The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-08-07
IN ANGRY WATERS
STRONG DESCRIPTION OF THE
WRECK OF THE ALDEN.

Awful Terror Of the People on the wave
| Whipped Deck, Where the Queer Mon
| ster Tore the Survivors From the Rail
| and stripped Those Remaining of Their
Clothes The Wouderf0l Help Of
| Woman to Her Husband When He had
| Dtsappeared-One Woman Naked with
Broken Arm Pitiable accident.
London, Aug. 6.-Mr. F. Gillett, one OF
the survivors Of the wreck OF the P. ana
| o. steamer Alden, has sent a long re-
port Of the disaster 20 the London Times
from which the following extract is ia
ken. Ii relates the fate OF those who
remained on the doomed ship after, the
departure Of the boats:
And now comes what, for me, Is the
hardest part of my story, which TO write
| about. even at this considerable interval
of time. 1 am not ashamed to say, stu
causes that gulp in the throat which
| even the strongest man cannot at times
| conceal, and that Is 10 relate the ago
MIXING and heartrending sights OF the
remainder Of that awful day. when grad
ually we had to see so many Of those
who were left. one by one. oft-tirnes
manned, bruised and bleeding, with bro
ken limbs and weakening powers,
dashed backwards and forwards on the
rwave-swept deck, and eventually carried
away by the angry seas, until nearly
half our number had gone. May u pc
less painful to your readers than II Is
to me! The picture remains 50 Vivldiy
in my mind that now, lying awake az
night, I many times seem to live the
whole scene OF horror over again. BY
the time we had lost SIGHT OF the last
| boat it was getting on well towards
eight a. m, and we had taken up our
positions on the lee side of the engine
room bulkhead, sheltered to same extent
from the immense seas breaking over
US by that as well as by the wooden
structure forward, which then remained
| intact. We were holding on for dear
life TO an iron rail which ran along the
| side Of the bulkhead, my WIFE and my
J little girl being at the extreme forward
end OF it, while I was graspikng the
sides Of an ron ventilator just ahead OF
/ il. and next to the captain, who declined
| to hold to anything, and stood SILVER
ing, with a nervous twitching movement
| Of his hands, just outside the saloon
| companion way. I several times begged
him to catch hold Of one side OF the
ventilator with me, we being the nearest
exposed to the seas breaking over from
1 ol,r -art al
and his replies to anything said to him
were so strange and incoherent that, as
I have already stated, fear that the
good, kind fellow had partially lost his
! reason.
The seas from the forepart still In
| creased in violence, and often one or
another was torn away from our shelter
and swept along the deck. But Tor
some time we managed to bring them
back to comparative security; but ere
long there began to rise UP from the lee
SIDE, above the level Of the scuppers,
near TO where we were standing. i'm
mense green seas, which would come
| licking over the side Of the ship from
the after part forward toward US, fear
! full return waves which we who re-
manned on that ship so long time
never remember to have witnessed; and
these waves, as the steadily increased
! In volume, until sometimes they came
sweeping over in one solid green wall
as high or higher than our heads. were
for the most part the cause OF the awful
! havoc among us. They rose UP and
| came over entirely without warning, and
as from our position our backs were
towards them, they could not be guarded
against like the bigger but more broken
waves coming over from the weather
! side.
1 think the first to go was the little
infant son of Mrs. Pearce, torn from its
mothers arms; and. at the risk of ven-
turing to tread on sacred ground, we can
| hardly think of this otherwise than az
the act of a merciful Providence, as II
| is barely possible to conceive that We
! could have kept alive without suffering
an infan. of such tender age on the
scanty provisions left us during the long
seventeen days we were together on the
wreck. Mrs. Strains little infant in
| arms was also nearly taken.
Mr.. Strain and his wife were soon az
| terward carried right forward. he being
| Immediately carried overheard by a sea
| from the weather s,de while Mrs. Strain
got her leg TANNED under a piece Of
| iron broken away from the winch pipe.
| and was only extracted after several
minutes hard work, through the assist
ance of the captain and others, VINO
managed TO lift UP the iron and brought
her back TO the shelter, torn and weak
ened, but still able 10 hold on. Time
went on. A Chinese nurse employed by
Mr.. and Mrs. Pearce, whose cramped
feet had made 1t painfully difficult for
! her to retain her foothold on the seethig
| deck was seen to be lying cut and
! MANNED on the deck within a few feet
| OF wrere the rails were broken away.
ard. although offered assistance and IN
piora1 70 come back TO shelter. she wear
| lily declined. and waived away all help
as SIZE waited for the next sea. which
mcrcifuliy soon came. 10 cary her away.
Not long after this. poor Mrs. Strain,
| who was already fearfully weakened
ara mortified 8. the loss % her husband
| and infant. was torn away form the rail
| and the sea as L swept past and over
| her denujing her OF every particle OF
clothing. end she was left lying there
perfectly naked, with right arm broken
close % the shoulder, rising and falling
| loosely on TIE seethlng water. She was
! yards away from US. and must have
been from her appearance, thank Goo.
| quite Unconscious. We could
| only turn away our eyes from ssein 8
|
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