Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-06
With Clubs and Sung Shot Faces Night Attack of Savages

loose timber than the Moro again
showed her almost human capricious-
ness by suddenly "discharging" three
Of the logs. thus bringing herself to
an even keel again.
The two logs that still protruded
remained In position for the rest Of the
night. e-.
Just after breakfast. however. The
ship preached to a little, and before
she could be got head on again down
crashed a monster greenhack upon
the whole length Of the starboard side.
The Moro rolled over to port and stay.
ed there. all but on her beam ends
The starboard trunk deck. we saw
,, TO our horror, was an clean and clear
or everything ~ on the day she was
launched. Nothing remained but a
few rags OF rope lssling and some
links OF chain. still attached TO broken
| stancfions or rims. bolts.
All the portside logs were now com.
| pletely under water. Of course. owing
to the ships terrible list-a list %
| steep that there was no standing up
| right anywhere without holding ON to %
something. The helm had tan1rned st.
self hard over 10 port and couldn't be
moved an inch by all the steam on the
steering gear.
THE seas were now and again posr-
- ing down the funnel, which. like
the mssts. was lying almost level
| with the water. The. fires in the
stokehold were very soon extin-.
| guished. and the firemen and engi-
| neers were severely scalded by the
choking steam and fine ash from the
suddenly doused fires. The Moro. we,
believed. had played her last prank.
and IL was only a matter of moments
before she would go down and take
US all with her.
At length, about 9 o'clock, a terrific
mountain Of water was seen sweeping
down upon us from the port side, and
everybody dashed to whatever cover
was Immediately available. Clean
over the whole ship IL broke. plunging
everything into a dark green world Of
waters that seemed to be above and
all around us. The various rooms or
berths were in complete darkness.
The whole North Atlantic appeared
to be covering US. Nobody could be
certain whether he was standing or
sitting or lying on the proper floor OF
the room or upon it's walls or ceiling.
This awful suspense lasted probably
less than half a minute, but to each
of us 1t was like an eternity. The
Moro gave one mighty plunge-nobody
|
. painfully slow degrees, the blessed
daylight again flooded the. area, OF
vision.
!. Some little time passed before any
of us realized the ship was on an even
, keel once more, though still rollinA
, and pitching as any vessel would do
, In such a gale when not under con-
troll. Then. one by one. we rushed to
the port side and looked over on to
the trunk deck.
1t was as bare as the starboard
trunk!
,, The monster sea that had threat.
ened our complete destruction had In.
, stead been the agent Of our saliva
, , ton. carrying away the whole port
side cargo at one swoop!
What a scene OF havoc we beheld
about the decks! Tall steel ventilators
I had been snapped of at their sockets
like so many match sticks. The boat
: davits had followed their respective
. boats over the side. The lower bridge
was gone and the upper bridge rested
perilously upon three bent and twisted
stanchions. The top half of the fun
mel had disappeared. The Moro looked
as IL she had been used as practice
target for a squadron of battleships.
But we were still af1oat on an even
keel and relatively high out OF the
water. -" 10 ~
The gale started to moderate from
| that time on, and in due course we
reached the mouth OF the Humber and
took the Hull pilot aboard. There was
no need to go to Hamburg first, for
we had nothing left to take there.
If that ship wasn't born under a
"hcky star" I'll eat my certifcatei
tCopyrfxht. 1927