The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-08-05

There she 1dIIllileQ WITH gre At
portion of the Starboard side torn
away. What with the crashing OF
the timbers, the kissing OF broken
steam pipes. added to the roar of
the water. the din was tremendous
MY first thought was naturally
fer the boat and / got all hands
dumping ever the cargo thus re-
laving her of great deal of the
strain. The current held us tightly
on the rock SO that there was no
chance Of her sliding into deep wa
ter.
To make a long story short, we
were able a couple days afterwards.
thanks to a drop in the water, to
bulkhead between the. sides and a
solid kelson. and to float her on 20
nearby beach.
The Ruth's finish must nave
been equally exciting. It appears
ihat when the engines were stopped
above the elbow, a log got into the
wheel and jammed ii tight AS it
takes only II seconds to drift from
the elbow to the rocks, there was
no time to do anything and she
went straight to her doom. The
passengers and crew were gathered
forward but the engineer had a
lively run for it. She struck head
on Her stem was smashed in, and
the foredeck climbed the rocks,
making a landing place for the
passengers. as it were.
ttrTbara eaprec ~ no,.o ba..x - 49, i
deal of panic and for a time dan
ger that some would be crowded off
the rock which was not big enough
to hold the whole crowd-some 70
all told.
After the boat struck she swung
across the stream, and no wonder
those standing on the foredeck
sought something more stable.
Captains Wife AlIays Panic
TO Mrs. Sanborne, the captains
wife, is due the credit of allaying
the excitement When she saw a
trying to put on life
preserver by putting his legs
through the straps she cried, Put
il on like you do your suspenders.
man.
THAT speech did more than any
exhortation from the captain would
have done.
Afterwards. when William
Doake, the purser, managed to get
a bateau alongside, she gave further
confidence by refusing to be taken
ashore until certain Weakened
ones had been taken care of.
No one was lost. nor even seri-
ously hurt. on either boat.
'Doake did fine work in getting
his small boat free from the wreck,
and afterwards in ferrving so large
a crowd without accident. !.
On May q. the Gwen was on
tie run again, but the Ruth was
broken up into matchWood by the
next rise In the river
AS finished reading Doake broke
into hearty laugh Il can still see
that engineer coming out of the
hold of the Ruth He had red hair,
his face was black. his eyes We're
wild and he was yelling like mad
1t was new version Of Mephi-
stopheles.
In the din. put my mouth to
Captain Armstrong; ear (Doake
was on the Ruth, Armstrong on the
Gwendoline but all the passengers
were herded together on the rock
and the sloping decks of the two
wrecked steamers) and asked him if
he had any money | was thinking
about paying off the crew.
He dived into the cabin and
came up with $1,000 that he had
hidden under the cushions and for
gotten until now. A couple Of men
got off with life boat but they
swamped it SO it was up to me to
get the people ashore. 1t was handy
that | could handle a small boat
and pole for no other kind Of
craft could live in that water
| looked at the man and Won
dered at his modest way Of telling
me that he in a small boat took 70
people off a wreck in the middle Of
a swollen and dangerous current
and concluded the rivermen were
men indeed, in those days.
GIlpcp &c a concentrated food ftii