The news & observer., 1897-11-09

was gone ana that the Idaho could net
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 an
chor and bring her head up to the sea
and let ride out the gale.
every seaman realized the danger Of
attempting to do that in the face Of
hurricane and when Capt Gallies decd
ed to do it he ordered the lashing Of
the boats cut and told the men they
were forced to take one last chance for
their lives.
sat 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
firm grip and bringing the ships head
mp to the storm with jerk. it went too
slow and she simply tumbled into the
trough of the seas, which broke over
her in torrents.
I'm an instant she was helpless as
log and she was tossed here and there
and taking every wave abroad.
"From port to starboard the great
mountains OF foaming water poured, roll
ing into the Eole and adding to the guam
tity already weighing her down. The
load was too much and, after a moment,
when we all felt that we were lost,
the ship keeled over to starboard and
went down. stern first.
"What became of my mates I don't
know. | remember that the boats had
been loosened and that some of the men
were ready to take them il the vessel
went under, but no boat could have
lived for n minute in that terrible sea,
and if any of them d;d get in the boats
it was simply to be swallowed as soon
as the first wave struck them. | 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 with me-the second
mate-and thank the Lord that he was
with me, or l would have gone mad dur
ing the long hours that l was up there
hanging on and trking to keep off the
frightful cold that was slowly killing us
both.
''There was a rolling to and fro as the
vessel struck the bottom and slowly
righted to an even keel, and then a
second later she rolled over to one side.
/ thought she was going all the way over,
but she did not. She settled on the bot
tom and though the waves rolled her
from port to starboard, the spar remain
ed out of the water, with my mate and
myself hanging to it.
"All this time the hail and sIeet was
coming down and we were covered with
ice in few minutes, for though the top
of the spar on which we were hanging
was twenty-five feet above the water.
big waves struck us and broke over us
and the hail cut us like steel. | knew
that it was about 5 o'clock when we
went down, and it seemed to me that
daylight would never come. For what
seemed to be an age we hung on the
rigging and we twisted our arms about
the spar and let them freeze in position,
for otherwise we would have fallen into
the fearful sea.
"When daylight came we could not
see sail anywhere near US, and the
sea was as bad as ever. There did not
seem to be any chance OF it going down.
Hour after hour we waited there and
then saw the Mariposa coming. For
a long time we did not know whether
she would sight us and we watched her
from the time she was a little smoky
haze up the lake until we could see that
she was big vessel.
when she finally sighted us and we
saw her head for us / tried to tell my
mate, but / could not, and he looked
at me with happy look on his face. 1t
was a terrible time to us before she
came up to us, and then knew we were
not safe yet, for the sea was running
mountain high and the big steel boat
was rolling like skiff. Every wave sent
her up in the air until we could see her
white bottom under her water line. We
knew at once that her captain would not
attempt to lower boat, for it would
have been chawed up.
When the Mariposa got within ca
bic length of US a man with a strong
voice yelled to us to hang on. Don't
give up," he yelled, wen get you off
soon.' Then the boat circled around us,
coming as near as she could, but when
she was within q few rods big roller
swept her far out and she went or to
starboard, rolling heavily when she got
IN the trough of the sea. Then she
came back again, and again she missed
us, and we could not have taken a line
had one been thrown to us. Again we
watched the men on her railwaiting to
give us a lift when they could. On the
third trip around she ran right alongside
our spar and as she went past a dozen
men reached for us. l don't know who
got the mate, but Mr.. Smith, the en-
gineer, got hold of me and he dragged
me from the spar and over the rail of the
Mariposa. An instant later we had pass
ed the little stick on which / and the
mate had been hanging for almost a
day, although it seemed a week."
WHAT THE SECOND NATE SAID.
The second mate, Louis La Force,
told a narrowing story to the crew of
the Mariposa. He said that in the
rush OF men from the hold one of them,
watchman, was trampled to death.
The crew was frantic to get out of the
place.
Six our eight, ne said, must have been
drowned like rats in the hold. They
were not warned of the sinking of the
boat. The first long dip of the stern was
the first intimation they had that the
final danger was at hand, and then
they made frantic rush to get on deck.
The hatch-way was too small TO let
them fhrOurh torpthar and fhn pacuLf