Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1902-06-04
MARTINIQUE DISASTER
Weird Experiences of the
Steamship Horace.
CLOUDS OF SAND MET AT SEA.

and Lights Had to BE Ldt-StranEe
Phenomena at yight-st. Lucia Is
1anders Regard ST. Pierre Horror
as "A Judgment of God.
Weird and interesting were the ex-
periences of the crew of the British
steamship Horace of the Lamport &
Holt line, which reached New York
from St Lucia the other morning, says
the New York Herald. The Horace is
commanded by Captain Byrnes.
She touched at Barbados and had a
decidedly interesting time in the vicin-
ity of Martinique on Friday. May 8.
when, despite the fact that she was
125 miles from Mont Pelee, the ships
decks were covered with lava dust to
the depth of several inches. 1t was
only through what seemed providential
accident that the steamers engines
were saved from disastrous injury as a
result of the storm of lava dust which
information that the visitation of st.
Pierre is looked upon by the supersti-
tious islanders as judgment of God.
"While in st. Lucia" said an officer
of the vessel, II heard several of the
residents telling one another that they
believed the destruction of st. Pierre
was a terrible punishment sent by the
Almighty on account of the wickedness
of the city. / don't know about the
divine retribution, but do know that
st. Pierre was pretty bad place.
1--WE had cleared from Barbados"
said Second Engineer Anderson, "and
were making our way to st. Lucia,
where we were to complete edr cargo,
take on a little more coal and then
clear for New York.
ION the afternoon of May (Thurs-
day. we noticed peculiar haze in the
direction of Martinique. The az SEEM
ed heavy and oppressive. The weather
conditions were not at all unlike those
which precede the great West Indian
hurricanes; but, knowing 1t was not
the season Of the year for them, we all
remarked In the engine room that there
must be heavy storm approaching.
$50 unusually peculiar were the
weather conditions that we talked of
nothing else during the evening. That
night in the direction of Martinique
there was very black sky, an unusual
thing at this season of the year, and
storm was apparently brewing in di-
rection from which storms do not come
at this season. As the night wore on
those on watch noticed what appeared
to be great flashes of lightning In the
direction of Martinique. 1t seemed as
though the ordinary conditions were
reversed, and even the forecastle
prophets were unable to offer explana-
lions.
occasionally over the pounding of
the engines and the rush of water we
thought we could hear long, deep roars
not unlike the ending of a deep peal of
thunder. Several times we heard the
rumble or roar, but at the time we
were not certain as to exactly what it
was or even whether we really heard
1t.
"There would suddenly come great
flashes of light from the dark bank
toward Martinique. Some of them
seemed to spread over a great area
while others seemed to spout skyward,
funnel shaped. All night this contin-
ued, and it was not until day came
that the flashes disappeared. The dark
bank that covered the horizon toward
Martinique. however, did not fade
away with the breaking of day, and
at in the morning of the 9th friday
the whole section of the sky in that di-
rection seemed dark and troubled.
about 8 o'clock Friday morning I
was sitting on one of the matches aft
with some of the other engineers and
officers of the ship. discussing the Pc
culiar weather phenomena. noticed
sort of grit that got into my mouth
from the end of the cigar was smok-
ing.
"Then / noticed that grit was getting
on my clothes, and finally some one
suggested that we go forward of the
tunnels, so we would not get the dirt
on US. As we went forward we met
one or two of the sailors from the
loicCdSlc VIM Wuulco W huoW dUOus
the dust that was falling on the ship.
Then we found that the grayish look
ing ash was sitting all over the ship,
both foreward and aft.
Every moment the ashes rained
down all over the ship and at the same
time grew thicker A few moments
later the lookout called down that we
were running into fog bank dead
ahead. Fog banks in that section are
unheard of at o'clock in the morning
at this season, and we were more than
a hundred miles from land. and what
could fog and sand be doing there?
Before we knew 1t. we were In the
fog, which proved to be a big dense
bank of the same sand. and it rained
down on us from every side yenti-
lators were quickly brought to their
places, and later even the matches were
battened down. At first we thought
that the sand must have been blown
from shore. Then we decided that IL
the captains figures were right we
wouldn't be near enough to shore to
have sand blow on us, and as we had
just cleared Barbados we knew that
the captains figures had to be right
Just as the storm of sand was at its
height Fourth Engineer Wild was near
ly suffocated by 1t, but was easily re-
vived. Just about this time it became
30 dark we found it necessary to start
IL k~s Is<~lA - -