Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-06-13
The Wreck Of The Colima.

The daily papers nave conlalneu idltAeA
details of the sinking of the steamer ColimA,
in which Mrs. Charles Thornton of Sharon
was lost. Twenty-siI persons IN all are
known to have been saved but it is probA-
BILE that the rest of the passengers and crew,
numbering 1875 persons, were lost. 1t is
said that the sinking of the vessel was large
ely caused by the criminally careless way
in which the cargo was slowed.
Mr.. John Thornton, who was accom-
panying Mrs. Thornton to Gsutamala and
was one of the few saved, gives the fol-
lowing graphic account of the wrecking
and after events:
"After leaving the harbor of Manzillo
on Saturday afternoon we encountered :
heavy sea and hesdwinds which continued
all night. The passengers, OF whom there
were Sc, including children aud servants,
frst-class, and about 80 second-ciass,
were inside. During the night the steam ei
continued on her course with only speed
enonUh to give her steersge way. Shortly
after daylight on the morning OF the 2lth
I was on deck and the mountains at the
entrance to the harbor of Mapzille bay
were still in sight. About 10 o'clock nexi
morning the storm reached its height and
the wind was blowing q gale aud the
waves running mountains high. About
| this time the ship seemed to be IN tne
trough of the sea, the waves one a1tel
another. striking her on the port side and
Keeling her over to starboard. Every time
She lifted she seemed to rock less and less.
az had a stateroom on the main decK
we'll aft and on the port side, opening on
the deck. Ny sister-inlsw had the SECOND
and forward opening into an interior pas
sage (which connected with MIS-. Inorn
toms and also opened on the deck, ana was
occupied by Mrs. Thornton's MAID. AT
about IL O'Clock the storm seemed st lf
| worst, and the ship was lying over 10 star-
| board, and left the deck and STOOD IN 'ne
passagewsy talking TO Mrs. Thornlon.
nTbe deck seemed to have an inclination
| of about As degrees, and wave after wave
| washed over the deck, flooding the state
rooms to depth of two or three inches
| A heavy sea broke over the ships bow,
crushing through the main saloon ano
| starhoard cabin, and wrecking them al
| thouoh they were made of cardboard
Then I. with some difficulty, opened the
| door above me, for the ship was now lying
nearly on her side and climbed out on deck
| As soon as was outside l forced open
| the window of my sister in-law's room and
fonnd her and her maid together with
| life-preservers on.
ii told her to give me her hands and !
would help her out, but before L coulo
| touoh her. a great wave struck the ship.
A huge wave washed over me, ana no
ticed four or five men on the upper decS
above me, but when ! could again LOOK,
| perhaps 10 seconds later, not soul was ln
| sight, and them everything under me ap-
peared to melt away, and ! suppose tna'
| was when the ship went down.
"What l remember next was that was
| going down, down, until [ thought !
would never stop going down. when
come to the surface through the wreckage
aud lumber l was by myself within 10 OF
| 90 Fl of little craft with two men on 1t
| I got close enough tn reach rope tney
threw me, and they pulled me ABOARD
Then we helped aboard a Spanlard ana
| woman, and within minute more tnere
were seven on the craft, r,
| "Cnr raft turned over four times. che
| firit time the woman was lost, but gener'
| ally the men managed to get on II again
The forth time the raft turned | was
| thrown 80 or 40 feet away and could not
get on it again, but l could see that
| there were three or four on 1t.
| l got hold of a couple of pieces OF scante-
| ling and floated with one under eacn arm
until about o'clock, when found neaV'
ier pieces of timber, which L iashed TO
gether with strips torn rom pillow case
! / had found floating. On this | managed
| to sir astride until the life boats and RATS
had drifted out of sight of where | WAS,
| but | could see a number of men 1oatlne
\ ON yreckage. and beside there was at q dis
tance of about 400 feet away large piece
of deck, about ten by forty feet, with hVe
men on it.
After two hours hard work l succeeded
| in reaching it, but the men would not al,
| low me to go aboard, saying tney mao
enough passen gers for the size OF the crait.
| 7 had in the meantime come across sail
or on a small piece of deck, who, like my
self. was intent on passing the night on 3
large raft. and as he could not do this, he
proposed that we should lash his raft 70
another of equal size, which was noatlng g
near by. This sailor was named Ross and
appeared to be man of good sense and
lots of grit. He was badly hurt on the
head from being struck with wreckage and
was afraid that with the sun OF the Iolio"
ing day he might go crazy. He criticized
the manager--who shipped the cargo ana
the fact that the life boats and raits nsd
not been gotten ready. got hold OF an
orange, which took suck, saving tne resi-
Tor future use, and Ross got turnlp wnlch
he would save for breakfast and whicn ne
put in a sack and tied about his Dody.
Ross proposed that one should watcn whlle
the other slept, but as the waves were up
to the neck, sleep was out OF the question.
In the morning Ross put his hand IN the
sack to bring out his breakfast and ex-
claimed in most tragic tones, INV God, l
have lost the turnip!" so he went without
breakfast.
On Monday eveling / could see the
shore line indistinctly and IN the morning
we had drifted so far the land did not
look more than ten miles away and we be-
gan to paddle for it Half a mile distant
we had made out piece OF deck with
three or four men on it. Alter padding
about two hours we saw the smoke
of steamer, which proved to be the San
Juan. We made signals with the sack
and about 10 o'clock were picked up Dy
the life boats. We were % hours in the
water The boat before reachiLg US had
already picked up two survivors Dadly
hurt aud before we reached the ship res
cued two more. | saw three women put
no children. When | got aboard the oan
Juan / broke down and went to bed IN the
purser's cabin. After the vessel sank we
had about an hour of heavy driving ram
and the water at night was very emily.
As far as | know there were on orders
given to get ready the life boats and rats
or for the passengers to put on lie pre-
servers, and in this particular all the sur
viyors have spoken to agree with me.