New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-18
POCKET LIGHTS
SAVE II AT SEA
Tiny Flashes Bring
Rescue to Men on
Raft; 41 Perish

Raft; 41 Perish
Sailors of the Spanish liner Buenos
Aires, which arrived here yesterday
from Cadiz, tell how two electric
pocket flashlights saved eleven of the
crew of the Pho IX.
They tell the tale with much gesticu-
lation and many crossings of them
selves, for they watched the Pho TX
roll in her last fight with a mighty sea
until black night shut off their view.
They saw the two tiny flashes Of light
held aloft on black sea by men who
clung to wreckage, come like frefies
across the waves, and they heard the
death cry Of the doomed freighter be-
fore the last wave rolled her under.
Water above our decks" came the
whisper Of the wireless. I'VE are
sinking. Goodby."
When the stormy morning broke, the
sailormen OF the Buenos Aires looked
out across the tossing ranges of waves
and knew that tho wireless man had
told the truth. Somewhere FAR be-
meath where the few bits Of hotssm
were whirled about was the Pio IN
her captain and forty OF her crew.
The men who worked the Buenos
Aires from Cadiz TO New York believe
.hat It Was not the pocket flashlights
hut a miracle that saved dthe eleven
members of the freighter's crew. No
man could have lived by mortal aid
alone. they say, in the waves that
snatched away and crushed the boats
which the Pho TX had tried to lower.
French Cruiser Goes to Rescue
Had they not tired all day TO save
the men of the drowning ship, and
failed? Had not the great gray
French battle-cruiser which had wal
lowed down out of the north, TO the
Pho ks rs o S" call also tried, with
no better result? NO boat. much less
a man, could have lived Ave minutes
in that sea.
Yet eleven men drifted across the
turmoil of wind and foam, with tiny
electric lights flashing. and under the
lee of their own ship the sailors were
able to launch boat and pick them up.
This they attribute TO the Intervention
of saints unknown to the man who has
no Spanish. Antonio Oliver, an en-
gneer's apprentice on the Pho, smiles
shyly and confirms their statement.
He and Domingo ErenO had been
swept overheard, and out of the dark
sea the saints had sent them hit Of
wreckage on which they crawled. An
tonic had then held up his fsshlght.
He was still holding it above his head
when they took him aboard the Buenos
Aires, insensible and beaten almost TO
death by the seas.
The Buenos Aires vas seven hum
dred miles off the coast of Spain, and
making heavy weather through a tre-
mendous blow, when on the morning
of December her wireless caught the
whimper of an IS q s." Bit by bit
through the storm the message came
to her.
Battered by Hurricane
Tho Pho TX. two hundred miles 20
the south, was sinking. Outward
bound from New Orleans, and heavily
laden with cotton, a hurricane had
caught her. broken her engines, opened
her seams and was rolling her to
pieces.
There was only one thing to do. The
liner turned and went staggering over
the tremendous seas toward the
stricken ship. Ranging still further to
the north. a French battle-cruiser had
also caught the appeal and had aban-
doned war TO go to her aid.
Toward the middle OF the next after
noon the Buenos Aires caught sight OF
the Pio, a black, helpless hulk, ringed
in white by the lesping sea. The wind
was still terrific. The seas we're too
high for the vessels 10 risk close ap-
proach. so the liner circled the sinking
ship. Twice she ran in as near as she
dared and fired her Lyle gun. Each
time the line fell short
A third time, the gun was fired. and
the line dropped across the Pio's for
ward deck and snapped in half.
There was nothing more 10 do but
wait for the end. The liner tried TO
launch her boats and failed, for her
rail rolled under with each wave. Night
drew near as the great French fighter
came down from the north and also
hung about the sinking vessel, unable
TO do anything.
Boats Smashed by Seas
In the gray twilight they watched the
freighter try to launch her own boats.
Several were swallowed as soon as they
touched the sea. Others were cracked
like eggs as they hung in the dsvits.
And then night came on, and the liner
watched the lights die out one by one
on the deck Of the Pho.
II was toward midnight that she was
able to launch boat and save the men
whose presence the tiny dots OF the
flashlights proclaimed. Oliver and his
mate we're saved first. The other nine
clung 20 "A life raft, with their hght
fastened 10 a spar
The Pio's wireless had been sputter-
ing more weakly each hour. II was at
/ O'clock in the morning that 1t spoke
the vessels word OF farewell. A lev
minutes later the man who had sent II
died with Captain Orrinaga and forty
Of the crew The bsttle-eruiser sig,
nailed In the morning that she hsu