The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-02-23

arrived at New York few days ago
on the Bermuda liner Trinidad, with a
story to tell of hairbreadth escapes
that has few parallels.
Still suffering from terrible naphtha
burns, Captain Jensen, of the lost craft
staggered down the gangplank of the
Trinidad. Once ashore the skipper
consented to tell his story. Here it Is
in his own words:
THAT any of us are here to tell the
story Of the Marpesja is nothing more
NOR less than miracle. That any of
us are alive is remarkable enough, but
that the only ship that we sighted
since we sailed away from New York
should have arrived on the scene al
most at the moment Of the disaster is
what | call an act of God.
'The Marpesia was a three-masted
bark, and had on board 9470 barrels of
naphtha, bound from New York for
Zitto, in the Mediterranean. We sailed
from New York December 8 and eight
days later ran into the northeast hurri-
cane, the fury OF which was primarily
responsible for the loss Of our ship and
so many Of my poor men. The storm
was the worst ever encountered. The
terrific winds and giant seas played
with the Marpesia as if she were toy,
and every sail that we put up was i'm
mediately torn from the bolt ropes as
if they were so much tissue paper.
Mountainous seas were continually
bombarding us, with the result that at
the end Of the second day our lfeboats
had been smashed the compass and
binnocle washed overheard. and the
cabin stove in and full Of water.
During these turbulent days the
raphtha barrels were being tossed
about in all directions, and dozens Of
them began to leak.
'When Christmas Day dawned we
were still laborlng heavily in the seas,
but, considering the circumstances,
were doing fairly well, with only storm
sails set At about IL O'clock on this
day the explosion occurred. Nobody
alive knows why.
1T came without a moments warn
ing. ana so terrific was its force that
the forward deck and forecastle were
tossed into the air as If they were made
of pasteboard. Parts of the super
structure must have been hurled at
least a hundred feet into the air, and
with them went the bodies of the poor
fellows who were forward at the time.
Though we heard shrieks of terror, we
never saw the face Of one of those
eleven men again.
''rhen seven Of us who were aft
were thrown to the deck with great
violence, but we were back on our feet
in an instant The entire forward part
of the ship was a parfect hell Of fame,
fhe foremast had gone and the main
mast was toppling. A minute later it,
too, had gone. Helpless, doom staring
us in the face, we seven stood astern
and watched the flame eat its way in
our direction.
Then an inspiration came to me,
and yelled to Hanson, the steersman:
Hard down with your helmr Hanson
obeyed and slowly what was left of
the Marpesia wore around before the
wind. AS / expected, the flames were
blown forward, but nevertheless they
soon began to crawl back to where we
were We had about given up hope,
when in the distance. steaming in our
direction. we saw the transatlantic
liner Gallia. from Marseilles.
"The Gallia signaled to us that she
was coming to the rescue as fast as her
engines could make her The decks
We're then so hot that we had to dance
to keep our feet from being burned.
The fire was then within twenty feet
of us, and on the very rim of the flame
stood Hanson at the wheel, his face
and hands blistered and in frightful
agony Had he allowed the ship to
swerve three points the flames would
have enyeloped us. | want to say right
here that no braver deed was ever done
by sailor than that of Hanson during
those terrible minutes while we were
waiting for the Galiia.
Finally we realized that to save our
selves we would have to jump, as the
heat had scorched our clothes / knew
that another minute on the ship would
be our last on earth. Welhad two life
belts left and one of them we gave to
Evensen. the mate, whose arms were
in a pitiful shape. and who was almost
helpless. The other we gave to Lund,
the second mate. who also had bad
arm, but Lund leari'.d tnat Salberg,
the cabin boy, could not swim, and
made the lad take it.
Then we all jumped The Gallia
was still several hundred yards dis
tant. and we saw the seamen on her
lowering a lifeboat The moment the
boat struck the water the great seas
that were running smashed it ike a
cockleshell
"The captain of the Gallia did not at
tempt to launch another, but brought
his vessel close to where we were
struggling in the water, threw lines to
us, and drew US all on board except
Evensen the mate. Evensen was so
weak he could not hold the rope. For
tunately, lucky roll of the sea washed
him up to the gunwale. and a sailor
caught him by his lifebelt and dragged
him on board.
Captain Wilson went out of his
: