The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1917-02-02
FIRsr-HAND DESCRIPTION
OF GREAT SEA DISASTER

Of the battleship Milwaukee on the
California coast recently, will be oil
more than ordinary interest to the
readers of the, Journal; because it is
out of ths ordinary, in that it con-
veys the Impressions of an ordinary
citizen, not the usual newspaper
Writer'S version; and because the au-
!hor is very we'll known to the peo-
pie, especially the older residents OF
this section. 1t is letter written BY
Mrs. H. L. Walden, formerly Miss
Minnie Sturgeon, to her sister, Mrs,
A. D. Patterson of Welsh:
Eureka, Cal, Sunday, Jan. 14,1917.
Dear Sister:
Yesterday morning ] was busy
with my homework and thinking how
grand and gloriuS the day would be
when the phone rang; it was Harry
calling from the office in Samoa.
"Put on your old gray bonnet with
the blue ribbons on it, heavy shoes,
warm clothing, fix up a lunch and
come over at once for the Milwaukee
is ashore and there will be great
things doing before night, and there
will be warm times in the little mill
town on the sand Spit" he said. |
did not need second invitation but
called up a neighbor and made ar
rangements to go at once.
Now Humboldt bay is lagoon ly-
ing behind sand spit, thrown up by
the sea and extending between two
headlands about ten miles apart, eX-
cept where it is pierced by the chan
mel connecting bay and ocean. Samoa
is built on this spit, which is about
half mile wide, directly opposite
Eureka.
Some three or four weeks ago g
fleet of submarines under convoy of =
mother" ship, the monitor, Cheyenne
and maneuvering up and down the
coast between B. C. and Mexico; a
Seattle one of them the H-3 was dis
abled and dropped behind for repairs
with instructions to join the fleet Of
Eureka; she came laundering dow
the coast in a dense fog and instead
+ joining the fleet she piled up on thu
and spit on the western side of Sa
moa. There was a great hullabalo,
for the surf was rough and the res
cue of the 20 members of the crev
was made at great risk and danger. 4
| fleet of U. S. boats soon appeared OF
the spot and the Cheyenne final,
worked a line ashore and attempte'
to pull the submersible off the sam
but the line parted whereupon tn
whole fleet sailed away to San Fran
cisco and the government advertise
| for bids for salvaging the sub. A 10
cal firm agreed to do it for $18,00O.0
but the powers at Washington said W
have men and ships lying idle; we wi
give them something to do to hel
pass the time away. So it sent tn
Cheyenne, the strong tug Iroquoi
, and the fine battle cruiser "Milwau
kee' to do the work. Much time wa
spent in drifting lines ashore an
running cables and hawsers. Frida
! all was ready, the cable was made fas
: to the Milwaukee and she took on
pull and then waited for the ne>
tide keeping a steady strain on tn
: cable. She lay just outside the break
ers and many people remarked sh
2 was in too close for such a large shil
The Iroquois lay on one quarter wit
line attached and Cheyenne on tn
ether to hold her off the beach in cas-
! Of accident. That night there was
heavy fog which always causes
cough surf and strong undertow. Thes
combined with the "pull-back" on Il
cable gradually drew her into II
4 breakers and she struck disablin
] propellers and rudders. She W;
I helpless and the other ships unable
handle her cut loose and ran out
sea; she drifted round and wei
broadSlde on tn beach.
III We arrived at Samoa about Il
o'cock; Harry met US and we wake
ever the sand to the scene of Il
I wreck. A dense fog obscured ever
thing; presently the life-saving ere
arrived with gun and lines. The 81
came out but the fog was still on Il
water; in little while it cleared
| we could just make out her outlin
the life savers shot the line but
failed and they prepared another. A
at once the wind blew and the f,
lifted like curtain and there she Ii
about 500 feet from us and her ere
of over 400 men all wearing life bel
/ lined up at the rail or in the riggin,
they were ordered there when the sh
struck and some of them stayed the
until taken off that night about nj,
o'clock. Discipline and order preva
ed The life savers shot the secol
line and blast from the steamer
whistle told us it was successful. II
line, a small one. was attached to
larger one and hauled aboard; tn
was attached to a still larger one al
son on. l think five lines were tax,
out before the life line with tn
breaches buoy at the head was haul,
'hoard. Meanwhile the Cheyenne r;
down on the ocean side opposite Il
crowd of spectators and fired thr
project lies with lines attached ov
the steamer: fortunately the lin
broke: for had they held they wou
i probably have retarded the projec
les so they would have fallen amor