The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1895-05-16
SEVENTEEN ARE DEAD
Wreck of the George R. White
Off Alaskan Coast.
TWENTY PEOPLE WERE SAVED
The Schooner Buffeted by a Northeast
Gale Until She Struck Sub
merged Reef and Was Sunk.


Port Townsend, Wash, May g.
Meager news was received this after.
noon from Kodiak island, Alaska, of q
terrible shipwreck attended with the
loss of seventeen lives. A. E. Riggs,
late engineer of the steamer Francis
Cutting, arrived at Sitka on the West.
ern steamer Dora, in time to take the
steamer Al-Ki for this port. He
brought some particulars of the acct.
dent, but was unable to give the list OF
persons lost. The schooner Lescoi ar
rived at Kodiak few hours before his
departure with one of the survivors,
who was SO exhausted that he could
scarcely give straight account of the
disaster.
Easter Sunday a terrible northeast
gale, mingled with binding snow
storm, and with the thermometer de-
grees below zero, prevailed along the
southeast coast of Alaska. The schooner
George R. White, which was hunting
sea otter, was caught in the storm and
lost her bearings. To make matters
worse some sails were carried away and
part of the foretopmast went over the
side. Then the steering gear became
dismantled. In this helpless condition
she was carried before the gale, and
just before midnight she struck a SUBJ
merged reef. A moment later her hull
was smashed into splinters, and twen-
ty-eight men were thrown into ice-cold
waters, with the shore three miles dis
tant, to reach which they must pass
through heavy surf. Some of them
in sheer desperation clutched onto float
ing debris, and others drowned.
About twenty were fortunate enough
to reach the beach, through a gale
whipped sea and snow storm, almost
dead and with their clothes frozen to
their bodies. Without food or shelter
they passed miserable night, and at
daybreak On the beach they found ten
corpses. The survivors themselves
were too exhausted to bury the dead.
The most they could do was to drag the
bodies up on shore away from the raw
enous animals of the sea. Clad in light
garments, with no fire or shelter, sub
sisting on shell fish and suffering from
intense cold, three or four more died.
The third day after the wreck some
native hunters CHANGED to pass by and
from them a supply of fresh meat and
some matches to start a fire were OBJ
tanned. By that time only eleven out
of the original twenty-eight had sur
vived. Many of them had their limbs
so severely frost-bitten that they must
suffer surgical operations to save their
lives. One man is said to have lost the
use of both legs and arms. Scarcely
one Of the survivors will get through
the ordeal without being manned for
life.
The schooner Lescoi, after reporting
the accident at Kodiak, returned for
the survivors,.
The place where the accident &C.
CURED was three miles from Tugeduk
island, twenty-five miles southwest OF
Kodiak island. Additional news had
not reached Kodiak an hour before the
Dora sailed for Sitka, and it was i'm
possible to learn the identity of the sur
vivors. That information will prob
ably be received on the returning trip
of the Dora, which will be in June.
The schooner George R. White
cleared from Seattle July IA, 1894, for
years cruise in the North Pacific
ocean and Behring sea. Her crew was
signed by United States Shipping Com
missioner J. J. Burns, and was as fol-
lows:
Master, J. L. Wheeler; mate, Steve
Baretech; cook, M. Buttee; hunters,
Edward Pomeroy, Andrew Danielson,
Justin Chenowith; seamen, Richard
Redmond, G. Morris, Louis A. Burrell,
John Harrison, Chris Swanson, Robert
Baxter, Henry Parker; cabin boy,
James Carton.
Her dimensions were: Net tonnage,
35. u; length, 61.2; breadth, 1874;
depth, 6.3. She was built in 1890 at
Port Madison, Wash.