The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-11-09
THE STEAMER IDAHO
Goes to the Bottom in Lake Erie,
Near Long Point, N. Y.
Nineteen Men Lost Their Lives by the Sink
ing of the Steamer in a Terrific Gale
The Second Mate and Deck
Hand Were Saved.

morning above Long HOlnG on Idhe
Erie. Nineteen men went to the bot
tom with the vessel. Two were saved,
Louis Laforce, jr., second mate, and
William Gill, deck hand, living at
1877 Kent street, Rochester, n. Y. 1t is
not known at the Office of the Western
Transit Co., where the greater portion
of the dead men hailed from.
William Gill, the rescued deckhand,
a swarthy, well built man % years old,
has sailed the lakes since he was
youth. He is more intelligent than
the average seafaring men and his story
of the disaster as told early Sunday
morning is thrilling one.
1--WE left here Friday night bound for
Chicago with cargo of general mer-
chandise," said he. Everything SEEM
ed all right until we got outside the
breakwater and then we were struck by
the worst storm that ever saw. When
the first big breaker struck us we
were tossed up in the air like top and
a second latter big roller came over
the port bow and rolled down amid
ships foot deep. The wind shrieked
and howled, but we did not pay much
attention to the storm. We had felt
wind before. The captain consulted
the mate and decided that he could
weather it and he kept on his course.
I'VE were near Long Point at this
time and the captain started to put in
there, with the intention of beeching
the ship. But the water gained SO
rapidly that it was too late. She was
already laboring, and the two men at
the wheel could do nothing with her.
Two more men went to work with
them and finally they brought her
around and headed her toward land.
Capt. ellis started the pumps, or
dered the men to the fire buckets and
we formed line and began to bail but
it was no use. The water gained on
the pumps and the buckets and soon
the water put the fires out.
when it was found that the power
was gone and that the Idaho could not
be moved we knew we could not live in
the trough of that fearful sea and the
only hope left us was to run out the
anchor and bring her head up to the sea
and let her ride out the gale.
Every seaman realized that the
danger of attempting to do that in
face of a hurricane, and when Capt.
ellis decided to do it, he ordered the
lashings of the boats cut and told the
men 1hey were forced to take one
last chance for their lives.
''At the word the anchor dropped
from the bow and the chain began to
pay out, but the sea was too heavy, and
instead of the anchor catching with a
grip and bringing the ships head up
to the storm with jerk, it went too
slow and simply tumbled into the
trough of the seas, which broke over
her in torrents
''She was as helpless as a log, and
she was tossed here and there and TAX
ing every wave aboard.
From port to starboard the great
mountains of water poured, rolling in
to the hold and adding to the quantity
already weighting her down. The
load was too much, and, after mo-
ment, when we all felt that we were
lost, the ship l1eeled over to the star
board and went down, stern first.
Il was near the spar and when the
stern of the vessel began to go under,
went for the rigging and went up as
fast as [ could. Another man went up
with me-the second mate-and | thank
the Lord that he was with me or L
would have gone mad during all the
long hours that l was up there hang
ing on and trying to keep off the fright
full cold that was slowly killing us
both
''All this time the hail and sleet was
coming down in cutting sheets, and
we were covered with ice in a few
minutes, for though the top of the
spar on which we were hanging was 25
feet above the water, the big waves
struck us and broke over JUS, and the
hail cut us like shot.
when daylight come we couldn't
see a sail anywhere near us and the
sea was as bad as ever. Hour after
hour he waited there and then we saw
the Mariposa coming. For a long time
we did not know whether she would
sight us.
when she finally sighted us and we
saw her head for us l tried to tell my
mate, but couldn't, and he looked at
me with happy look on his face. 1t
was terrible time to US before she
came up to us, and then 1 knew we
were not safe yet, for the sea was run
ming mountain high.
when the Mariposa got within
cable length of us man with strong
voice yelled to us to hang on.
Don't give up, boys he yelled
Wen get you off soon Then the
boat circled around us, coming as near
as she could, but when she was within
few rods big roller swept her far
out and she went off to starboard, roll
ing heavily when she got in the trough
of the sea. Then she came back again,
and again she missed us, and we
couldn't have taken line had one
been thrown to us. Again she went
around, and we watched her
and watched the men on her rail
waiting to give us a lift when they
could. On the third trip around she
ran right alongside our spar and as she
went past dozen men reached for us. -
An Eoo