Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1917-08-16
AUDUBON BOY WAS
IN SHIPWRECK
Son of Former Pastor of Presbyterian
Church Escaped In Life Boat
When Ship Struck Mine.

Church Escaped In Life Boat
When Ship Struck Mine.
Many people in Audubon will re-
member Rev. ]. F. Hinkhouse, until
seventeen years ago pastor Of the
Presbyterian church of this city, and
also Paul, his second son, who was
then about ten years Of age.
Paul was on his way to Bangkok,
Siam, to teach in Bankok college.
He with Kenneth McAfee, had just
completed two years course of
study in Assiut college, Egypt. Nc
Afee was bound for China to teach
and the two men were planning to see
the orient.
His folks had given him up as lost
for several weeks, not having heard
from him for months and having read
In the newspapers about his ship be-
ing wrecked.
The mining Of the ship on which
he was a passenger in the indian
ocean on June %, and scenes of dis
tress incident to the landing of pass
engers on the coast twenty miles DIS
tant, are described in a letter Paul
sent his father, now living In Sioux
City, which was received Tuesday
of this week. Owing to the unexpect-
edness of danger in Asiatic water,
the ships crew and passengers were
unprepared, but most Of the pas
sengers were landed. Upward of
twenty persons were drowned.
The letter is of such intense inter-
est that many of the friends of Rev.
Hinkhouse will be glad to hear of his
sons safety and also to read the let
ter sent us, which is as follows:
Loses All His Baggage.
The shipwreck and a six-hours'
row for life in stormy sea are de-
scribed in the following letter:
Bombay, India, June 81, 1911
am here in Bombay rather uneXpect-
eddy. The reason is that we struck
a mine in the Indian ocean Saturday,
June 23, at 1910 p. m, and los, Ill
my possessions except the clothes on
my back and the money in my pock
cts. Kenneth McAfee and are both
safe ARE unhurt and in the best of
health, but not of spirits, of course,
Let me begin at the beginning.
hope the censor will not interfere
with this. You will learn of it in
time and you should know imme-
diately. We had our lifeboat drill
the day before and that night, Friday,
everything was darkened. Kenneth
and l slept out on the deck that night
as it was so hot in the cabin. Satur-
day morning we had to get up early
so that the deck could be washed and
! went to my cabin, washed and went
on deck. l began to write some let
tiers and just before breakfast went
to get my passport and ticket and
put them in my pocket. After break
fast l wrote more letters and lOunged
around the saloon talking shop.
About 1880 an Australian came up
and wanted change for a shilling.
gave him some and then he, Kenneth
and fell into conversation. We
were explaining to him the electoral
college and it's absoleteness, when at
1910 we were struck on the star
board side. The force of the explo-
sion forced me to rise from my seat
a little and then the boat began to
CULVER We instantly knew what had
happened. / looked for a submarine,
but could see none. We rushed to
our cabin and grabbed our life jack
cts and helmets. l thrust some malt
ed milk tablets-the kind we used
to like as children-into Kenneth's
hand and took the other bottle for
myself, left everything else and went
on deck.
Shock Knocks Out Wireless.
There was little order on deck and
the lifeboats had to be swung out
negligence on the part of the COM
pany. Kenneth and l, with two other
men, helped a broken legged soldier
into a lifeboat. No one else seemed
to care for him and he would have
been left behind otherwise. The boat
was lowered so fast after We got him
in that / had to jump six or eight feet
to get into it, and | brushed the man
with the broken leg. The Indian
lancers lent no hand and the ship
officers were missing from our At.
In getting the boat down it almost
capsized, going PROV first into the
water. Kenneth jumped and got into
No. IS. | was in No. 16. We got
down and began to pull away so that
the boat would not be drawn in. No
wireless message had been sent, for
the wires had been knocked down by
the explosion; gun also knocked out
of position and would have been use
ing in case of submarine. The boat
sank in twenty-three minutes in
twenty fathoms of water, about fiji
teen or twenty miles off coast. She
went stern first. We had on our boat
a boilermaker who was scalded from
head to foot. Skin looked as if it
were gloves taken off. He lay on a
Seat across the boat with his feet a
foot from my face when | rowed.
had to wipe salt wa.er from his feet
time after time. He was brave
man, never want to see Drawer; also
the broken legged soldier who had
won the cross of war and the order of
Leopold from the Belgian army. His
broken leg was uncovered to us all
the way. No ladies in our boat. We
put up sail shortly and, taking orders
from our chief officer, who told us
we would find land twenty-five miles
away we sailed east. In short time
we saw the hills of the Indian coast.
sea was high but our boat rode well,
water coming in occasionally. We
picked up two men out of the water.
One was the refrigerator engineer OF
the boat. He was the only man
(European) in our boat. l was
deathly sick, caused by the sight of
the scalded man i never wish to see
hrch CHASTITY sight. i did not do my
bit for time and am heartily
ashamed of my SELF
Scalded BOilerrnaker Dies.
We drew close to land and got
there at dusk. Many Of the passeng-
ers--twelve Europeans and fifteen
natives in our boat-were afraid to
land. We finally to land and were
the second boat to get TO shore. In
the lifeboat we had opened nine tins
of bareback and had water appor-
toned to us. Once on shore we were