Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1902-05-15
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VOLCANO DESTROYS ST. PIERRE.

The 25 900 inhabitants buried under hot lava.
On Thursday evening last brief reports of
volcanic eruption on the island of Mar
Unique, French possession, in the West
India group were received. The best and
most concise account we have seen of the
horrible affair appeared in the New York
Herald last Sunday, and comprises facts
gathered from the few survivors,
On May last, Mont Pelee, which towers
over st. Pierre, began to throw out dense
clouds of smoke. At midnight the same
day flames, accompanied with rumbling
noises, lighted the sky causing widespread
terror.
Hot ashes covered the whole city quarter
of ST. Pierre an inch thick on May 4, and
while falling made Mont Pelee invisible.
At noon, May 5, stream of burning vol
canic matter flowed down the mountain
side and reached the sea, five miles away,
in three minutes. In its rush the fiery
flood swept from its path plantations,
buildings, factories, cattle and human be-
ings over breadth of about half a mile.
At the rear of the mouth Of the Riviere
Blanche stood the large Guerin sugar
factory, one of the finest in the island. It
is now completely entombed in the erupted
One hundred and fifty persons, it is esti-
mated, persisted there, including the own
er's son.
SEA REcEDED THREE HUNDRED FEET.
As the lava rushed into the sea the water
receded three hundred feet all along the
coast Returning with greater strength, a
big wave covered the whole sea front of St
Pierre, but doing little damage ashore or
afioat.
Terrible detonations, heard hundreds of
miles northward, followed at short intervals
and continued at night The electric lights
failed, but the town was lighted up by
flashes of flame from the mountain. Terror
stricken inhabitants rushed for the hills
screaming and wailing.
The Plissono family escaped to st. Lucia
in small steamer Thirty-fve persons,
mostly women and children, arrived there
in the forenoon of May and furnished the
above details The men remained at Mar
Unique.
On the afternoon of the same day tele-
graphic communication was interrupted
with both the islands of Martinique and
and St. Vincent, During the afternoon Of
May 8, the British steamer Roddam. which
had left st. Lucia late on the night of May
7 for Martinique, came slowly into the Cas-
tries Harbor, unrecognizable, gray with
ashes, her rigging dismantled and sails and
awnings hanging about torn and charred.
The captain reported that, having just
cast anchor off St. Pierre at eight O'Clock
in the morning, in fine weather succeeding
an awful thunder storm during the night,
he was talking to the ships agent, Joseph
Pissono, who was in boat alongside, when
he saw a tremendous cloud of smoke and
flowing cinders rushing with terrific rapid
ity over the town. completely enveloping
the former in sheet of fame. The agent
had Just time to climb on board when his
boat disappeared.
Several of the crew of the Roddam were
quickly scorched to death. By great effort
having steam up, the cable was slipped and
the steamer backed away from the shore,
and nine hours later managed to reach
Castries. Ten Of the Roddam's men were
living dead among the cinders, which
covered the ships deck to depth of six
inches. Two more of the crew have since
died.
CAPTAIN OF THE RODDAM HIGHLY PRAISED
Survivors of the Roddam's crew were
loud in their praises of the conduct of their
captain in steering his vessel out of danger,
while his hands were badly burned by the
rain of fire, which kept falling on the ship
for miles after she got under way. Although
badly burned the captain is alive, as is also
the ships agent, though he is also in a
serious condition.
Just as the Quebec Steamship Company IS
Roraima was sinking in the port of ST
Pierre, Captain Muggah of the latter,
waved his hand in farewell to the Roddam.
The volcano of the island of st. Vincent
has burst out in sympathetic eruption. A
steamer which returned from there last
night reports that the northern third of the
island was in flames and cut off from
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