Evening star., 1899-11-29
SHIP WAS UNSEAWORTHf
More Details Regarding the Voyage of the
Manauense.
crew Was Insufficient and Incom-
petent-Water Gave Out and
Men Drank Spirits.

A dispatch from Manila last night gives
the following additional facts regarding the
perilous voyage of the transport Manau-
ense (not Mananeuse):
When the transport anchored in Manila
bay this morning. thirty-three days from
San Francisco. there were several feet of
water in her hold and she bore 400 grimy.
greasy, half-starved and utterly exhausted
soldiers and sailors, who had been passing
buckets of water from hand to hand day
and night since November II to save the
vessel from sinking.
First Assistant Engineer Dunieavy was
under arrest and, according to Col Webb
Hayes's official report, the chief engineer
would have been under arrest If there had
been any one to replace him.
The colonels report also declares that
the captain of the vessel told him that the
only thing which brought them through
was the fact that the men were green
horns and failed to realize their danger.
Experienced seamen, he said would have
deserted the ship and taken to the boats
in mid-ocean.
The Manauense is a chartered ship flying
the British flag. She belongs to firm
which the officers say bought her for S45,-
600, and they claim efforts were made to
sell her to the government for s150,000.
She started from San Francisco accom-
panied Dy transport Hekln, Whlcn car
ried the rest of the 31st Regiment and en-
countered heavy seas to Honolulu. but
without accident. Soon after the start from
San Francisco it developed that she was
undermanned and soldiers had to be de-
| tailed as firemen, coal passers and walters,
and to do other work.
Before reaching Honolulu the crew con-
cluded that the ship was not safe, and the
majority agreed to desert
Though they were closely watched many
of the crew succeeded in getting away, and
the Manauense left Honolulu with less
than half her crew.
The captain of the transport, on Novem-
Der II, told Col. Hayes that the vessel had
sprung a leak, and investigation re-
suited in finding several feet. of water in
her hold.
The steam pumps were tried but failed to
work, and there were no hand pumps on
board. However, forty-six buckets were
found, others We're tmprcvised and the sol
dlerS not employed in working the ship
We're organized into five shifts. and, strip
ped and forming lines, they began bailing,
the officers working with the men, passing
the buckets, which were sent up to the
deck by a WindlaSS.
The longest time shift could stand was
two hours, and often the period was not
longer than half an hour.
The day the leaking discovered the
machinery collapsed and the electric-light-
ing plant and evaporating, distilling and
refrigerating apparatus became useless.
There were no lamps, ard the few candles
were exhausted after few days.
During the last week of the passage the
Manauense was in utter darkness at night.
She had been rolling in heavy seas all the
way, but on November - she encountered
a typhoon and pitched and tossed alarm
ingly. The Pekin became separated from
the Manauense in the storm. The water
rose rapidly, and the bailing force was
doubled.
Many of the buckets were smashed. and
barrels and boxes were substituted for
them, the men working in darkness, with
pieces of iron and planks shifting or being
violently washed among them. The fire
men could only feed the fires by being
lifted the shoulders of other men
through water waist deep.
The typhoon lasted two days and half,
and in the midst of it the engines stopped.
The officers then held a council and found
that there were 420 persons on board, with
l:feboat accommodation for 213.
In the meantime the men below, ignor-
ant of their extreme peril. were passing
buckets and singing What the He'll Do
We Care?' while the ship rolled helpless on
the ocean, with matches closed.
The heat was intense until the typhoon
passed, and then the Pekin. which had re-
traced her course about seventy miles,
came alongside the Manauense. which was
rolling SO heavily that the soldiers in the
hold could at each roll the Pekin
through the matches overhead.
Col. James S. Petit, commander Of the
31st Regiment, ordered the Manauense to
proceed to Guam and await relief. but the
captain of the Manauense demurred, the
officers say, because the government was
renting the ship for $500 day.
Throughout the remainder of the voyage
the engines of the Manauense failed fire.
quently.
The meat and vegetables rotted because
of the failure of the refrigerators and We're
thrown overheard.
After the storm the water supplied to the
ship at Honolulu had to be used for the
boilers, and there was little or none for
drinking. It is asserted that during the
last week of the voyage the men lived al
most entirely whisky, beer and hard
tack.
The officers and soldiers declare that the
engineers We're grossly Incompetent. The
officers also say that the behavior of the
troops was beyond praise For days they
worked in the dark, suffocating hold, with
later sometimes up to the shoulders and
piaHS- about, enGangering life and
limb.
The captain of the ship promised the men
twenty-five cents an hour for baiiing, but
he now proposes to pay them S130 a day.
The soldiers talk of attaching the ship.
The regiment will proceed to Zamboanga
on the Pekin to garrison several ports on
the Island of Mindanao.