The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-22
A GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.
Eleven Corpses Found in the
ForeCaStIe of the Walter
Earle.
NOT A SOUL SAVED FROM HER
The Schooner Brenda Went to
Pieces Near the Coast OF
Shumshu Island.

| SEATTLE. WASH, Aug. n.-The steam
ship Excelsior, Captain Higgins, arrived
to-day direct from ST. Michaels and Una
| laska, and brings news of the finding OF
the wreck of the sealing schooner Walter
Earle of Victoria, with eleven dead Indians
confined in the forecastle.
The wreck was sighted and picked up by
the steamship Frances Cutting, from Seat
tie to Kodiak, about the middle of July.
The Earle was capsized on or about
April IA, during terrific gale off Kodiak
| Island, and though number of craft and
steamers were reported to have gone in
search of her, none of them found her. un-
| til the Cutting ran across her drifting with
| the swells and tides. She was bottom up,
and there was nothing about her to indi-
cate that she had ever been sighted by
passing vessels, or that any of the Inflated
crew had made any attempt to seek her
| upturned bottom in the hope of prolong-
ing their lives after she went over.
Her rudder was gone, and this, to the
practiced eye of the mariner, told the story
of the wreck as well as words could have
done. Losing her rudder during the fear
full blow that is known to have swept
across that part of the ocean at that time,
the vessel drifted heiplessly in the raging
sea until she suddenly went over and car
ried all on board with her.
Not until the wreck was towed into Ko.
diak and she was righted did the full enor-
nifty of the catastrophe break upon the
finders. In the forecastle were found the
corpes of eleven Indians, unrecognizable,
distorted and grim. They were removed
to the shore and inferred on the island.
No white mans remains were found in
the vessel, and the story of the struggle
and drowning of Captain Louis Mognoson,
her brave skipper, and the seven or eight
other white men, will probably never be
known. They occupied the cabin and are
believed to have been swept from the deck
of the schooner and drowned during the
gale, while the Indian sailors were hud-
died helplessly in the forecastle until she
went over.
None of the schooner's boats were about,
and almost everything had been stripped
away and was gone when she was picked
up. The Earle was formerly the Sylvia
Sanda of San Francisco.
The steamship Excelsior also brought to
Seattle three shipwrecked seamen, picked
up'at Unalaska, on the way down from st.
Michaels, near the mouth of the Yukon
River. The men are: Captain C. E. Locke
of the Victoria sealing schooner Brenda;
one sailor, Charles Nelson, and cabin
boy, Arthur Cox.
The vessel was lost on July 1, by striking
on sunken rock near the coast of Shum-
shu Island, one of the chain of the Kurile
Islands, forming portion of the northern
part of Japan. The schooner was in what
are known as the Kurie Straits, seeking
water, for the lack of which the crew were
almost dying having been two days with
out anything to quench their thirst.
Captain Locke was entering q kind of
harbor, the only one on the island, not
withstanding it is about thirty miles in
length. He was picking his way in eau
tiously, when the vessel struck and held
fast on a sunken rock not down on the
charts.
Later a storm came up and drove the
vessel on the beach, where she was later
stripped and abandoned. Captain Locke
took off his 8S1 skins, his guns, ammuni-
ton and some provisions and went ashore,
where a hut was erected and where they
went into camp to await rescue. This
came six days later, when the British seal
ing schooner Genevieve, Captain O'Leary,
came up the straits and took them off.
From Shumshu Island Captain Locke was
taken to Otter Island, and from there
reached Unalaska by the Alaska Com
mercial Company's trading vessel, and
from there to Seattle he took the Excelsior.
Tomorrow Captain Locke will go on to
Victoria. Telling of his experience Cap
tain Locke said:
'We sailed from Victoria in the Brenda
on January Is last, with full crew of
hunters and seamen, to the number of
twenty-six. We headed for Yokohama,
Japan. and from there sailed to the sealing
grounds off the coast of Japan. On the
way to Otter Island we were detained by
Gains and fog and our water ran short,
and we were forced to run in sooner than
we would have done to seek new supply.
'tIn going into Shumshu Island on July
1 we struck on a rock not down on the
chart. There was no fog or storm of any
kind at the time, but after We got ashore a
southeast gale came on and drove the YES
sci upon the shore. She was 10O-ton boat.
1--WE had tried previously to get ashore,
where we might get water, but only sue
ceeded in getting couple of barrels out to
the vessel by small boat. This was on
Parmashir Island, and travelled one day
ten miles to find water. The islands are
unlnhabited and have no harbors.
captain O'Leary, who rescued US, him.
self came near being wrecked, for he got
lost in the fog and hove to, and when it
cleared him he found himself dangerously
near shore. He sailed up the straits. and
it was the luckiest thing in the world for
us, for he sighted our tent on shore, came
in and anchored and took us off. We put
our skins aboard the Genevieve, and later
the members of the Brenda's crew dis
tributed themselves among the sealing
schooners and are now in Bering Sea-"
ABANDONED IN MIDOCEAN.
Sun n;eUo Shiua2i310 Mem Affe1uS,f tn Tde,..