The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1916-12-18
TINY FLASHL|CHT
SAVES II WHEN
FRE|CATER SINKS
Boys Signals Bring Help to Pho
ms Grew But 20 Are
Missing.

year-old Spanish freighter Pho TX. had
sunk, with the probable loss Of 40 lives
became known yesterday when the
Spanish liner Buenos Aires arrived
here with II survivors on board.
The steamer went down two weeks
ago this side Of the Canaries That
any of her crew was saved was due
/ to the ingenuity Of an i8-year-olc
Spaniard, one of the II rescued by the
| Buenos Aires.
This youth, as modest as he proved
courageous, who did not look over 16
| years, and who was down on the ships
| manifest as assistant engineer, jumped
with 3O-foot ladder into a raging sea
in mid-ocean after all other resouce
for rescue had failed, and carried with
him a pocket electric fashlight which
he held up above the waves and flash
ed, guiding rescuers.
/ Such flashes have been used in the
engine rooms of steamships, but no
report has ever been made before Of
their being used in connection with
| life saving in a marine disaster.
The Buenos Aires, from Barcelona
| and Cadiz, was 700 miles from the
| Spanish coast at p. m. on Dec. 4,
| when her wireless operator ran up
to the bridge and told Capt. Juan
Perez Soria that vessel with the
| signal letters j D F r was sending
out o calls for help.
Imperil1ed Craft Far Away.
| The signal was that Of the Pho TX,
/ which sailed from New Orleans on
| Nov. 16 for Valencia, Spain, with
5000 bales of cotton and a load of
taves. The position given by her
was 200 miles south Of the BuenOs
| Aires and there was a hurricane rag
| ing. Heavy seas had been piled up
| by gales from the north and north
| west.
t'Have sprung leak. Northwest
gale raging. Danger Of our sinking"
came another wireless from the Pho
TX, and Capt. Soria swung the
| Buenos Aires around.and ordered his
i operator to flash back that he was
/ coming.
! Every pound of steam was forced
| in the boilers of the Spanish liner. 1t
| was a "a hour run in the teeth of a
gale to reach the sinking vessel. The
! men on the rescuing Spaniard turned
to clearing her boats for instant low
/ ering. Several Of the deck crew were
swept off their feet by waves in get
| ting the covers off the lifeboats, and
| were nearly carried overheard. Her
| LAT passengers stayed up all night in
| the excitement and most of them
| huddled about the wireless room,
eager for news that the freighter was
still af1oat.
| Fires Out; Ship Helpless.
Toward morning there came faint
message that read: - -
'Fires out. Wireless on auxiliary.
| Ship helpless in trough of sea-
It was signed by Ojinaga, captain
| of the Pho TX.
| Just before sunset the Buenos
| Aires sighted the freighter. She was
| sinking, for the gale had battered her
until her seams had opened. The
water in her listed her SO far to port
| that her rail was under water. The
| 62 officers and members of her crew
| were huddled under the lee of her
i deck houses.
| Capt. Soria headed the Buenos Aires
| up to windward, deciding it would be
suicide to attempt to lower a lifeboat
| A, Lyle gun shot a line out, but the
| rope parted with the first strain Of the
! tumbling sea. A second line and a
third one broke.
| Then those on the freighter set
about trying to launch the boats on
her starboard side, which was not
under water, but one after the other
| they were smashed to bits against
her side. Night had fallen and there
seemed nothing for the Buenos Aires
to do but stand by and wait for the
| weather to moderate.
| At o'clock that night the man in
| the crows nest of the liner reported
a queer light flashing from the sur
face Of the sea. Antonio Oliver, the
| young assistant engineer on the Pho
I TX, who would be called an appren-
3 tice on an American or British YES
/ sci, had thought of his pocket flash
light and decided to take it with him
and attempt to reach the Buenos
| Aires on a ladder.
| Another Man Joined In Attempt.
| Domingo Ereno, 45 years old,
quartermaster of the freighter, decid-
ed to take a chance with him. Each
took hold Of an end Of the ladder and
| went overheard with it,
AS soon as they had straddled the
ladder in the water, Oliver reached
up with his light and flashed it at
intervals.
| When the light was seen, Captain
Soria told, his chief officer that he
would permit men to try to reach it.
In tent minutes a boat was over the
sdie, and after a hard pull it's crew
| reached Oliver and Ereno and pulled
! tenn aboard. They had been in the
water an hour and had stayed on the
ladder only by weaving their arms
and legs around rungs. Barely con-
scious. they were taken aboard the
Buenos Aires.
At II p. m. another light flashed on
| the water. Nine men had taken to a
| life raft, and Chief Engineer Fernando
Oleage had brought along fashlighl
following Oliver example With him
| were Jose Ovino, fourth officer; Juan
Alemany, second engineer, and six sea-
men. A second boat from the Buenos
Aires picked them. up.
| Tragedy In Next Message
| Nothing more was seen Of the Pic
| TX. except one faint glimmer of light.
| But ia 1 a. m. there came a wireless
from her:
1--WE are sinking fast. Water over
the decks. Goodby."
| When dawn came there was no sign