The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-04
STRIKES A HIDDEN REEF.
The George r. White Goes to
Pieces Off the Alaskan
Coast.
TOSSED INTO A RAGING SEA.
Some OF the Seamen Reach the
Shore Only to Die From Expos
ure to an Arctic Blast.

PORT TOWNSEND, WASH, May g.
Meager news was received this afternoon
from Kodiak Island. Alaska, of the wreck
of the schooner George R. White, in which
seventeen lives were lost. 4. E. Biggs,
late engineer on the steamer Francis Cut
ting, arrived in Sitka on the Western
steamer Dora in time TO take the steamer
Al-Ki for this port and brought some
particulars OF the accident, but was unable
to give the list OF persons lost.
The schooner Lescoi arrived at Kodiak q
few hours before MS departure with one OF
the survivors, who was so exhausted that
he could scarcely give a straight account
Of the disaster.
On Easter Sunday a terrible northeast
gale, with binding snowstorm and the
thermometer degrees below zero, pre-
vailed along the southeast coast of Alaska.
The schooner White, which was hunting
sea otter, was caught in the storm and lost
her bearings.
To make matters worse, some of the sails
were carried away and a part of the fore
topmast went over the side. Then the
steering gear became dismantled. In this
helpless condition she was carried lightly
before the gale, and just before midnight
struck submerged reef and a moment
later her hull was smashed into splinters.
Twenty-eight men were thrown into the
ice-cold waters, with the shore three miles
distant. TO reach which they must pass
through a heavy surf. Some of them in
their desperation clutched onto the float
ing debris and others were drowned.
S.- 70 -
reach the beach through a gale-whipped
sea and snowstorm, almost dead, with
their clothes frozen 10 their bodies With
out food or shelter they passed miserable
night and at daybreak on the beach they
found ten corpses- The survivors them
selves were too exhausted to bury the DEAD.
The most they could do was TO drag their
bodies up on the shore away from the raw
enous animals of the sea- Clad in light
garments, with no fire or shelter. subsist-
ing on shellfsh and suffering from intense
cold. three or four more men died.
On the third day after the wreck some
native hunters chanced to pass by, and
from them fresh meat and q supply OF
matches TO start fire were obtained Bv
that time only eleven out OF the original
twenty eight had survived. Many OF them
were badly frozen, their limbs frostbitten
so severely that they must suffer surgical
operations to save their lives One man is
said 10 have lost the use Of both legs and
arms. Scarcely one of the survivors viii
get through the ordeal without being
manned for life.
The schooner Lescoi, after reporting the
accident at Kodiak, returned for the sur
vivors. The place where the accident oc-
Cured was three miles from Tugeduk
Islands, twenty-five miles southwest of
Kodiak Island. The news had not reached
Kodiak an hour before the Dora sailed for
Sitka, and it was impossible 10 learn the
identity OF the survivors.
The schooner was owned by James Chen
owerth and Paul Paulson OF Seattle. Both
OF the owners are supposed TO have been
aboard at the time of the accident. The
vessel was in charge of Captain ]. N.
Wheeler