Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-06-22
HAUNTED Ely MEMORY.
One Man Who VIII Never FORGET ths
Samoan Disaster.

One Man Who VIII Never Forget the
Samoan Disaster.
Il suppose that all of us who felt the
living, frenzied force of that awful on
shore hurricane will dream about 1t &C.
casionally as long as we live said an
ex-blue Jacket of the United States
navy, now living in Washingt who
was among the Vandalia's ships COM
pany at the time Of the great naval dis
aster in Apia harbor, Samoa, in revert
ing to that experience, says the Wash
inSton Star. For three Or four years
after got out of that mess all safe and
sound, the memory of it used to get
tangled up in my head when l was
asleep, and would wake in a trem5:e
and be unable to sleep for the remain
der OF the night. But time has 1of en-
ed the craggier edges of the remem-
brance of that horrifying black wind,
and once in a spell nowadays l forget
all about it for two or three days at q
time. 1t all came back to me with
heavy force when the Maine went up
IN the air with lot of my shipmates,
though. There was enc man In my
mess on the Vandalia who was never
quite right after we went On the reef.
| was shipmate with him for two years
afterward and his occasional wildness
was plain to all hands and men who've
been shipmates with him since-fcr
he's still in the outfit--tell me that he's
just as badly haunted by the memory
ha
saw him. This man was sh'pwrlght
and his name was Turiey. Before we
had that bad blow Turley was as cheer
ful and as clipper man around decks
as l ever snapped yarns with; but
when he got well CT his broken arms
down In Apia he was a changed man.
never saw him crack a grin after the
blow, and from a stout, husky fe:loY
ne became thin and haggard looking
He recovered all right phys cally fiom
the thing, you see, but il sort OF twisted
his head and preyed upon him. He
swung his hammock alongside Of me
on the Alert for two years after we
were sent up to duty on the west coast
again and it was a common thing for
I'urley to hop out of his hammock In
frenzy in the middle CT the night, in
pert OF at sea, yelling like madman,
All hands abandon ship-she's going
to strikei He created a lot CT excite
ment up forward by doing this, but
after awhile the men got used TO II and
only turned over when they heard Tur-
ley bowling. 1t was the regul1r thing
for the corporal of the marine guard at
the gangway to prod the rocr chap
awake when he had these crazy SOM
nambulistic spells and put him back
in his hammock, for he'd come out of
them as weak as a kitten and trem-
bling all over. There were a number
CT Us on the Alert who were washed up
in the Samoan disaster, and naturally,
once in a while, we'd get to talking
about it. But it didn't take US long 10
find out that We couldn' talk about it
while Tur!ey was around. The men
ton of the thing in his hearing would
bring an insane CLEAN into his eyes,
and he would suddenly begin to talk
inccherently and at the top of his voice
about reefs and dragging anchors and
all that, so that we learned to knock OF
Samoan hurricane talk when he was
around. l don't wonder, much, either.
1t was an evil enough blow to nigh turn
any mans headgear topsy-turyy."