The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-13
HOW THE WOMEN DIED.
Two of Them Chung to &
Bucket for a Moment and
Went Down.
MATCHES CLOSED BY LUMBER.
Story of Gonzalez, the Messboy.
Seaman Johnson, Rescued With
Him, Refuses to Talk.

The Pacific Mail Steamship Company s
steamer Colon came into port early this
morning.
Among her passengers were Fred John
son, one of the rescued sailors of the lost
Colima, and Robert Gonzalez, the steerage
messboy.
When they left the Colima they were in
when the little vessel capsized. Johnson
and Gonzalez saved themselves by climb
ing upon raft and landed, after thirty
three hours, several miles from Pueblo
Krusus on the Mexican coast.
On the same raft with them were J. E.
Cheberg, L. Peters and Enricho Baden.
They saw another raft during their
stormy voyage containing man named
Pazarios and Santa Maria.
Johnson refused to answer any questions
concerning the loading of the vessel or the
probable causes of the disaster, saying
that he would speak when the inspectors
called him up.
Gonzales, the messboy, spoke freely.
He told his story as follows:
when the boat began to rock and roll the
passengers in the steerage did not seem to
think much was the matter.
''The boat rolled awful bad, and after
while the boatswain came to the COM
panionway and told us to get out. Even
then the passengers did not appear to
understand that anything was serious,
and went out slowly.
81 saw two or three of them go to the
companionway and come back but I did
not know why at the time. AS the boat
continued to roll and the water began
pouring in, I ran to the ladder leading to
the deck and started to go up.
After l had reached the middle of the
ladder I saw why the others had come back.
"They could not get out.
''The lumber and other stuff on the deck
had shifted to such an extent that the
companionway hatch was covered up.
They were like rats in a barrel.
''They could not get out and had to wait
there until the water came in on them.
''Being familiar with the ship, 1 ran
through to the kitchen and crawled up the
dummy waiter to the pantry above.
From there I made my way into the
main cabin, which then contained two
or three feet of water.
GAS I passed through the cabin I saw
several women trying to get upstairs
through the hatchways, but the water
kept some of them from leaving their
staterooms, and others were unable to get
up the stairs on account of the stuff tina,
covered the opening on deck.
We tried to save the two women
in the boat with us, but when she
capsized we had to scramble for our
selves. The last 1 saw of them they
were clinging to an empty bucket
which held them up only a sec.
ond and they went down without
cry or struggle"
The steamer Mazatlan had two of tn,
rescued passengers on board and landed
them at Manzanillo. When they arrived
at the Mexican port they were taken il
charge by the Mexican Government anG
treated kindly.
They were furnished with mule trans
portation and everything needed for thei
comfort.
Gonzalez did not know anything abou
the cause of the wreck beyond what may
be cleaned from his statement concerning
the lumber covering the hatchways. HI
spoke well of his treatment on board thu
Colon.