The Worcester spy., 1898-11-06
Teresa
Lost at Sea.
THRILLING STORY.
Lieut.. Commander Harris
Tells of the Disaster.

Charleston, Nov 5-The ocean tug
Merritt put into Charleston this morn
ing for supplies. She reported the loss
of the cruiser Maria Teresa, off San
Salvador, Bahamas, Nov. 1, in the
midst of a furious storm.
Later in the day the Merritt arrived
from quarantine and the survivors of
the Maria Teresa came ashore. They
took all personal effects. The vessel
sank 30 miles off Waiting Islands, at
! midnight on Tuesday, after battling
with the gale six hours. She met the
storm Tuesday morning and the vessel
began to strain in the high seas Parts
of the hull thought to be safe became
weakened, the rivets broke and the
water made its way rapidly in the
hold. The boilers began to give way,
and finally the water extinguished the
fires in the engine room. The pumps
would not work.
The whole vessel showed signs of a
collapse, and the men stood stripped
awaiting orders to quit the ship. The
Vulcan was towing the Teresa. The
Merritt rescued ia of the crew, made
Newark and Vulcan. The ropes were
then cut and the Teresa rapidly filled.
The Vulcan and Leonidas left the Mer-
ritt, which put into Charleston with
the, rescued. The crew left this after
noon for Norfolk.
Washington, Nov. 5.-A thrilling
story of the loss of the cruiser Maria
Teresa is given in the official report of
Lieut.. Commander Harris to the Sec
retary of the navy, received by teleg
raph at the navy department late this
afternoon 1t is dated on board the
wrecking steamer Merritt so miles off
Charleston, Nov. 4, and is as follows:
Secretary of the Navy, Washington:
Sir-I have the honor to make the fol-
lowing report of the loss of the In
fanta Maria Teresa. On Nov. /, at
a. M, found that it was blowing hard
and went on the lower bridge. We
had left Watlings Island light abeam
at 10 o'clock, and up till midnight the
weather was pleasant and all went well
with the ship although we had trouble
4 in keeping the pump in the forward
! fore room from being choked with
| coal,
The wind continued to increase in
force until perhaps a. M, when it
reached it's height, although there were
times all day when it blew hard as
| ever. The direction was about north
east The sea sontinued to rise until
perhaps p. m. There was heavy
sea all the following day.
Soon after 1 came on deck / relieved
the second mate, Mr.. Johnson, so that
he could go below to fight the water.
About 3 so the first mate, Capt. Lecato,
came up and he also went below to
work. Camp Crfttenden, who was on
deck almost as soon as was, gave his
of tn 10
to priming the centrifugal pump in the
forward fire room. There were many
new leaks. When q heavy sean struck
the sides. the plates leaked at the butts
and seams, showing that after the fire
they had resumed their former appear
ance but were not tight. There was at
the main mast an inch of thwart ship
vibration and only half an inch longi-
tudinal vibration.
While making this examination about
4.30 a. m. Capt Chittenden was thrown
down and fell on the chain hurting his
side and back enough to temporarily
disable him. He continued to give us
valuable advice. At 8 a. m. we made
signal to the Vulcan and Merritt to go
to windward, which they did as well as
they could. Up to l o'clock a. m. we
We're running the starboard main en-
gines and had steam on the two center
boilers and three of the short forward
boilers, but the trouble in the forward
fire-room caused the steam to run low
and lighted fires under the starboard
after boiler and stopped the engine so
as to run the steam up for the pumps.
The pump for keeping the water from
the forward compartment was driven
by a belt and when the sea broke over
the bows the belt became wet and Slip
ped. AS soon as the water was up to the
floor place in the forward fire-room the
rolling of the ship washed into the coal
bunkers and carried the coal out, chok-
ing the pump and carrying the floor
plates about, which made it difficult
and dangerous to work there. About
o'clock l called for volunteers to hoist
| body responded and the work was con-
coal and water in the ash hoist, Every
tinued as long as it seemed of any use.
About $3.50 a. m, it was reported that
water was coming into one of the star
board forward coal bunkers and rum
ming into the fire rooms. Where the
water came from we do not know.
| About o'clock the 11-inch gun in the
after tJrret ran out and in twice. When
| it recoiled the second time something
| gave way and it settled to extreme ele-
walton and remained stationary. We
asked the Vulcan to signal the Beoni-
das to stay close to US. and the latter
hoisted the flag at the signal yardarm,
which was a signal agreed upon to call
the Leonidas to come within hail. She
was steaming ahead of us and making
rather bad weather.
1t seems as if she feared to turn in
the heavy sea. but eventually she did
cross ahead of the Merritt and twice
passed upder the Maria's stern, al
though at some distance. i think she
picked up the life RATS which the Vul-
can threw over
About 11.30 we signalled the Vulcan
to ask the Merritt if we could be turned
safely to run for the lee of waiting S
island. To this Capt. Wolcott replied no,
and as Capt. Chittenden thought we
would sink if we tried to turn, this idea
was given up.
At / y. m. Captain Chittenden asked
me to signal the Vulcan to cast off the
Merritt's tow line, and have the Merritt
come along side l then assumed the
command, told the men what was to be
done, and assigned them stations.
told the chief engineer to start the en-
gine to aid the Vulcan in keeping our
head up. He did so. but it could run
but a short time with the steam we
had. We signalled the Vulcan: Eve
are about to abandon ship; try to keep
us head to wind"
ordered Captain Lecato to take