The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-07-13
THRILLING BATTLE WITH BREAKERS AF-
TER PACIFIC STEAMER FOUEDERED
SEVERAL LIVES WERE LOST
Passengers Declare More Than
Four Were Drowned Relief
Train Brings 1872 Survivors. -
Wreck of Santa Rosa.

Wreck of Santa Rosa.
Santa Barbara, Cal, July Sin
spite of assertions from company Of
ficials and ship officers to the con-
trary the passengers of the wreck
ed steamer Santa Rosa, who ar
rived here to-day, after a thrill
ing battle with the breakers that
smashed the stranded ship, declare
that more than four persons lost
their lives.
One hundred and ninety-two pas
sengers are all that have been ac-
counted for so far, say the surviv
ors. There were 200 passengers
on the steamer and many of the
rescued declare to-day that at least
some Of the missing ones went down
to death when surf battered life
RATS went to pieces.
The relief train bearing the res
cued passengers of the wrecked
steamship Santa Rosa, arrived in
Santa Rosa, arrived in Santa Bar
bara to-day and discharged a pitt
full fright of hysteric women and
half. clad, shivering men Suffering
and prlVation were written plainly
on the faces OF all and it will be
weeks and in some cases months
before some of the victims recover.
All had been drenched to the skin
in coming ashore in the breecheS
buoy in the high surf and none had
anything to eat since the noon meal
yesterday on board the ship eX-
Cept a hasty lunch and a cup of
coffee provided by the sympathetic
farmers who throngei to the beach
from their nearby homes when the
vessel began to break up.
Many were too weak to leave the
| q. re ncciS CT faI md ha1 n
TO be carried from the train on
stretchers. Hardly one of the pas
sengers was fully clothed. The
greater part of them were wrapped
III blankets.
The rescued passengers were for
the most part too wrought up to
talk connectedly of their nerve
racking experience. A few OF the
cooler spirits, however, were able
TO give a brief word picture of the
wreck, the long suspense on the
crumbling ship as it crushed to
pieces beneath them on the rocks
and the terrifying passage through
the boiling surf to safety on the
! bench
No one will be able to tell ac-
curately for some time how many
lives were lost, was the opinion eX-
pressed this morning by three sur
vivors who insist they saw one wo-
man swept from a life boat and
| drowned.
They say that many more might
have perished in the numerous up
sets that marked the Journeys of
the life RATS to the shore.
z. X. Ross with his wife and son,
of San Francisco, were among the
rescued who reached here. That
Mrs. Ross reacitti home alive is due
to the heroism of some unknown
passenger who grasped her as she
was sinking for the third time after
she had been swept from an over
turned life raft and swan with her
child through the breakers in safety.
Il sank three times" said Mrs.
Ross. 1T was the life preserver
which brought me to the surface
each time, but | was unable to bat
tie with the immense breakers that
swept over my head. Once l came
to the top and saw my little boy
just as he was going down. i grab
ber him by the hair and just then
a big, strong man caught me and
helped me get ashore with my
child"
Mr.. Ross says that the passengers
from the first asked to be put
ashore.
They even called to a passenger
train passing along the cliff he said.
The train stopped, he said, but the
captain would not allow the passen-
gers TO go ashore.
1T was quite a mill pond then"
Mr.. Ross went on, and it would
have been an easy task for the crew
to put US ashore. But Capt, Faris
said he had orders by wireless
from his company to keep the peo-
pie aboard
The life saving crew of sta
tion near the point appeared on
the scene early in the day and Of
fered assistance but after keeping
them by two hours the captain told
them they would not be needed
| When actual debarkation from the
ship did commence, however, they
returned and did heroic work"
There were probably eight lost in
all and il will be some time before
the exact number is known" said
Q. G. Schooner, of San Luis Obs
po. 1.-TWO boats capsized, one from
the Santa Rosa, in command of sec
ond mate Heuson and another from
the schooner Helen p Dew, which
stood by US all day waiting for
chance to help us get a line
ashore"
Among those too seriously hurt to
leave the train was Miss Jennie
Weaver, of San Francisco. With
another woman and four children
she was sent ashore in a net at
tached to the surf line. Waves
washed over them continually on
their passage to the beach and all
were completely exhausted when
they reached the shore and had to
be cut from the net.