The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-25

drink. hourly expecting TO be dashed
TO destruction on a rocky shore. Purse
Lane of the chartered American Fl a
waiian steamer Pleiades, which arrived
here yesterday afternoon. is one of tn,
few survivors of the wreck of the pas
senger liner Valencia, which crashed
on the Vancouver shore of Puge
Sound about two years age. This i,
Purser Lanes first trip to the Islands
Yesterday afternoon, shortly after tn,
steamer came into port, he told The
story of his experiences on the day OF
the terrible tragedy at sea in which
the lives of over $50 people-passen
gers, officers and crew of the ship
were lost.
1--WE were going along at slow speed
in the mouth of the Sound, shortly be
fore the accident occurred he said
50 The weather was so thick that it was
impossible to see from one side of the
ship to the other, and there was some
remonstrance among the officers that
the captain kept going forward during
such heavy fog. This place is one
of the worst, in such weather, ON the
whole Pacific Coast, and masters OF
vessels are usually very careful when
navigating there during fogs.
LAS a matter of fact, the chief en-
gineer spoke to the captain on the use
iessness of endangering the lives of the
passengers by going ahead, no matter
dreaming that he was so near to the
shore, thought il would be all right
TO steam on for little distance fur
ther. It was net more than few
minutes later when she struck. She
grounded up easily at first, about amid
ships. but a huge wave lifted the yes
sci and she centered on the rock.
s0f course, l can't go into the de-
tails OF what happened at that mo-
ment. It was more like dream than
anything else. Everything happened
in quicker time than it takes to tell
the story, and the lives of scores of
people were sunffed out before they
realized TO its fullest extent what had
happened The Valencia almost imme-
diately began to break up, and the
crunch and tear of heavy timbers that
had held the great vessel together min
gled with the roar of the surf and
the flashing of the furious waves.
"To add to the unspeakable misery
of the moment, the thick fog shut out
almost all view. People rushed wildly
hither and thither, some of them
calmly waiting for the end. The YES
sci broke entirely in two parts, crack
ing about amidships. | was on the
after end, along with number of
Others.
"When the fog lifted, we saw that
the forward end of the Valencia had
almost entirely disappeared. Where all
those were whom we had seen but
short space previous we knew not, but
it was not hard for US to guess And
il looked as if our lot was to be the
same. We had no food, and We had no
water. We were freezing cold the
most Of the time, the singing wind
that blew across the Sound tipping
our clothes and chilling us to
the bone.
"Three DAYS and three nights we
huddled together on the stern OF the
shin expecting any moment to have
her 90 TO pieces And there, seeming
70 tannt US with it's nearness, was dry
land within few hundred yards But
that was Of no use to us, as 1t was I'M
possible TO reach the shore through the
thick network of rocks on which the
tremendous waves hurled themselves
One man-an elderly gentleman who
was yerv wealthy-offered fabulous
sums Of money to anyone who would
get him safely TO shore. But nothing
could be done.
Zone life-raft, with an overlooking
load Of human freight, was put over
the side Of the boat. Several OF those
who attempted to crowd on this were
washed overheard and lost. On the
Of the third day after fhe
crashing Of the ship on the rocks, we
who were left on the after end knew
that this part of the Valencia could
not last much longer. Lit was ereakng
and trembling, and at every breaking
wave Il seemed as if something must
Give way. There was only one more
left. The lifeboats, rowboats,
everything had been cleaned from the
deck. this one raft only remaining.
$50 it was lowered over the side
If the vessel. and down went the last
of rs from the good old Valencia.
When it came my turn to get on the
raft I was at first dubious, for there
were then seventeen persons on the
frail protection. But it was the only
hong and l went down over the SIDE
into the water, ciinging on the cage
Of the raft. Then we had an aw1ni
time in getting away from the side
~ the Valencia. 1t took us an hour
and a half TO get safe distance from
the beat. the waves hurting US PACK
ward almost faster than we could pad
do out. During that afternoon the
4eamer CITY of Topeka sighted US and
NJ were taken aboard. The reseuers
We're in the nick of time. too. for we
were ready 10 give up. We were weak
from lack Of food and water. ana the
terrible priyatiors of the days on the
wrecked vessel, and we were about
rcadv 10 lie down and die. The cap
tain of the ship and the most OF the
crew as veil as over hundred Oh tue
ba2 rnrp But We were