The San Francisco call. [volume], June 07, 1895, Image 1

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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VOLUME LXXVIII.-NO. 7.
COLIMA SURVIVORS TELL A TALE OF HORROR.
OARPFNTZR, ROSS. Q. ROWAN, > J. M. MOBIL. > BO YD. ORIEL.
SOME O3P THE sunvivons AS thet ArT^EAHED oixr the DECK op the SAN" ttj j\.isr.
[Sketched by a "CaU" artist.]
The steamer Ban Juan sailed into port
yesterday morning. She had on board
sixteen members of the shipwrecked
Coiima. Very quietly and unostenta
tiously she steamed in, her flag at half
mast out of respect for the death of the
Secretary of State, her white decks gleam
ing in the sunshine, all spick and spank
I and clean and neat to the eye, giving no
sign of the awful tale of disaster that she
brought. But those on shore knew full
well the news she carried, and as soon as
the Merchants' Exchange had been noti
fied of her incoming the intellieence
spread over the City, and hundreds were
gathered at the Pacific Mail dock before
the San Juan rounded the bend in the bay
and made fast to the pier.
Then there was a rush made for the gang
'plank/*&ger hands grasping it before it
was firmly on the dock — eager, anxious
souls waiting to go on board to learn the
worst or the best. All the faces in the
crowd were hopeful, though mingled was
a look of dread and fear lost the tele
graphic reports from Mazatlan were cor
rect, or lest there had been a mistake in
the names of some of those reported to
have been Eaved. There was a deal of ap
prehension in the throng. It was not the
happy, smiling crowd that usually wel
comes the incoming steamer from foreign
ports. But what marked it most was the
eagerness to board the San Juan, and this
eagerness must needs wait on officialism.
The wait was not long. Captain Rud
dell was soon on hand, and after the Gov
ernment representatives reached the top of
the gangplank the eager throng was per
mitted to press after him. It pressed so
hotly, though fearfully, that those on board
the steamer must wait a few moments be
fore they could disembark. Soon the decks
of the steamer were alive with a throng of
landsmen and newspaper men, all bent on
hearing the awful tidings from the stormy
sea off Mazatlan. where the Colima went
down on the morning of Monday, May 27.
And many of those on board were as
eager to tell of their sufferings as were the
landsmen to listen. Fornot only had they
the talc of their disaster at sea to relate,
which in itself is an experience of a life
time, biit they were indignant besides and
had a complaint to make against the own
ers of the San Juan for illtreatment re
ceived both on board the Colima and the
rescuing vessel.
The story of the wreck they told has al
ready been told in brief over the telegraph
wires; but how different, how much more
vivid, more awful it was when coming
from the lips of those who lived through
the terrors of that fearful scene. The ship
was overloaded, badly loaded, top-heavily
loaded — all agree upon that. When the gale
struck her she weathered it, but badly.
Then she careened. There was a list to
starboard, and she did not right again.
Men cailed out to the captain to cut away
the deckloading of heavy spars. The cap
tain was obdurate. He knew his business,
or fancied that he did. and would brook no
suggestions from what he called the terri
fied and panic-stricken passengers. And
they probably were all that he called them,
for they could see death staring them in
the face, while the captain remained blind.
The pity of that blindness; it cost more
than 100 lives, that blindness, that obdu
rateness.
The ship listed more and more. With
apprehension everybody waited, held their
breath, till she should bear up and right
again, but she did not right. She listed
6till more. Then she lost her steering
power. The captain rang for more steam
—and would not cut loose the deck ioad,
that might have saved her. Steam could
not save her. The engines were taxed to
their utmost; still the vessel listed. The
panic on board grew worse, the fear of
death more intense. Then the captain cave
orders for the crew to keep the passengers
within bounds. Whether these orders
went so far as to withhold life-preservers
from the passengers and to prevent those
who sought to do so from coming on deck,
where they might have had a chance of
battling with the waves, is not known at
The San Francisco Call.
this time. Perhaps some further investi
gation will shed some light on the point.
At all events, the effects of those orders
were to turn the crew and subaltern officers
into a band of tyrants who acted as though
they sought to prevent anyone from escap
ing the doom that yawned before them.
Steerage and cabin passengers say they
sought to obtain life-preservers and were
forcibly restrained from doing so. Down
in the steerage a guard was posted at the
companionway door and those who es
caped to the deck in time to cast them
selves into the sea before the vessel went
down did so only by main force, by kick
ing and figliting their way past the guard.
Those who were saved are some of those
who were wiser than the captain, who
could see their peril more clearly, and had
witenongh to throw themselves into the
foaming sea before the Coiima gave her
last list to the starboard. As she did this
the captain's whistle sounded to cut loose
the deckload of spars. It was too late
then.
