The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-06-02
MIR. THORNTON's STORY.
Went Down with the Steamer, but
Came Up and Was Saved.

CITY OF MEXICO, June John NJ
Thornton, a railroad. contractor. and one
of the survivors of the Colima wreck, gives
the following account Of the disaster and
the rescue:
After leaving the harbor of Manzanillo
on Saturday afternoon, we encountered a
heavy sea and head winds, which continued
all night. The passengers, of whom there
were fifty-six, including children and serv-
ants, first class, and about eighty second
class, were inside. During the night the
steamer continued on her course with only
speed enough to give her steerage way
Shortly after daylight on the morning of
the 9th 1 was on deck and the mountains
at the entrance to the harbor of Manzan-
lilo bay were still in sight. About 10
o'clock next morning the storm reached its
height and the wind was blowing a gale
and the waves running mountain
high. About this time the ship
seemed to be in the trough of the
sea, the waves. one after another, striking
her on the port side and keeling her over to
starboard. Every time she lifted she
seemed TO rock less and less. / had state
room on the main deck, well aft, and on the
port side. opening on the deck My sister
in-law had the second one forward, opening
with Mrs. Thorntons. About IL o'clock the
storm seemed at it's worst, and the ship
was lying over to starboard, and l left the
deck and stood in the passageway talking
to Mrs. Thornton. The deck seemed to have
an inclination of about forty-five degrees,
and wave after wave washed over the deck
flooding the state rooms to depth of two
three inches. A heavy sea broke over the
ships bow, crushing through the main sa-
loon and Starboard cabin and wrecking them
though they were made of cardboard.
Then /, 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 l was outside i forced open
the window of my sster-in-law's room and
found her and her maid together with life
preserverS on. / told her to give me her
hand and L would help her out, but before
/ could touch her great wave struck
the ship A huge wave washed over me,
and L noticed four or five men on the up
per deck above me, but when L could again
look, perhaps ten seconds later, not soul
was in sight, and then everything under
me appeared TO melt away. and 1 supposed
that was when the ship went down. What
/ remember next was that / was going
down, down, until 1 thought would never
stop. When 1 came to the surface through
the wreckage and lumber i was myself
within fifteen or twenty feet OF little raft
reach a rope they threw me and they pulled
me aboard. Then we helped aboard Span
lard and woman, and within a minute
more there were seven on the raft Within
fifty or sixty feet OF us was another life
boat with eight persons, among them Isaac
Chidberg, and closer 10 US was life-boat
full of water and without oars, with two
men and two women clinging to ii. There
was another boat hull up with men cling
ing to it.
Our raft turned over four times. The
first time the woman was lost, but gen.
orally the men managed TO get on again.
The fourth time the raft turned over . l was was
not get on Ii again, but L could see that
there were three or four men on it. then
and and ifE fioated with one under each arm until
about o'clock. when / found heavier
pieces of timber. which I dashed together
found floating On this l managed to set
astrde until the lifeboats and RATS had
drfted out OF er sghs OF % en Hossng eut on
wreckage, and, besides. there was. about
four hundred feet away: large % piece 60, Of
two hours hard work succeeded
in reaching il, but the men would not al
low me to go aboard; saying they had
enough passengers for the size Of their craft.
on a small pieceHf deck, who. like myself,
raft. and. as he could not do this. he pro-
posed that we should lash his raft TO another
of equal size that was floating near by:
This sailor was named Ross. and appeared
to be a man of good sense and lots of grit.
He was badly hurt on the head from being
struck with wreckage: and was affaid RAJ Ina, tnat
GO crazy He criticised the manager who
shipped the cargo and the fact that the life
boats and RATS had not been gotten ready.
/ got hold of an orange, of which took
a suck. saving the rest for future use,
and Ross got a turnip,. which he
he said he would save for breakfast and
which he put in sack he tied about his
body. Ross proposed that one should watch
while the other slept, but as the waves
covered us to the necks, II was out OF the
question. In the morning Ross put his hand
in the sack to bring. out his breakfast.
and exclaimed in most tragic tones: My
God / have lost the turnip, so he went
without breakfast. On Monday evening, /
could see the shore line distinctly, and in
the morning we had drifted so far the land
did not look more than ten miles away,
and we began TO paddle for it. Half a mile
distant we had made out a piece of deck
with three or four men on II. After padding
about two hours we saw the smoke Of a
we made signals with the sack and about 10
o'clock were picked up by the lifeboats
We were twenty-five hours in water The
boat before reaching Us, had already picked
IN two survivors. badly hurt, and before
we reached the ship rescued two more. l
got aboard the San Juan broke down and
went TO bed in the purser's cabin. After the
vessel sark we had about an hour OF heavy.
driving rain, and the water at night was
very chilly. AS far as l know there was
no orders given TO get ready the lsfeboats S
and RATS or for the passengers TO put on life
preseryers ard i'm this particular all sur
vivors / have spoken TO agree with me-"
Big steamship Stranded.
PHILADELPHIA, June News reached
this city this evening OF the strandng and
probable total loss in the Straits OF Magel-
Ian of the huge American steamship Fashte-