Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-27
REFUSED TO LEAVE SHIP
Woman Preferred to End Life as a
Brave Sailor

ny Associated Press
SEATTLE, Jan. 26.--"No, I won't GO
A true sailor never deserts his ship
I'm going to stay by the Valencia. But
God bless and gOdspecd YOU"
These were the words spoken to
Walter Raymond of the officers mess
by n Bellingham woman, whose name
nc did not learn, as he hurried by her
"Wednesday afternoon They we're lust
launching the last life raft from the
big ship and Raymond. as he started
| for It, stopped long enough to urge her
to go too.
AS he continued along forward he
met Mrs Mary Musgrovc, the steward
ess, who, as he said, was the greatest
hero on board" As Raymond paused
! a moment before taking his plunge into
the water she spoke to him and said:
| Are you going, Walter?'
! He nodded his head and then the wo-
man, sprang bravely at MIN, began to
! sing Near My God to Thee" as the
man, steadying himself as best he
could on the quavering ship, leaped
| upon the rail and jumped out into the
sea toward the tossing craft
AS l went down, down, down." said
Raymond to d reporter today, "the
words of that song kept ringing in my
ears. / had never sung or spoken to
God in my life. 1T Is strange what
thoughts u man will have at such a
time, but I couldn't help saying to
myself I aim nearer to Him now than
1 ever was before-God pity me-
1T seemed to me that l would never
again reach the top Of the water.
had just sense enough left not to
! breathe and all the time my lungs kent
paining until I thought they would
surely break. All of sudden l popped
MP into the ar, and oh, what a relief
it was.
Just for a moment / f1oated, con-
tented to inhale all the oxygen ] could
In some way ] did not seem to realize
my position When I did. l looked fol-
the raft, and it was fully fifty feet
from me. gave up then for the first
time since the Valencia struck. | was
numb through and through, and I
never could have swan that distance
never.
But Mary Musgrove's-Godr rest her
song and prayers must have gone with
me. 1 was lifted by gigantic wave
and fairly hurled through the air.
landed on top of the boys on the raft
and they grabbed me. knew no mort
until l found myself being hauled
aboard the Topeka.
But don't think for a minute we left
those women of our own free will
There were only six left when l quit
the ship, and Captain Johnson begged
them all TO go. I'll admit some of the
men may be wouldn't have been &c
considerate, but what could they dc
when officers with drawn revolvers in
sisted that the women be given the first
chance?
"They refused absolutely They had
seen scores of women swept to their
death In boats. They couldn't realize
that the vessels we could see lying
in the offing could not reach us. They
kept saying help would surely come
so they chung to the rigging and went
down. The Valencia could not have
lasted half hour after we left her
Now, don't want to blame anyone
I know every person who came to our
assistance did everything they could
but 1 will go to my grave convinced
that if the effort had been made. a
line could have been shot aboard us
OF course the captains Of the rescuine
ships did not know. but they could with
perfect safety have come within 200 feet
Of us. They had deep water and plenty
of it. up to that distance. All we wanted