One of the rescued ones tells the scene
which followed very graphically. "I
stayed upon the ship until the last mo
ment," he says, "and when I came to the
surface after my plunge in the seething
waves I looked back and the Colima was
not in sight. As quickly as that she went
down, and scores were drowned in the
steerage and cabin. I caught a fioaiing
piece of timber and held fast. All
around me the sea was covered witli wreck
age, and every now and then a human
body floated by. Sometimes it was a
woman, sometimes a man, but their faces
were all turned upward. All that day
those of us who found a foothold on the
hurricane-deck raft saw bodies floating
past. They were all dead."
i I And so the story goes. It is told in this
morning's papers from almost a score of
different eye-witnesses. All of them suf
fered greatly, and there is no wild story of
the sea wherein the sufferings were greater
nor the escapes from a watery grave more
miraculous. Here is at hand all the mate
rial that one needs for the most thrilling
narrative of ocean dangers that was ever
woven into the story-books. And no one
is responsible for it all. Under the laws of
the land it appears to have been a catas
trophe against which no damages may lie
in law, although from the 6tories of the
survivors— and they are all of the same
tenor — it is plain that human skill and
foresight might have prevented it.
But this is not all. One of the rescued
passengers charges that Captain Pitts of
the San Juan was too hasty in leaving the
scene of the disaster on the morning of the
28th ult., after he had rescued a number of
the shipwrecked men; and this statement
is corroborated by Captain Long of the
steamer Willamette, who was a passenger
on board the San Juan. The captain was
not satisfied with the efforts that were
being made to search for the shipwrecked
peoDle. He raised a voluntary crew on
board and asked Captain Pitts to let him
take one of the San Juan's boats and go
out to search. Captain Pitts refused.
Captain Long went to the purser of the
San Juan. After much pleading the pur
ser told him to go ahead. Captain Long
then took it upon himself to have one of
the boats lowered. He and his crew came
back with six more of the shipwrecked
men. These six in all prooability, from
the statements made by Mr. Oriel and
Captain Long, would not have been saved
but for this disobedience to the orders of
Captain Pitts. It was 8 o'clock Tuesday
morning when the first shipwrecked man
was picked up. At 10:45 o'clock, two
hours and three-quarters later, Captain
Pitts in his unseemly haste steamed away
from the scene. Perhaps there were others
to save; perhaps there were not.
The air was misty yesterday morning,
so that the San Juan's approach could not
be seen by the Point Lobos watchers until
she had crossed the bar and was headed
for the gate. Immediately the Pacific
Mail Company sent out the tug Millen
Griffith, which reached the steamship's
side before the Government steamer from
SAN FRANCISCO, FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 7, 1895.
Meiggs wharf got abreast of her. On the
Government tug were several newspaper
men, and they interviewed Charles R.
Cashing Jr. before the San Juan reached
the Mail dock. Mr. Cushing'a father also
went out on the Government tug and did
what he could to prevent his son from
speaking to the newspaper men.
Indeed, the company itself did all that
was in its power to prevent their employes
from being interviewed by the newspapers.
Early in the morning there was a roll
called in the mess-room. Captain Pitts
then warned all the men and officers not
to say a word of what had occurred to
anybody. This order was more or less
effective, and made it difficult for the news
gatherers to collect reliable data from offi
cial sources.
It was nearly 1 o'clock when the San
Juan reached the Mail dock, and by that
time the confusion on board was so great
that for a time it was impossible to get a
straight and connected story from anybody.
The steerage passengers had the fewest
friends on shore to greet them. Some of
them had no friends at all, and these, of
course, had the most time to devote to the
newsgatherer.
To a man the steerage passengers are
THE PACIFIC HAIL STEAMER SAN JUAN ENTERING THE HARBOR.
dissatisfied with their treatment on board
the San Juan after their rescue, and later
in the day it was learned that the cabin
passengers had not a favorable story to tell
of their treatment. Most of the rescued
ones showed visible signs of their physical
sufferings, either by scars or wounds re
ceived during the wreck or by bandaged
limbs. All of them were worn-looking,
and one could almost read the tale of their
sufferings in their pinched faces.
LIST OF THE RESCUED.
Who the Men Brought to This
City by the San Juan
Were.
The li»t of rescued brought to this City
by the San Juan yesterday was:
Cabin passengers — C. H. Cushing Jr. of
Oakland, A. J. Sutherland, New Western
Hotel. •
Steerage— Harry William Boyd, jeweler,
Birmingham, Eng. ; Gustav liowan, musi
cian, Ghent, Belgium; T. J. Oriel, elec
trician, Stockton.
Officers and crew of the Colima — 0. Han
sen, third officer, 18J^ West Mission street;
A. F. Richardson, storekeeper; Raymond
Aviles, engineer's storekeeper, La Paz,
Mexico; Thomas Friese and Albert Car
penter, seamen.
United States nayy — Louis Zangaree,
seaman of the cruiser Olympia; George D.
Ross, seaman of the cruiser Philadelphia.
Crew of the Portland — Bruno Cerda and
Jose M. Moril, firemen; A. Ramos and
Jose Antonio Saliz, seamen, en route for
Panama.
WHITING WENT CRAZY.
The Graphic and Thrilling Story of
A. J. Sutherland, One of the
Survivors.
