The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-08-14

Miller, fireman; ]. Olsen, cOal-passer;
J. kenneally, water-tender; A. Roth,
oiler; J. Bowen, first engineer.
AN ENGINEERS STORY.
You can quote me as saying that
III never take my life into my hands
again on the word Of a diver or any
body else said the City of COlumbia's
first assistant engineer, James Bowen,
last evening at the Sailors Home.
With him were c. Carlson, first officer,
and Bernard de Jiere chief steward,
and four others of the 10 men who re-
turned by the James. Makee.
Everything was lovely" continued
Bowen, when we left here Thursday
afternoon. The hoodoo, however, still
hung with the ship. At 4 o'clock Fri
day morning when | went on watch
there were four inches of water IN the
fire-rooms. The coal was smashing
about in the wet and every shovelful
reduced the fires. The water kept
gaining. At 3 o'clock we shut down
the engines The City of Columbia had
again stopped. We did this in order
to give more steam to the engines that
worked the pumps, for as long as we
kept going ahead and fired with damp
coal the steam came down.
The pumps were in good working
order. One of them, which was put in
here, had a 1O-inch dischage. The wa
ter gained rapidly, and at o'clock
there was over a foot. The leak was
aft, in the same place where all the
previous trouble had come from. 1t
seemed to be growing larger cOntinu
ally. In thirty minutes the water
gained eight inches
I'VE kept the pumps going as long
as possible, but to no avail. Shortly
after II o'clock the two smaller life
boats were provisioned and the nine
teen of us were ordered in. The first
officer was in command of one, the sec
ond officer of the other Captain
Walker, with all remaining on board,
were to follow in the two larger boats
one-half hour later, because the big
boats were faster than ours.
when we left the steamer there was
ten feet Of water in her. She had set
tied about six feet. The last glimpse
we had of her was at O'Clock, when
we saw her flag still flying from the
peak"
FIRST OFFICERS STORY.
The story of First officer Carlson
Bowen.
Everything possible was done, but
the water just seemed to be rushing
in he said. Captain Walker was
very cool throughout. There was about
ten feet of water in her when we left,
but / don't think she had settled more
than three feet. At the rate the water
was gaining | am sure she sunk with
in six hours after we left. The others |
were to leave shortly after us, but at
o'clock there was no sign Of them. !
The steamer was still floating at that |
time. It is impossible to say where |
the remainder of the crew is. During |
the night the winds varied more or
less. We were drenched through and
had little to eat. Our suffering was |
intense. After we landed on Kauai ev-
erything possible was done for us by |
the plantation people. Captain Fullet
of the Makee also treated us royalty.
He brought out all the best things he
had to eat, and we were just the ones
to do justice to them.
'By this time the City of Columbia
lies beneath many fathoms of water,
you may rest assured.
WHAT THE STEWARD SAID.
Culol St0WdIu uS Jl0I6 I0ltSfdlou HIS 1
stories.
None Of us have any clothes except
the working suits we had on when we
left. The boats were small and we
we're not able to put anything in eX-
cept absolute necessities, for we did
not know how long we might be in
making landing. We are totally des-
,itute, for all our belongings are with
The Columbia at the bottom of the
sea-"
STRANGE RUMORS ABROAD.
In spite of the arrival of these two
,oats' crews from the vessel and the
tories told by them there was a grow
ng belief on the water front last
light that the City of Columbia was
till on her way to Hongkong. One
Ugh local official who had made a