Omaha daily bee., 1907-02-16

unusual appearance. but all was as smil-
ing and serene as before. Orders were
given TO prepare for the worst. Additional
anchors were cast. matches were battened
down. guns secured. life lines rove fore
and aft, and for a few minutes all was
the orderly confusion Of disciplined man
of-war preparing for action. Many hands
make short work, and In few minutes
we could again gaze shoreward, where the
uninjured were thronging the shore and
crowding the piers, crying TO the shipping
10 transport them 20 the apparent safety
Of the ships
or course. this was more than we could
witness unmoved, and orders were given
to prepare a landing party Of forty men
The gig. with a crew Of thirteen men
showed of at once. II had reached the
shore safely and had landed its crew
leaving only the customary boat keeper In
charge, when our attention was distracted
bv a hoarse. omlnous murmur arising from
we knew not where Looking shoreward
presently to our horror we saw vacancy
where but a moment before the pier had
been n1assed with humanity; all swallowed
TN by an incoming wave In the batting OF
an eyelash Amid the floating wreckage
we saw the gig borne by an irreslsuple
tide toward the battlemented MOTTO the
seaman calamity struggling TO stem the
current. Finding his efforts vain and GER
tain death awaiting him, he laid IN MS use
less oars and waved farewell to his snip
mates as the boat disappeared forever IN
the froth and comb Of the wave. Thus the
wateree lost only one Of its crew OF 10
but our troubles were only beginning.
Next morning broke on a scene of deso1
mir
valparaiso and other Chilean cities during
the recent catastrophe. we found our
selves In a SMALL cove or indentation on
the coast line, having been swept five
miles up the coast and nearly two miles
inland. The wave had carried us over
the sand dunes bordering the ocean, across
a valley and over the railroad leaving US
at the foot of the sea coast range OF the
Andes. On the perpendicular front OF the
mountain our navigator discovered the
marks of the tidal wave, and by measure
ment found It to have been forty-seven
feet high. not including the comb.
stranded High on Land.
There we Law on as even a keel II
still afioat, with our bow toward the sea,
our flag still flying and our starboard
anchor and a hundred of fathoms OF chain
led out as carefully as we could have
placed It there. Was IT possible this heavy
anchor and chain should have drifted with
us throughout all the mazes of our ex-
traordinary voyage? And why was not
the chain parted at least by the last shock,
as were the other four? Vain queries, i'm
possible Of solution.
We found near by the wreck of large
English bark, the Chanacilla, with one Of
its chains wound around it as many times
as it would go, thus showing 1t had been
rolled over and over. Fifty rods nearer
the sea lay the America on its bilges, and
the sand was strewn with the most
HETEROGENEOUS mass of plumber that ever
gladdened the eyes of a wrecker. Grand
pianos, bales of silk, casks of brandy,
cases of wine, furniture, clothing, hard
ware and solid silver plate were strewn
for half a mile OF more. A rough esti-
mate placed this emptying Of the custom
house and residences of the destroyed city
at $l,5O0,cOO.
Our first work was to post a Gordon
of sentries. while a strong working party
! stove in the brandy casks and shattered
the wine casks, as we did not purpose
having drunkenness added to the other
horrors surrounding us.
For again. presently, came the same
| hoarSe, DeloW1nB roar. once more tne
shaking palsied earth waved to and fro.
This time the sea receded until the ship
| ping was left stranded, while as far to
seward as eye could reach we saw the
rock ribbed bottom of the ocean, never
before exposed to human gaze. with strug-
! Cling fish and monsters of the deep left
1 high and dry. While the round bottomed
ships keeled over on their beam ends, the
wateree rested easily on its fiatter base
and when the returning sea, not like a
wave but like an abnormal tide. came
sweeping back rolling the other vessels
over and over, leaving some bottom up and
others masses Of wreckage, our vessel rose
easily over the billowing waters unframed.
| At that moment the sea began defying
the laws of nature. Currents ran in con-
trary directions, and we were borne here
| and there at express speed. At irregular
intervals the seismic shocks required, but
none was so violent or protracted as the
| first. The Peruvian man-of-war America,
said to be the fastest ship afoat at that
time, had hastily got UP steam and at
tempted to get to sea- 1t was we'll out
when the receding water left It partly
afoat and broke it's back With funnel,
still vomiting smoke and apparently under
full command, it was backed down by thu
current toward the wrecked Fredonia, they
rapidly setting in toward the Moro. The
next moment the Fredonia capsiZed. Not
one of its crew was saved.
Facing the MORO and a short distance
away a rocky islet rose few feet above