The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-25
SAMOAN DISASTER RECALLED.
A Survivor of the VandaIia Describes
the Awful Scenes.
From the St. Louis Star.

a Survivor of the Nundaua describes
the Awful Scenes.
From the st. Louis Star.
George williams, who is visiting his old
home In st. Louis, but who is now making
his residence in Yokohama, Japan. and has
married a Japanese lady, tells thrilling
tale of his adventure on the Vandalia, the
United States war vessel that was wreck
ed by the awful hurricane in 1889 In The
harbor of Apia, Samoa. Mr.. Williams was
school master TO the apprentices on the
vessel and was for thirty-eight hours In
the rigging of the wrecked ship, drifting.
Forty-eight men were lost
'It was the 18th of March," said Mr..
Williams, In telling his story. There
were two German vessels, the Adler and
the Eber, lost that night. l shall never
forget 1t. how can 1. when both of my
feet were crushed so badly that to tits
day | suffer from the effects of it.
Suddenly the wind began to rise. The
sky turned black as midnight. Just after
the Adler struck, attention was attracted
toward the Vandalia. She was standing
off the reef with her head to the wind,
but the three anchors which she had out
were not holding. The steamer was beat
ing back toward the point where the Eber
went down.
ut was only by the most skillful man
agement that the whole crew did not go
down, for the vessel was completely
wrecked. The Vandalia barely escaped
when first run into by the Olga, another
German vessel, and 1t was a blow from
that vessel which finally ruined her. When
the Olga struck the Lily, that little schoon-
er sank out of sight in moment There
were three men aboard of her-the cap
tain, a trader, and a Hawaiian native. all
three struck out for the Olga, but only
one was saved The captain sank beneath
the Olga twice, but by the anchor chain
managed to draw himself up. One of The
other men almost reached the chains, but
was dashed away and drowned THE last
man was swept ont to sea. Life puoys
were thrown out to him, but he was not
able to save himself.
THE Olga struck the Vandaia amid
ships; her bowsprit passed over the port
side of the Vandalia, and after carrying
away a boat and splintering the rail, came
in contact with the smokestack. The
smokestack was struck fairly in the CEN
ter, and fell to the deck with crash ike
thunder.
For moment no one knew what had
happened; great confusion followed; the
crew believed that the steamer was going
down, and men ran up the rigging for
safety. Every one was wild. They had
seen the Eber strike on the same spot,
and 1t seemed evident that we would go
down in the same way.
Having lost her smokestack, the Van
dalia was unable to keep up her steam
and TO steam out from the reef i'm the face
of the wind was useless. The captain was
calm and collected. Several men stood at
their posts nobly, but many were democrat
lied and refused to listen to orders # was
plain that the Vandalia would be founder
ed upon the reef, and, perhaps, every man
on board lost. The captain saw that an
attempt to save his vessel would be use
less and gave the order TO beach her. One
anchor was slipped and the few pounds of
steam which could still be used kept the
vessel i'm deep water for while. Boxes of
salt and other material were thrown into
the furnace to keep up the fire. Just as
the vessel was nearing the shore the Olga
again struck the vessel with awful force.
and 1t seemed as If she would be shattered
before the men could possibly be saved.
The waves were rolling high on the beach
and the undertow was so strong that the
natives narrowly escaped being washed
into the bay.
1.-THE force of the wind was beyond de-
scription The rain continued to pour down
and clouds of flying sand grew thicker
every moment. Above the roar of the wind
could be heard the voices of the officers
shouting TO the men on deck, mingled with
cries and singing Of the Samoars as they
stood battling against the surf. risSing
their lives to save American sailors. Near
ly all the English and American residents
of Apia were on the shore in front of the
consulate, and all seemed anxious to help
i'm saving lives.
again the Vandalia, now without rud-
der or steam, drifted out. but with only
one anchor left. Her decks were flushed
with water and the crew were in the rig
ging, bare and naked, while the wind
whistled through it like death song.
Thus we kept on drifting. on the
wrecked vessel excitment now subsidized,
and every man stood at his post until we
gradually neared the beach. Men were
up to their waists in water trying TO save
the sailors.
Imagine what consternationi Four
ships were stranded in the harbor at the
same time by the hurricane. Life lines
looked like rockets, so fast and thick we're
they thorwn out to the men.
cit was quite early in the morning that
our rudder was broken and our fires
smothered. Then came shouts from the
shore We had passed the western reef
and our danger was past. Still we drifted.
while the wind shrieked fercely. our
pumps working steadily. with the timbers
creaking terribly. until we had passed the
eastern reef and the inner harbor was
reached.
"Just then the Olga, in the same tx,