Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-09-18
Reports of Damage Brought
Into Port by Sailors.
MOUNTAINOUS SEAS
LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE WAS
A HoRRID NIGHTMARE.
Old Mariners Say the Storm Was the
Worst One That Ever Struck
the Atlantic Coast.


Special Dispatch to The Evening Star.
NORFOLK, Va, September 18.-Further
reports of the great damage done in Tues
day nights awful gale along the Atlantic
coast were brought here today by incoming
tramp merchant steamers and sailing craft
caught out in the gale and damaged more
or less thereby.
+ Capt Bussalls of the Atlantic Fishing
Company at Cape Charles Va, who
| brought safely to port the fishing steamer
Atlantic. reports today that there can now
be no doubt of the loss of the Atlantic s
sister steamer Beatrice. which went down
with crew of thirty souls, all of whom,
Brussels says, must have surely persisted.
The last seen of the Beatrice was at q
o'clock Tuesday evening, when the steamer
Atlantic left her off the Maryland coast
making for the Virginia capes. At IL
o'clock Tuesday night the hurricane struck
the Atlantic and Capt. Bussells and crew
thought they would never be able to make
port The commander ventures the asSer-
ton, without fear of contradiction, that
the mountainous seas were forty feet
high and the storm was the worst ever ex-
perienced along the Atlantic coast in the
memory of living man.
Battle With the Elements.
For six hours the little steamer Atlantic
battled with the roaring elements in wind
of eighty miles an hour. During portion
of the blow Capt. Bussells of the Atlantic
saw the masts and smokestack of the Old
Dominion steamer Princess Anne, but so
high was the sea and choppy were the
waves that at no time was the boat itself
visible. Notwithstanding the fact that the
Atlantics lfeboats were held on davits
nine feet from the steamers deck, the sea
wrecked these to such an extent that the
lfeboats had to be cut away and abandon
cd. The boats doors and windows were all
smashed and several pumps had to be kept
going continually to prevent her from ILL
ing and swampng.
With all of the other troubles rope lines
became caught in the Atlantic's propeller
and this stopped the boat for some time,
Capt. Bussells fearing that to continue his
engines might result in the breaking of the
propeller. Bussells states that the Atlantic
at no time returned to look for the steamer
Beatrice, as this would have. In all prob
ability, proved fatal to the Atlantics crew.
The -Atlantic's commander says he doubts
very much the report Of the loss of the
fishing steamer Swan, which carried crew
of twenty-five or more. Bussells does not
believe the Swan was lost and thinks that
she has by this time probably put in at the
Delaware capes.
Hardest Storm Chronicled.
Captains of schooners and other sailing
craft caught in the terrible gale tell of some
thrilling experiences during the blow, and
all are a unit as to the storm having been
the worst ever experienced by them during
their long career seafaring men. Many
schooners were stripped of their sails, and
to make port had to improvise jury sails
out of the slreds of canvas left them.
OF the numerous sailing vessels caught in
the storm and not yet heard from several,
1t is believed, are now at the bottom of
the deep with all hands drowned Marine
men in some quarters believe that when all
is known the loss Of life at sea as the re
suit of the late storm will in all proba bility
reach 125. Never before were such horrors
of the sea reported at this port since the
recent gale. Sea captains who have wealth
cred many a gale say that Il they knew
they had to encounter such ar other storm
as the one of Tuesday night they think
they would seek some otner occupation as
their life's work.