The Portland daily press., 1898-01-06
TOLD OF GEROAA'S WRECK
One Of the CattIemen on the iii.
Fatsd Steamer Spins His Yarn.
THINKS THE VESSEL STRUCK /
SUNKEN WRECK.

James Robinson the First Survivor of ths
Disaster to Arrive Here Gives His Eek.
periences in Getting to Land from the
Sunken steamship-nfr. Watson'i
knowledge of the Coast Saved tn,
Lives of His Boats Crew,
His name is James Robinson and he il
a professional cattleman. He has beer
sailing to and fro across the mill pond il
big cattle steamers for many years and
makes regular business of shipping or
big steamers to take care of the horses Oh
cattle. he has seen good deal of the
rough side of life and has been in many
hard places but of all his experiences hi
told PRESS reporter yesterday he never
met with SO much suffering and hard
ship as he did on New Years day when
the steamship Corona sank off Seal
Island.
Robinson reached this city yesterday
and is the first one to get hero to tell the
story of the wreck of the Corona He
came to Boston from Yarmouth, N. S.,
on Tuesday night and left last night on
the six O'Clock train for Montreal, where
despite his hard experience on the Corona
he will endeavor to ship once more as a
cattleman and run the dangers of another
shipwrecK. II His story of the sinking
of the Corona of the Thomson line on
that cold and disagreeable morning on
the first day uf the New Year Is thrilling
to listen to. Robinson is native of
Scotland about forty years old and claims
Chicago as his home He can tell a very
good yarn when he wants to and does
not bother the listener with many of the
uninteresting details which spoil so many
good stories.
''It was about three o'clock in the
morning." said Robinson yesterday,
"and when 1 turned out it was thick,
cold and nasty. A few minutes after
I had got my eyes open the ship struck
something hard and going up on deck I
found thai the crew was very much ex-
cited and that a big hole had been
knocked in our bottom. ] could make out
the light on Seal Island we'll enough, but
could see no land or ledge about us nearer
than that. I believe that the Corona ran
her nose against a sunken wreck and
that it was no ledge which put an end
to her voyages. We were too far off shore
struck and everyone who was on board
that ship believes as l do that 1t was an
old wreck which sunk the Corona. Soon
after I got on deck the chief officer
sounded the well and found sixteen feet
of water In the ships hold. That was
only few minutes after the Corona
struck SO you can see that the hole in her
bottom must have been big one. No
time was lost in abandoning the ship.
The captains boat was small one and
was lowered away first. Then the chief
boat was got away with q big
crowd of men ON board and finally the
second officers boat was lowered and in
this one found place. This was about
half past three or four O'Clock in the
We lost sight of the ship direct
" and suppose she sank near where she
struck. Captain Dacre's boat was over
loaded and III the heavy sea which was
running we were obliged to take four
men out Of her into our own boat. Mr..
Watson the second officer who had cha1g e
of our boat knew the locality in which
we were we'll. He did not follow the ex-
ample of the other boats in heading for
Seal island, but started for the main land.
1t was terrible morning and the men
were nearly all exhausted before we got
ashore. The sea was very rough and great
rare had to be taken to keep the boats
from swapping.
Mr.. Watson kept the people in his boat
at work and for ten hours and half we
pulled against heavy sea, nearly frozen
and half starved About two O'Clock in
the afternoon we made the main land and
went I'D to a little house near which we
landed. The people here were very good
to US and we had all we wanted to est
and much needed rest. Mr.. Watson set off
to walk two miles overland as soon as we
got something to eat and succeeded in
5elephoning the news of the disaster to
Halifax. All of the cattle and horses
we're drowned, but only one man of the
crew was drowned and that was mainly
lis own fault. The dead cattle and horses
oegan to float ashore the next day and
we're strewn along the whole coast. 1t
vas the toughest experience I ever had
md am not anxious to repeat it. The
,ther boats from the ship made Seal island
LII right as we learned afterwards, but
hey also had IL very hard time Of it.