Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-07-24
POMONA NOW AT FRISCO
AND CAPTAIN GIVES FACTS
By Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, July 2S.-The Pa
cifc Coast Steamship company pas
senger steamer Pomona arrived in San
Francisco from Eureka at 1890 o'clock
this morning, bringing from the latter
place one of the surviving passengers
of the wrecked steamer Columbia and
the thirty-two members of the Column
bias crew, who were saved out of her
total complement of fifty-nine. The
passenger is Miss A. Leidill of this
city.
The Pacific Coast company's dock at
the foot of Broadway was crowded
with people when the high black hull
of the Pomona hove in sight around the
bend in the water front. The first COM
ment from the watchers was: She
brings no bodies" for the flag at her
stern rail was flying at the masthead.
The starboard rail of the Pomona was
black with passengers, and here and
there among them as the vessel ran
alongside the wharf colud be discerned
members of the Inflated Columbias
crew, whom the crowd on the dock
picked out by the nondescript clothing
they wore.
When the gang plank was hoisted to
the Pomonas deck, officers of the Pa
cific Coast Steamship company had diff
ficulty restraining people from clam
bering aboard. The crowd was made
to stand back and keep line open
while the Pomona's passengers came
ashore Everyone was stopped at the
foot of the gang plank and asked ex-
citedly: Were you passenger on the
Columbian" With one exception the
answer was mo-"
The exception was Miss Leldlll'
Clothed from head t. foot in dark
brown ulster and Ter features hlooen
by a brown veil tied over her hat ana
under her chin, she came falteringly
down the plank and made her way UNI
certainly through the crowd. She held
a. handkerchief to her eyes as she
walked, and when asked by newspaper
men for II recital of her experiences
she burst finto tears and turned away,
shaking Her head 81 don't want to say
anything 1 don't want to talk, she
murmu9 pa.
Captain Swanson Gives News
Captain Swanson of the Pomona came
down from the bridge to the gang plank
head after his passengers and the
Columbia's had landed. Though sixty
hours had elapsed since the midnight
horror off the Mendocino coast, and
though he had played no part in the
scenes following, his emotion was such
that tears filed his eyes again and again
as he spoke for a brief moment or two
with newspaper men.
IT don't know that 1 can add anything
to the accounts already given" said
CAPTAIN Swanson. IT asked several Off
GERS of the Columbia's crew for state
ment Just how the collision happened and
what followed after it, but they said they
were not at liberty to talk until after
they had reported to the company Off
cials here in San Francisco.
E1ralxa at o'clock
Yesterday afternoon with one passenger
and thirty-two of the survivors of the
crew of the Columbia. About an hour be-
fore we sailed thirty or more survivors
reached Eureka from Shelter Cove. 1 did
not have an opportunity to learn their
names.
"Purser Byrnes of the lost ship is re-
naming at Eureka by orders of his COM
pany He has sent many of the surviv-
ors of the Columbia north to Portland
on the steamer George w. Elder, which
rescued eighty or ninety men and women
and took them to Eureka, to which point
she towed the waterlogged San Pedro.
MANY of the survivors who remain at
Eureka are being cared for in hospitals.
They are suffering from shock and ex-
posture and from grief. No one who be-
longed to me was on board the Columbia,
but 1 had many friends and acquaint-
ances among the officers and crew."
His voice choking and his eyes dimmed
with tears, Captain Swanson turned
away.
Gives List of Survivors
Purser Brown of the Pomona furnished
a. list of the members of the Columbia's
crew brought to this city by his vessel.
He showed list of the surviving pas
sengers taken to Eureka, exclusive Of
those who reached there an hour before
the sailing of the Pomona, which had
been personally secured and certified by
Purser Byrnes. It comprised 107 names
and tailed with the list reported in these
dispatches last night. Mr.. Brown said
that he was authortatively informed at
Eureka that fifteen members of the stew
ards department, ten members of the en-
gineer's department and twelve of the
deck crew-a total of thirty-seven-were
saved, as were all of the walters except
two. The latter, he said, are still unac-
counted for.
Among the Columbia survivors brought
by the Pomona is e. Peterson of Bring
ham City, Utah. He was waiter. The
Pomona brought ten deck hands, seven
engine room men and thirteen stewards
and walters, all saved from the Columbia
Paul Primer, a quartermaster on the
Columbia, was in charge of a raft bear
ing four women and eleven men which
made shore at Shelter Cove. 1t is prob
able that these are the fifteen persons
referred to in last nights dispatches as
being then on their way to Eureka, who
are understood to have arrived at the
latter port shortly before the sailing of
the Pomona yesterday.