The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-30
BETWEEN ENEMY
AND DEEP SEA
A True American Story of Hallow-
cen Shipwreck in the Philippines.

A True American Story of a Hallow-
cen Shipwreck in the Philippines.
On the Halloween of 1900 a big
United States army transport came to
anchor off the town of Carayman, in
the Island of Samar, behind whose
Notifications there lay an angry
ship rolled heavily when she rode to
her anchor, for a mighty wind had
begun to blow straight in from the
sea, and with each moment it grew
stronger.
On shore, lying sheltered from the
fire of the hostiles in the town, lay a
small body of men belonging to the
Twenty-ninth United States Volunteer
Infantry. They were watching the
transport, when suddenly they saw
three lighters drop away from it's side
and head toward land.
They had not proceeded far before
the wind increased enormously in
strength and tore over the ocean with
such fury that it piled the water in
what looked like a solid green wall.
At the same moment the soldiers heard
a crashing sound, and looked around
to see the palms falling fiat every
where in the upland.
The three lighters, each of which
had many people on it, made bad
weather of it and were buried from
diers on shore could wipe the spume
and sand out of their eyes.
When the plight of the three boats
was seen, Lieut.. E. o. Perkins
was sent along the beach with a body
of men to try some means of rescue.
While he was on the way two of the
lighters were fortunate enough to
drive into "a favorable current, and the
sailors on board managed to work
last beached them and landed the pas
sengers. But the third lighter was
driven off into the worst part of the
storm-swept water. where saw-toothed
and needle-pointed coral reefs made a
menacing barrier that was about as
inviting as place slowed full Of
broken bottles would be to fall into.
By this time the storm had become
one of the worst ever seen on that
coast. 1t was clear that the lighter
would swamp within "a short time, for
the sea that had risen was so terrible
that it hurled boats around as if they
were matches.
At this point a private soldier, John
w. Wilson, volunteered to work his
way through the breakers with a rope
Lieut.. Perkins refused permission, be-
cause he and every other man except
Wilson declared that it was a feat be-
yond human power.
However, a few moments later Will
son again volunteered, and this time,
seeing that the people in the lighter
were doomed unless help was sent to
them by some desperate attempt, the
lieutenant consented.
Wilson plunged into the surf, which
Immediately tossed him around and
turned him over and over. But he
got through it for all that. Then he
task now was exactly the same as if
a man were to attempt to pick his
way over and through a mound of
broken glass, jagged tin cans, boards
full of rusty nails and other litter,
each bit having a keen jagged end
somewhere.
Every wave that struck him seemed
to overwhelm him. And If single
wave had succeeded in throwing him
he would never have arisen again, for
his body would have been cut into
rags by the corals.
The watchers on shore thought
again and again that he had disap-
peared for good, but each time they
saw a black speck emerge again from
the foam and knew that Private Will
son was still managing to keep his
head above water.
It was scene that none of those
who witnessed will ever forget. Be
hind them the blast of the tempest,
beating huts and plantations fiat with
the ground and stamping mighty
palms into the mud. In front of them
the racing sea, rolling in thunder,
the lighter pounding her way to sure
death; and in the worst of the white
and green riot the head of Private
Wilson.
BY the time ne had worked along
some distance from shore he was full
in range of the sharpshooters in the
town of Carayunan. He was only 600
yards from the walls OF the Filipino
fort when. at last, he found a chance
to heave his line to those on the light
er. A lucky hand caught 1t and made
1t fast. That was all that any one
aboard could do. The men were so
exhausted by their battle for life
that they fell helpless in the boat
when the soldiers on land began to
pull 1t in.
Thirteen men were saved in that
Halloween wreck rescue. And last
year Private Wilson got silver medal
from the Secretary of the Treasury.