The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-13
$4,000 PERSONS WERE
KILLED IN INSTANT
City Of St. Pierre Wir>1 From the
Map by Whirling f.fe Vomited
Upon 1t by Mount Pelee.

i
| giles of deaths agony.
Through the middle of the old Place
| Berth ran a tiny stream, the re-
mains of thu river Gayave. Great trees,
| with roots upward and scorched by fire.
were strewI in every direction. Huge
blocks and stones still hot were scat
tel ed about. From under one large stone
| the arm of a white woman protruded
Most notable was the utter silence and
| tho awful. over-powering stencil from
| the thousands of dead.
Careful inspection showed that the fiery
stream which so completely destroyed st.
| Pierre must have been composed Of poi
| sonous gases, which instantly suffocated
every one who inhaled them, and of other
g.4ses burning furiously. for nearly all the
victims had their hands covering their
| mouths or were in some other attitude
showing that they had sought relief from
| suffocation. All the bodies were carbon
| ICED or roasted.
| "A. G. Austin. the manager of the CO.
| lonial Bank of Barbaroes, landed at st.
| Pierre with a party from the British Roy
| al mail steamer Solent. He found the
bank clock stopped at some minutes be-
! fore o'clock. horse and buggy and a
policeman were in dead group at the
door. .
| At the request of s. A. McAllister. the
United States Consul at Barbados, Cap
tain Davis and the Solent were placed at
| his disposal by the Barbados Govern
| ment. The Solent arrived at about the
| same time as the Associated Press steam
sr and brought to st. Pierre the Colonial
| Secretary, two civil doctors, two military
officers and Or. w. f. Aughenbaugh of
Washington, as well as a corporal and
four hospital orderlics. three trained
nurses and full field hospital outfit.
Only Needed Burial.
The Bsrbadoes Government also sent
and full supply of medicine. These
| were useful. but the dead only needed
quick burial -, ..-
| c. G. Evans of Montreal and John G.
| Morris Of New York. who are now at the
military hospital at Fort de France. say
the steamer .Rorsima arrived at s o'clock
As eight bells was 2truck. "a frightful
tsexplosfon was heard UP the mountain. A
cloud of fire. toppling and roaring. swept
| with lightnng-sp down the mountain
side and over the tovu and hay. The
/ RorsiHa was nearly sunk and caught
fire at once.
"I never can forget the horrid. fiery.
choking whirlwind which enveloped ME, IS
said Mr.. Evans. Mr.. Morris and rush
ed below. We arc not very badly burned.
not so bad as most of them. When the
| fire came we-were going to our posts I'VE
are engincers) to weigh anchor and get
| out. Whenwe came up we found the ship
afire aft, and fought 1t forward until 3
| o'clock. when the Suchet came to our res
| cue. We were then building raft"
| Ben Benson, carpenter of the Ror-
alma. said: 81 was on deck amdships
when ] heard an explosion The captain
| ordered me to up anchor. I got to the
windlass, but when the fire came l went
L fntn he ,Ie
When I came out talked with Captain
Muggah, Mr.. Scott. the first officers. and
others. They had been OH the bridge.
The captain was horribly burned.
| Jumped Into the Sea.
| ''He inhaled flames and wanted to jump
into the sea. | tried to make him a life
| preserver. The captain. who was I'M
dressed. jumped overheard and hung onto
a line for while. Then he disappeared.
| Gus" Under. the qusrtermaster of the
steamer. who Is horribly burned and can
| scarcely talk. confirmed this
Joseph Beckles. q seaman. 50 years Of
age, Is so frightfully burned tina. he can
not live, having inhaled flame He said
in weak tones that he was the last man
| to see the captain. The captain was then
| irving to reach a floating mattress.
Louis Prudent. saved from the Italian
| ship Tersa Lovico. says there was first
| an aw1ul noise of explosion. and then,
| right away a cyclone of smoke and fire,
| but such was the poisonous. choking ma
| ture of the smoke that it burned worse
than the fire. When 1t struck people they
fell dead. The cyclone of gas tore the
masts out of ships. blew others up and
sunk some of them. Soon afterwards
came wave of fire bigger than the smoke
cloud
"The fire burned the city everywhere at
.afI
only dead men; but on shore | saw women
and men rushing back and forth amid
the flames for an hour. They would run
along. Then came the choking smoke,
and they would drop like dead flies
The village of Urine. south of st. Pierre,
was almost entirely burned and almost all
the inha bitsnts were killed
The cable repair ship Grappler was lost
with all on board, as was the French
vessel Tamaya. There wee eighteen or
twenty vessels in the roadstead at the
time of the disaster. The British steamer
Roddam had anchored. but Captain Free
man. although horribly burned. managed
to keep on the bridge of his vessel Ev.
erybody on the Roddam's deck was killed
instantly. but with the assistance of his
third engineer and fireman who were
wounded. the captain brought his vessel
to ST. Lucia Many Persons tried to reach
the Roddam. but in vain The United
States Vice Consul at ST. Pierre. Amedee
Testart, reached the deck of the Roddam.
only to fell back into the sea, dead.
Three hours exploration of the ruins
of st Pierre resulted in the finding of no
Continued on Page Twol