The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-29
WAS CLOSE TO DISASTER
An Unseaworthy Transport in a.
Typhoon.
DESERTED BY THE CREW
Machinery Gave Out-Constant Pumping
the Only Thing Which Kspt the
Tub Afioat- Were Short of
Food and Water.

4hdllild, 4NoN. So.--1 lie lIdlSpoII
auense with Lieutenant Colonel Webb
Hayes and three companies of the 31st
infantry on board has arrived here.
She narrowly escaped disaster. The
officers and soldiers We're for u days
bailing with buckets. The steamer was
unseaworthy. undermanned and short
of provisions. Her engines broke down
and she rolled three days in a typhoon
When the steamer anchored in Manila
bay this morning, 80 days from San
Francisco, there were several feet of
water in her hold and 400 grimy. greasy,
hungry, exhausted soldiers and sailors
who had been passing buckets of wat
er since Nov. II night and day. First
Assistant Engineer Dunleavy was un-
der arrest and according to Colonel
Webb Hayes official report, the chief
engineer would have been under arrest
also if there had been any one to re-
place him. The coloners report also
declares that the captain of the vessel
told him the only thing which brought
them through was the fact that the
men were greenhorns and failed to
realize their danger, while experienced
seamen would have deserted the ship
and taken to the boats in midocean.
The Manauense is chartered ship
flying the British Nag. She belongs to
firm Of which Sefiator Perkins of San
Francisco is alleged to be a junior
member. The officers say the firm
bought her for $4,000, and they claim
tried to sell her to the government for
s150,000.
She started from San Francisco ac-
companied by the transport Pekin.
which carried the remainder Of the reg
iment, and encountered heavy seas to
Honolulu without accident. After
starting it developed that she was un-
dermanned and soldiers had TO be de-
tailed to act as firemen. coal passers
and walters and to do other work
Before reaching Honolulu the crew
concluded 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 Nov. II told Colonel Hayes
that the vessel had sprung leak and
an investigation resulted in finding sew
eral feet OF water in her hold.
The steam pumps were tried. bur
failed to work, and there We're no hand
pumps on board However 46 buckets
were found, others We're improvised
and the soldiers not employed in work.
ing the ship were organized into five
shifts, and stripped and forming lines,
they began bailing, the officers working
with the men passing the buckets,
which were sent up to the deck by u
windlass. Tire longest time a shift
could standzwas two hours, and often
the period WEES not longer than half an
hour. The bailing continued until the
ship anchored here.
The same day the leak was discov-
cred the machinery collapsed and the
electric lighting plant and dstilling.
evaporating and refrigerating plants
failed to work. There We're no lamps
and the few candles found were ex-
hausted after a few days. During the
last week of the passage the Manau-
ense was in utter darkness at night.
She had been rolling in heavy seas all
a typhoon and pitched and tossed
alarmingly.
The Pekin became separated from the
Manauense in the storm
The waters rose rapidly and the bail
ing force was doubled. But the buckets
We're gradually smashed and boxes were
for them, the men working
in the darkness. planks and pieces of
iron shafting being washed among
them The firemen could only feed the
fires by being lifted up by the men
through water waist deep. The typhoon
lasted two days and a half and in the
midst of it the engines stopped. The
officers then held council and found
that there were 420 persons on board,
with life boat accommodations for
about 213.
In the meantime the men below,
ignorant of their extreme peril, were
passing buckets and singing What the
Hell 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 retraced her course
about 70 miles, came alongside the
which was rolling so heav-
ly that the soldiers in the hold could
At each roll see the Pekin through the
matches overhead. Col j. S. Petit,
commander of the 31st volunteer regi-
nent. ordered the Manauense to pro
iced to Guam and await relief, but the
captain of the Manauense refused, the
officers say, because the government
was renting the ship for $500.
Throughout the voyage the engines
IF the Manauense failed frequently and
he ship would roll for a few hours
while the engines We're repairing. Then
he steamer would proceed again for a
'ew hours. The meat and vegetables |
'otted because of the failure of the re-
rigerators and We're thrown over |
BOARD.
After the storm, the water supplied |
o the ship at Honolulu had to be used |
or the boilers and there was little or |
lone for drinking. In fact it is as |
erted that during the last week of the |
'oyage the men lived almost entirely |
N whisley, beer and hard tack. The |
ficers and soldiers were entirely ex- !
lausted when they reached Manila. |
they declare that the engineers were |
grossly incompetent. The officers also |
ay that the behavior of the troops was I
,eyond praise. For days they worked |
n the dark, suffocating hold, with |
water sometimes up to their shoulders |
nd planks washing about in manner
dangerous to life The officers took the |
cad in bailing and encouraging the
men.
The captain of the ship promised the
men 25 cents day for bailing, but he
low proposes to pay them a dollar and
half. The soldiers talk of attaching
he ship. The regiment will proceed to
on the Pekin to garrison
everal ports on the island of Minda-
lano.
Insurgents Scattered.
Manila, Nov. 29.-10:10 a. m.-Colonel /