The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-06-07
HOW THECOLIMASANK


1
ing. II was utterly impossible 10 keep
upon cne's feet, even while holding fast
with your hands to the railing or what
ever you could grasp.
After we took the last fatal list the
cabins started, and climbed up 10 the
top of the hurricane deck. 1 realized
then that we were gone. Both rows Of
cabins and everything above the hull
crumbled away like bit Of soft brick in
stantly. ! was then outside amidshps,
hanging on TO rail behind the stays, or
ropes that stay the masts, and scrambled
into lifeboat. From that point l saw
the deckhouses and two rows OF state
rooms go overheard. A mast fell upon
the boat and showed IL into the water.
Then was off the ship. The cabins were
coming toward me. churning and crunch
ing into splinters and crushing the peo-
pie who Were washed away with them.
Above the roar OF the gale I could hear
the screams and yells. The wreckage
and men and women were mixed up in a
frightful mass as the timbers were crush
ing out the lives before my eyes. No one
could have escaped from that awful mass
Of broken timoers that kept on churning
and smashing in the waves.
only the bare hull was left with masts
sticking UP, for everything above the
iron was swept away. During the list
ing even the hull was filling mp with wat
er, but she kept afioat, though very far
down. Suddenly there was an explosion.
The masts raised back out of the water
and the hull lifted up. and then she TIT
ed and went down in an instant, stern
first I do not think there can be any
question but that the boilers exploded. L
learned that there were explosives stored
aft. burt the explosion was amidships. II
tore the hull 70 pieces, and the Coltma
sank like a flash.
There were a number of women and
Chinese down in the s:eerage who would
not be let up on deck. and they never got
out alive. Every one of them went down
In the explosion with the hull.
THE first one I saw near me was Mrs.
Irving. and then a stout lady, who came
up near the Iifeboat which I was lucky
enough 10 be thrown against. l pulled
Mrs. Irving into the boat, and after her
the other lady. They had been taken from
their .staterooms a little while previously
by officers, as the partitions had been
smashed by the waves, leaving an open
ing into the dining room. It was only by
that mere accident that they were not
ground to death in the wreckage of cabins.
Twice these ladies were thrown out OF the
boat and twice l got them back. Then
Prof. Whiting came alongside and I
pulled him into the boat He acted as II
he was out of his head. We tipped over
repeatedly. Mr.. Whiting and l turning
the boat over once in attempting 10 drag
the stout woman in, but we got in again,
and when we came right Mr.. Peters was
hanging on to the stern. l went to save
Peters when again the boat turned over
in the awful sea. 1t was then l lost
sight of Whiting. The large lady was
struck by wreckage and disappeared. l
never saw either of them again. Mrs.
Irving held on to the boat for half an
rora xx-sS Il al 70, nntr w
kept turning over but every time came
up found her hanging on TO some por-
ton of the boat and helped her all L
could. Once l got astride the keel and
held her up by leaning over to one side
and holding her firmly by the hand. Put
this could not be sustained long. and as
the boat tipped l went over. AS / came
up tried to tip the boat on it's keel. and
then 1 lost Mrs Irving. She sank from
sheer exhaustion after a noble battle for
life. Peters sank, too. but 1 never saw
him again, though he was saved.
when We were in the water the worst
trouble began, for IL was only then that
the hurricane struck us with its full force.
The day was blackened, and the rain fell
in solid masses. 1t was not a cyclone,
but circular whirlwind, that caught
us in its very center and drew the wreck
age together In circle for a great dis
lance. Yet bodies. struggling men and
women. life RATS and battered boats all
went into the dreadful vortex. Then a
tremendous wave would rise from UNDER
Meath, like a mountain bursting forth,
and scatter the wreckage everywhere
around. II was in this vortex that those
who escaped from the ship were stunned
or killed outright. being literally ground
to death by driftwood.
How did / escape? IF I saw a log or
a mass of wreckage coming down upon
my head ten feet above me- I jumped
from my boat and dived. The only thing
to do TO avoid being curt or killed was TO
dive and then come up again and swim
for your raft.
1.-The water was extremely buoyant and
7 would come up anyhow, though at ons
time I Thought I would be better dead.
All pAgflr long I sat In the submerged
boat, and when ia get cold / would crawl
down into the water between the SEATS.
fortunately the water was very warm
and comfortable l WAS about twenty
three hours IN the waiter when picked up
by the San Juan. About an hour or two
before shutdown the ocean was as calm
as am island lake. all strewn with bits OF
the lost Colima- AT one time / was close
TO the shore, and could see the rocks dis
tinctay, but at daylight next morning
found myself drifting far out to sea,
with only a dim outline OF mountains
where the coast was.
~ saw the San Juan at or o'clock
a. m, but was not picked up until IL
o'clock. My boat was very low in the
water. almost under the surface. and so
il was long after l sighted the San Juan