The San Francisco call., 1899-12-04

TTIcToRIA Dec. s.-The steamer
Queen City. which arrived from the
west coast OF Vancouver Island
" this afternoon, brought among her
passengers two emaciated. ship
wrecked crews. There were Cap
tain V. Arenas and nine men OF the Peru
Wan bark Libertad. AL tons, which foun-
dered on November 6. about sixty miles
off Cape Cook to the northern extremity
of Vancouver Island; Captain j. l.. War
rem, ]. w. Shirk of Seattle owner and
supercargo. and his daughter Mabel. who
Is on the articles as purser. and eight men
of the Seattle schooner Hera, which was
burned TO the waters edge off the island
coast. The men of the Libertad suffered
most. The unfortunate cosmopolitan
gathering. made up of Chileans, Peruvi-
ans. Portuguese, BraZilians. Greeks and
Italians left the bark on the morning OF
November 6. The vessel was then rapidly
filling and it was feared that she would so
down before they were free OF her vortex.
The I,ibertad left Pisagua on August =,
under charter of w. r. Grace of San
Francisco. with a cargo Of nitrate for the
Victoria Chemical Works. All went well
until September q. when in latitude 1O.49
north. longitude 120.1S she .sprang a leak,
and from that time until she was aban-
doned there never was less than foot OF
water in her hold. The weather was very
heavy high southeast gales, with a heavy
sea. being encountered constantly. On
November a hurricane blew from the
southeast Many sails were carried away
and the water in the hold was increased
70 four feet The crew were utterly ex-
hausted by constant pumping. On the
morning of the 9Th the In plates on the
mort side were carried away. and soon
afterward the carpenter came rushing
forward and announced that the bark Was
laundering A glance into the hold showed
tho NOW terrified crew that the water was
rising rapidly and after gathering
few clothes and tossing a bag Of
bread into the ships boat they hurriedly
cut il from the davits. and scrambling
into IL abandoned the sinking bark.
In the hurry to get away, so great was
their terror. they forgot to put fresh wa
ter in the boat When they leic the vessel
she was about sixty miles off Cape Cook.
near which place the shipwrecked man
landed after an awful struggle with the
ocean, a heavy gale blowing from the
southeast They were two days in the
open boat. during which time all they had
to eat was a few pieces of sour bread.
Their tongues were almost split with
thirst and one man was almost driven to
madness by drinking from the sea. When
struggle through the breakers caused by
the heavy ground swells which always
prevail or the island coast. they were
without food, for what they had was lost
in the effort to get ashore. After landing
they abandoned the boat and started out
through the woods in search OF settlers.
They were three days climbing over the
rocks, wadinE creeks and cutting their
way through the woods without a bite to
eat before assistance was found. They
came upon three prospectors on the llth
and the miners shared their provisions
and clothes with them. Then the pros
pectors started out with them In their
boat for Quatsino. at which place the
steamer called and took them on board
The crew Of the schooner Hera did not
suffer from the lack OF food so much as
did the men OF the Libertad. but they had
a closer escape from death. Ii was only
by running at full speed under all the
canvas they could carry I'm a storm, In
which at another time they would have
run under closely reefed sails. that they
managed TO reach the land in time TO es-
cape from the burning ship.
The Hera sailed from Seattle on Novem-
Der is. with full cargo Of general mer-
chandise for Honolulu She had on
considerable bottled beer. two carloads OF
tin goods one carload of canned goods.
ten pianos, wheat. etc
She was in charge Of Captain Warren
and carried l.. W. Shirk. part owner. Miss
Mabel Shirk. /. A. Mcintyre. Mate ]. Bu-
chanan, Second Officer ID. Thompson, s
Griffin, j. NJ. Gray. NJ. O'Brien. F. Wilkes
and G. Seabert She sailed out past Flat
terry on the 18th. and on the following