The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-05
SAFE WITH GOLD TREASURE CEASES
 HIM AROUND SHIP
Purser of Fruit Liner, Caught in Office, Has Thrill
 ing Time.

New York, Oct. 4-Lashed a priss ~ener in the purser's office of the Unit
 ed Fruit liner Alnirante when she ar
 rived from Kingston, Jamaica, .yester- day. was an 800-pound safe. It went
 wild in tropical blast in which the 5,000-ton vessel was caught coming
 up through the Caribbean and which
 pitched her about fdr 23 hours.
 The safe broke from it's fastenings
 as the ship gave a heavy Iurch and
 started on a. rampage. It was on
 wheels, and as the ship tossed, 1t fol- lowed every roll until 1t had smashed
 all the furniture in the room. The
 passengers said it acted like Victor Hugo's cannon. The crew feared to
 open the door of the office for fear the safe would roll down the compan+ ionway into the vitals of the ship.
 Purser Had a. Marrow Esscape.
 Purser s. H. Frantz was in bia cabin adjoining the office when the safe crashed through the. door that separated him from it. He Jumped. for his berth. With the next pitch of the ship the safe hit the berth. There were iron barsNabove the berth and Frantz jumped for them. There he clung with his hands and feet un- til officers of the ship drew him out through a window and then set about to capture the safe.
 They threw blocks of wood under
  seemed only to enrage it the more, , and they tried ito poke it into sub jection with poles. At last a. sea man lassoed it Then the crew rush ed in and 1ashed it down.
 That was not the only strange tale the Alrnirante brought here with her 72 passengers and cargo of coffee and fruit. With her before she ran into the hurricane were thousands Of trOp- icaI birds that instincttveIy seek the qufescent centre of a. great storm. They almost obscured the sky, it was said. Great winged creatures with rainbow p1umage flew about above her crying in terror and attacking each other in their desperate flight
 Captain Farquhar Grant knew what their >eirc1ing meant. The wind was northeast, the barometery was falling and heavy swell rolled up that even ing. It was Sept. 24, and the ,A1rni- rante, on her way from CristobaI to Kingston, was 100 miles south of king ston and east of South Gay.
 Passengers Rolled from Berths.
 That night the swelIs increased and 8 dozen passengers rolled out of their berths, The ship entered the hurricane itself at II a. m. the following day The wind was between 30 and 100 miles an hour.
 Unable to keep the AInairantefs head into the sea or to heave to, the cap tain stopped her engines and she lay until 10 a. m. the next day, rolling at times at an Iangle of 40 degrees in the seas that looked as high as her masts. During the night the barometer dropped to 27.6o, according to Captain Grant
 In the darkness the combers1 wash- ing over her tore off two of her for ward matches and swept away tho baggage of eighty 'deckers,'' negro workers, on their way with their wivosl and children from the Panama Canal to their homes in Jamaica. The men were sent down with the crew, while: the women and children were taken, into the cabin. There the women fell on their knees in prayer, while the children cried. The fifty cabin pas sengers aboard thought they were ali doomed.
 Had to Start Pumps AgotmE.
 Tons of water poured down the open matches into the hole and the pumpo were set going. One great sea, tore away the port accommodation ladder. Another lifted it aboard and it crashed through a Iifeboat and tore away a section of the wireless house. Two 1ife- Y boats were ripped away anidship. The yangway doors, secured by two-inch bolts to taree-inch stanchions were carried away. and the bridge rails were twisted as if they had been soft mo- asses candy.
 She had two feet Of water in her hold when she reached Kingston. She re% nained there two days to patch up. The pursers office still bears evidence of the wild safe.