The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1895-06-08

and starboard cabin and wrecking them |
as though they were made of cigar-box |
boards. / then climbed out on deck. |
AS soon as l was outside / forced open |
the window of my sister-in-law's room |
and found her and her maid with life
preservers on. 1 told her TO give me her
hands, but before l could touch her a
great wave struck the ship A huge
wave washed over me and noticed four
or five men on the upper deck above
me. but 10 seconds later not a soul was
in sight. and then everything under me
appeared to melt away.
What l remember next was that /
was going down. When I came to the
surface, through the wreckage, found
myself within Is or 20 feet of life raft
with two men on it. I got close enough
to reach a rope they threw me and they
pulled me aboard. Then we helped
aboard a Spaniard and a woman, and
within "a minute more there were seven
on the raft Within so or 60 feet of us
was another life boat with eight people,
among them Isaac Chilberg. and close
to us was a life boat full of water and
without oars. with two men and two
women clinging to it, There was anoth-
er boatful with men clinging to it,
"Our raft turned over four times.
The first time the woman was lost, but
the men managed to get on ii again.
The fourth time the raft turned over
was thrown 30 or 40 feet away and
could not get TO it again. I then got
hold of a couple of pieces of scantling
and floated with one under each arm
until about O'clock when I found three
heavier pieces of timber which l dashed
case which l had found. On this
managed to sit astride. I had in the
meantime come across a sailor named
Ross on small piece of deck, and he
proposed that we should lash his raft
to another of equal size which was
floating nearby. He was badly hurt
in the head from having been struck
with wreckage and was afraid that with
the sun on the following day he might
go crazy. I got hold Of an orange. eat
| ing a piece and saving the rest for fu-
ture use, and Ross got a turnip, which
he said he would save for breakfast
and which he put in sack he had tied
about his body.
LAS the waves covered us to the neck,
sleep was out of the question. In the
morning Ross put his hand in The sack
and exclaimed in the most tragic tones.
My God l have lost the turnip and
so we went without breakfast.
ION Monday evening we could see the
shore line indistinctly, and in the morn
ing we had drifted so far the land did
not look more than 10 miles away. After
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 by the life boats. We were
% hours in the water.
After the vessel sank we had about
an hour of heavy driving rain and the
water at night was chilly. AS far as
know, there were no orders given tc
get ready the life boats and RATS, OF
for the passengers to put on life pre-
servers, and in this particular all tbs
survivors 1 have spoken to agree will
, me-"
DENY SHE WAS OVERLOADED.
: San Francisco, June mo advice
regarding the wreck have been received
by the Pacific Mail Steamship Compan.
or any of the shipping firms which hav
been in communication with their Mex
lean agents.
=, The Pacific Mail officials do not expec
further news of the disaster until tn
-. steamer San Juan arrives here on tn
= 18th inst
The Pacific Mail officials deny tn
story that the Colima was overloade
or that she carried explosives in Ia
= cargo.