The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1915-06-18
THE ONE SURVIVOR
Great Disasters In Which a Soil
tary Life Was Spared.
TALES OF NARROW ESCAPES.

curIous Case Of . 81 Pierre Prisoner
During the Mont PsIss Eruption.
The British Retreat From Cabui-A
Tragedy Of the Terrible ManseIss-
There are many curious cases on rec
ord where death In ono Of it, many
dread forms Of disaster grips an entire
party In its clammy embrace and then,
while fts ICY fingers close upon tho
rest, lets one solitary member Of the
band slip away TO be the sole survivor
Of tho tragic calamity.
One hundred and ffty-eight dead, one
saved That was In brief the tale OF
the wreck Of the mail steamer General
Chanxy, which struck In the terrible
storm Of Feb. 10, 1910. on the rocks OF
northwest Minorca.
MARCEL Bader. the solitary survivor
from the wreck o( the Chanzy, owed
his preservation entirely to the fact
that he was q strong and fearless
swimmer.
4 few years ago the timber vessel
Anna Rebekka, one day out OF Memel,
was caught In q squall and capsized
Most Of her crew were swept away
and drowned, but three-the skipper,
sailor and the ships boy-clambered on
to the keel, where they drifted without
food or drink On the third day the
sailor was washed Of. but the skipper
saved him. Then the boy went mad
and died On tho NTH day the sailor
was washed of again. and this time
the captain had no strength to help
him. On the seventh day the capsized
vessel drifted in sight Of land A life
boat put out and found the captain
still alive
The Manacles have seen many sights
Of horror, but none to excel that Janu-
ary night many years ago when two
British troopships-the Dispatch and
tho Primrose-both went ashore on
these terrible rocks within few hours
Of one another. Seven soldiers strug-
gled ashore from the Dispatch through
the crashing breakers and reused the
village Of St. Neverne. When the fish
ermen gained the beach the Dispatch
had vanished. But there was the sec
ond ship-the Primrose-on tho rocks.
They pushed out, but tho doomed YES
Sci was shattered to fragments before
they could reach her, and all that tho
boat brought back was fifteen-year-
old ships boy, whom they picked up
swimming desperately IN tho trUgh or
the icy wavsA
Perhaps the most terrible disnRx IN
modern British history was the SStseat
from CAbul In the winter Of 1874 An
army Of $3.50 soldiers, with owes 1900
ramp followers, started southwas0 from
the Afghan capital under pro0skse OF
safe conduct. On the following Jan
18 a solitary figure, filthy, unshaven,
unkempt, his mind almost destroyed
with the horrors through which he had
passed, rode out OF the mouth Of the
Khyber pass. He was Dr. Brydene,
the only survivor from all that mighty
host. The bodies Of the rest, slain by
the treacherous Ghilzals, lay scattered
for miles along the snowclad floor OF
the defile.
It was stupidity, not treachery, which
caused the disaster to battalion or
Japanese regiment In January, l0Ol.
On the 23d Of that month detach-
ment Of 21O men and officers, under
command Of a major, left the town OF
Awombri for q long route march 1t
came on to snow very heavily. and
soon a regular blizzard was raging,
with the temperature many degrees be-
low freezing point
They lost their way and wandered
on, burning their rife stocks for fuel
BY the 25th only seventy-one were left
alive On the afternoon OF the 9th
q corporal alone was picked up by
relief party, alive but badly frozen.
At the end Of April, 1902, Mount
Pelee, the blunt headed volcano behind
st. Pierre, began to show signs OF ac-
tiyity. These increased until on May
8 little before In the morning
there was a terrific roar, and a huge
column of whitehot sand. burning Gin
ders and poisonous gases came rolling
down the mountain side.
Whatever that cloud consisted OF, II
destroyed St Pierre completely. The
very stones were cracked with the aw-
ful heat, and within few seconds 4o,-
600 human beings psrished. Yet days
afterward. when the ruins We're cool
enough to explore. a man was found
alive. He was a negro prisoner who
had been confined In an underground
cell and who. though scorched. Scared
and almost suffocated, still survived
the only Kving thing In ffty square
| miles.-IOndon Answers