The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-02-23

self in the water, was compelled to
force my way through the ratlines Of
the shrouds. l finally reached the sur
hace and saw people swimming near
me among lot Of WTeckdge. Among
those recognized Russell Harper, a
Journalist of NagaSaki, who called out
to me that both his legs were broken.
l lost sight of him for a time, but was
told that he was picked up. I was
picked up and taken ashore to the hos
oitaI."
Mr.. Brander could not recall events
definitely. He does not remember
whether the women he saw on deck
were taken off in the boats What sur
prised him was that these women were
fully dressed a circumstance he at
tributed to the fact that they had arts
en- IN order to witness the start.
4 had only time to grasp i few of
my valuables-" ne said. and went on
deck. l should judge I was there only
five or ten minutes when the ship went
down, carrying me with it. 1t is pos
sible that all the cabin passengers
reached the deck before the fatal
plunge, but doubt il. The Chinese in
the steerage were in the greatest dan
ger, and am convinced a large num-
Der of C@estisls We're drowned"
Mr.. Brander's watch stopped at TWEEN
ty minutes of 5 O'clock. thereby indi-
eating that the ship went down at that
time. Among Mr.. BrandeT's valuables
were letters of credit and cash in eX-
cess of $1,000.
Steward Arouses Steerage.
II. Donahue, the steerage steward,
gives the following as his experience:
I was below decks, but partly
dressed when we struck the rocks. The
I III l. -
suddenly thought of the steerage. |
ran with all my might to the steera ge
cabins, where I hauled and yanked peO-
pie out of bunks-whites, Chinese and
what not. / threw them about, wheth-
er they had clothes on or not, and
finally got twenty-five or thirty of them
on deck I told them to save their
! lives then if they could, asking them
| to get life preservers. By this time the
/ ship was turning over, and I left these
/ people. I ran to the middle deck.
when I reached there I ran. in my
| bewilderment, to the forward deck
where I distinctly remember seeing
/ Captain Ward as he assembled the
! bridge. I felt the ship going and !
/ fed for the rigging.
I climbed with all my strength and
/ speed, and just as [ reached the cross
/ trees, I looked below. There I saw Cap
/ tain Ward am sure it was he-stand-
| ing at the bridge and wildly swinging
/ his arms.
Then I saw the water swirl about al
his feet and suddenly cover him. AT
! that instant I realized that we We're
/ plunging to the bottom / had not felt
! our descent while in the rigging.
Even while I was making up my
mind TO this I was amazed and terri
fed TO have my feet thrown above my
( head by the force Of the water rushing
p from Tbpq 7 was torn from the
cTOsstTees and plunged below 1 held
my breath and fought against the Ter
rible suction, finally coming to the sur
/ face again. BY some strange chance
! was not struck by spars nor caught
/ in the rigging. It was one chance IN
a million.
Il struck out when I came gasping
to the surface and a few minutes later
Just as my senses were slipping from
me, I was picked UP. L am confident
I saw the captain 80 down at the
bridge"
Experience of Second officer.
Second Officer Graham COghlan was
on the bridge in company with Captain
Ward, Pilot Jordan and First Officer
Johnson, as the vessel was making port
, The Rio had passed Point Bonita light
and a few moments later Fort Point
/ light was sighted.
Then, without a word of warming the
/ big steamer went crashing on the rocks
+ Immediately everything was chaos. II
/ the steerage below il was announced
/ that the water was rushing on the
! sleeping passengers and a number OF
| the crew rushed to the decks.
! Shortly after the shock the four bis
! boats in the davits were lowered. A
/ large number of passengers. hastily
summoned from their rooms by thC
commotion on deck, crowded into tn,
boats and they pushed off.
2 Ten minutes after, according to tn.
second officer. the vessel sank. The Iif,
boats in the checks fioated off as tht
/ vessel disappeared beneath the sur
/ face of the water and there was d wild
J scramble on the part of many persons
in the water to get into them.
Praises the Grew.
The order was given to arouse tn,
/ passengers" said Coghlan, and thu
crew went about their work coolIy. The!
could not have acted better and every
one was apparently summoned. I my
self went in search of Consul WildmaI
and family, but I could not find them
Just before one of the big boats, whicl
I commanded, pushed off, 1 saw Cap
. tain Ward going forward and then W.
started for the shore.
I'VE could see many persons in TIT
/ water and crying for help and assist
ed some to get on the life RATS. TIL
beat I was in saved thirteen Of the peo
pie on board and after being picked
up by a gasoline launch we were towe,
TO shore. There were three life raft