Norwich bulletin., 1922-11-25

Thousand Smokes was preceded and II accompanied by a series of severe 4 earthquakes"
 Admiral Billings described the great | tidal wave which he saw at Africa. then 1. in Peru, some years ago. He was an
 officer on the U. s. s. "Wateree" which was anchored in the harbor at Africa at the time of the Icatacl1srn.
 Sometime after the initial trenor," he wrote, 'the sea receded until the | shipping was left stranded while as l far to seaward as our vision would I reach, we saw the rocky bottom Of the | sea, never before exposed to human gaze, with struggling fish and mon- , sters of the deep left high and dry. The round bottomed ships keeled ov- CT on their beam ends, whiie the Wa
 teree rested easily on her floor like bottom; and when the returning sea, not like a wave, but rather like an
 enormous tide, came sweeping back, rolling our unfortunate companion ships over and over, leaving some bot l tom up and others masses of wreck | age, the Wateree rose easily over the 1 tossing waters unharmed.
 | From this moment the sea seemed : to defy the laws of nature. Currents
 ran in contrary directions, and we we're 1 borne here and there with a speed we l could not have equaled had we been 1 steaming for our lives. At irregular ] intervals the earthquake shocks re- l cured, but none of them 50 violent
 or long continued as the first
 | Sea- bottom Laid Bare For Miles
 About 30 D. tn, the lookout hail. ed the deck and reported a breaker approaching. Looking seaward. we saw, first, a thin line Of phosphorescent light, which loomed higher and high | CT until it seemed to touch the sky; it's crest, crowned with the death light of phosphorescent Slow, showing the
 sullen masses of water below Herald- ed by the laundering roar of a thou sand breakers combined, the dreaded tidal wave was upon us at last. Of all the horrors of this dreadful time, this
 seemed the worst. Chained to the spot, helpless to escape, with all the prep
 arations made which human skill
 could suggest, we could but watch the monster wave approach without
 the sustaining help of action. .. That the ship could ride through the
 masses of water about to everwhelm
 us seemed impossible. We could only grip the lifeline and wait the com ing catastrophe
 T with crash our gallant ship wat overwhelmed and buried deep beneath a semi-solid mass of sand and water For breathless eternity we were 1 submerged; then, groaning in evert ! timber, the staunch old Wateree strug | gled again to the surface, with hei i crew gaspi11s still clinging to the life lines-some few seriously wounded
 bruised and battered; none killed, hot
 even one missing. A miracle it seem ed to us then, and as l look bact , through the years it seems doubl. miraculous now.
 Undoubtedly our safety was du, to the design of the ship which per. 5 mitted the water to run off the dec1 about as it would from a raft or float. ing plank.
 sl Stranded High on Shore D 'The ship was swept on rapidly fo I 1 time, but after a while the motiol ceased, and, lowering a lantern ove the side. we found ourselves on shore U but where, we knew not. Smaller wave t washed about us for a time but pre s sently they ceased.
 The morning sun broke on a seen n of deSolatien seldom witnessed. " q found ourselves high and dry in .! = little cove, or rather iaentation fl d the coast-line. We had been carrie
 some miles up the coast and mile e inland. The wave had carried us owe : the sand dunes bordering the oeear d across valley and over the railroaI e track. leaving us at the foot of the sea l. coast range of the Andes. On the near IT y perpendicular front of the n7ountaf !, our navigator found the marks of tn a tidal wave. and, by measurement = found it to have been 4T feet higl )f not including the connb. Had the way
 carried us 200 feet further, we woul
 inevitably, have been dashed to piect
 against the mountain-side."