINA Thrilling Story of How the Ill-Fated Vessel Went
 Down. A CIRCULAR STORM Passengers Were Drowned in Their Cabins and Killed
 By Wreckage.
1 CIRCULAR STORM

SAN FRANCISCO, June "A. J. Suther- land of Seattle, who was one of the he-
 roes of the ColIma disaster, tells very
 thrilling and graphic story of his exper-
 fences during the hurricane that swept
 the steamer from the seas. Throughout
 the hours of anxiety and dread he pre-
 served his mental faculties and observed
 all that passed around him with extra ordinary calmness.
 "EverythiDg was quiet when We were in Manzsnillo harbor," said he, "but immediately after we went out to sea it began to blow and became rough. Two hours out the wind began to increase steadily in fury and kept on getting worse until the steamer collapsed. Dur ing the night the sea was growing more and more terrible but yet it caused no great excitement aboard except among some nervous passengers. It was only an hour or two before she went down that any real signs of alarm could be seen among the passengers and crew.
 Professor Whiting was the worst worked up man in the cabin and we young fellows kept 'joshing' him about his fears. Why. really five minutes be- fore the wreck I did not realize the danger. Something ike two minutes before the ship listed the captain told me it was all up.
 "'We're going down. said he. A cy- clone is coming upon us.'
 "Both he and the officers were expect ing terrible storm and made all pre- parations for it. The glass fell down all at once-so fast it frightened them-and they took the plugs out of the steering apparatus so as to be ready to steer from the storm, lashed down everything se- curely and took in the awnings. Just at the time of the collapse 1t got very dark but the real darkness came on when we were on the wrecksge floating about. | That was the most awful hurricane ever saw and 1 have been through Kan ! sas cyclones. Some things tore loose ! from the stern and they were lsshed fast | by sailors at imminent risk of their own | lives.
 "The whole thing went to pieces ct once-say from three to five minutes | from the time the steamer listed until | she sank As she rolled, all the while | listing deeper; the lower tier of state | rooms were filled with water by every | successive sea that swept over us. The women and children were in the rooms holding unto something to save them selves from being battered to death by the pitching and rolling. 1t was utterly while holding fast with our hands to railing or whatever We could grasp.
 ''After we took the last fatal list the cabins started, and l climbed up to the top of the hurricane deck. I reslIZed then we were gone. Both roofs of cab ins and everything above the hull crumbled away like bit of soft brick 1 was then outside amidships hanging on to rall behind the stays of rope or ropes that stay the masts, and scrambled into lifeboat From that point l saw the deck houses and two rows of state rooms go over board. A mast fell onto the boat and showed it into the water. Then l was off the ship. The cabins were coming towards me, churning and chrunching into splinters and crushing the people who were washed away with them. Above the roar and the gale I could hear the screams and yells. The wreck age and men and women were mixed up in & frightful mass as the timbers were crushing out lives before my eyes.
 THE EXPLOSION.
 "Only the bare hull was left with masts sticking up, for everything above the iron was swept away. Suddenly there was an explosion. The masts raised back and the hull lifted up end then she tilted and went down stern first. I don't think there can be any question but that the boilers exploded. It tore the hull to pieces, and the Coli ma sank like a rock.
 "There were 8 number of women and children down ia the steerags who would not be let on deck, and they never got out alive. Every one of them went down with the explosion in the hull.
 ''The first one l saw near me was Mrs. Irving, and then a stout lady whe came up near the life boat which ! was lucky enough to be thrown up against. pulled Mrs. Irving into the boat and | after her the other lady. They had l been taken from their stateroom a lit tie while previously by officers, as the partitions had been smashed | by the waves leaving sn opening in- to the dining room. It was only | by that mere accident that they were | not ground to death in the wreck | age of the cabins. Twice these ladies | were thrown out of the boat, and twice | I got them back. Then Professor Whiting came up alongside and pulled | him into the boat. We tipped oyer re- 1 peatedly. MT. Whiting and turning the ] boat over once iu attempting to drag the 1 stout woman in; but we got in again, and when we came right MT. Peters was hanging on the stern. l went to save Peters, when agsln the boat turned over in an awful sea. It was then I lost sight ! of Whiting. The large lady was struck l by wreckage and disappeared. I never saw either of them again. Mrs. Irving