A. J. Sutherland of Seattle, who was one
of the heroes of the Coiima disaster, tells
a very thrilling and graphic story of his
experiences during the hurricane that
swept the steamer from the seas. Through
out the hours of anxiety and dread he
preserved his mental faculties and ob
served all that passed arouud him with an
extraordinary calmness. 80 much was
inferred from his interesting narrative
which he gave last night after attending
to correspondence and various details of
business. He was going to Guatemala on
a business trip on the Coiima, but re
turned yesterday with the other fortunate
survivors on the San Juan.
When he stepped ashore he looked like a
Southern merchant who had forgotten to
change his clothes to suit the climate. He
wore a suit of striped flannel belonging to
the San Juan's purser, a soft hat loaned by
an officer of the steamer, Dr. Robertson's
underclothing and a borrowed gray over
coat to keep himself warm.
"Everything was quiet when we were
in Manzanillo harbor," said he. "But im
mediately we went out to sea it began to
blow and became rough. Two hours out
the wind began to increase steadily in fury
and kept on getting worse until the steamer
collapsed.
"During the night the sea was growing
more and more terrible, but yet it caused
no great excitement aboard except among
some nervous passengers. It was only an
hour or two before we went down that any
real signs of alarm could be seen among
the passengers and crew.
"Professor Whiting was the worst
worked up man in the cabin, and we
young fellows kept 'joshing 1 him about
his fears. Why, really, live minutes be
fore the wreck I did not realize the danger.
Something like two minutes before the ship
listed the captain told me it was all up.
"'We are going down,' said he. 'A
cyclone is coming upon us. 1
"Both he and the officers were expecting
a terrible storm and made all preparations
for it. The glass fell down all at once— so
fast it frightened them— and they took the
plugs out of the steering apparatus so as
to be ready to steer from the stern, lashed
down everything securely and took in
awnings.
"In lashing one of the stern boats three
or four sailors were very badly bruised and
battered, but they kept at their work until
it was done.
"Just at the time of the collapse it eot
very dark, but the real darkness came on
when we were on the wreckage floating
about. That was the most awful hurricane
1 ever saw, and I've been through Kansas
cyclones. I never saw anything like it be
fore. Some things tore loose from the
stern and they were lashed fast by sailors
at imminent risk of their lives. Third
Mate Hansen cut the deckload of lumber
adrift as we were going over, bnt that
made no difference anyhow. Nothing
could nave saved us.
"The whole thing went to pieces at
onee — say from three to five minutes from
the time the steamer listed until she sunk.
As she rolled, all the while listing deeper,
the lower tier of staterooms were filled
with water by every successive sea
that swept over us. The women
and children were in the rooms
holding on to something to save them
selves from being battered to death by the
pitching and rolling. It was utterly im
possible to keep your feet even whilehold
ing fast with your hands to the railing or
whatever you could grasp. I was in one of
the upper row of staterooms. The wood
work creaked and cracked, and the light
came through ceiling and partitions, so
that water was dripping, or rather pouring
in upon us; and this was some time before
she went to pieces. I had on my trousers
and shirt after getting up and to keep my
self dry in my stateroom had to put on my
overcoat.
"After we took the last fatal list the
cabins started, and I climbed up to the top
of the hurricane deck. I realized then we
were gone. Both rows of cabins and every
thing above the hull crumbled away like
a bit of soft brick instantaneously.
I was then outside amidships
hanging on to a rail behind
the stays, or ropes that stay the masts, and
scrambled into a lifeboat. From that point
I saw the deckhouses and two rows of
staterooms go overboard. A mast fell upon
the boat and shoved it into the water.
Then I was off the ship. The cabins were
coming toward me, churning and crunch
ing into splinters and crushing the people
who were washed away with them. Above
the roar of the gale I could hear the
screams and yells. The wreckage and men
and women were mixed up in a frightful
mass as the timbers were crushing out
lives before my eyes. No one could nave
escaped from that awful mass of broken
timbers that kept on churning and smash
ing in the waves.
"Only the bare hull was left with masts
sticking up, for everything above the iron
was swept away. During the listing even
the hull was filling up with water, but she
kept afloat though very far down.
Suddenly there was an explosion. The
masts raised back out of the water and the
hull lifted up, and then she tilted and
went down in an instant, stern first. I
don't think there can be any question but
that the boilers exploded. I learned that
there were explosives stored far aft, but
the explosion was amidships. It tore the
hull to pieces and the Coiima sank like a
flash.
"There were a number of women and
Chinese down in the steerage who would
not be let up on deck, and they never got
out alive. Every one of them went down
in the explosion with the hull.
"The first one I saw near me was Mrs.
Irving, and then a stout lady, who came
up near the lifeboat which I was lucky
enough to be thrown against. I pulled
Mrs. Irving into the boat, and after
her the otb^r lady. They had beei.
taken from their stateroom a little while
previously by officers, as the partitions
had been smashed by the waves, leaving
an opening into the dining-room. It was
only by that mere accident that they were
not ground to death in the wreckage of
cabins. Twice these ladies were thrown
out of the boat and twice I got them back.
Then Professor Whiting came alongside
and I pulled him into the boat. He acted
as if he was out of his head. We tipped
over repeatedly, Mr. Whiting and I turn
ing the boat over onr.e in attempting to
drag the stout woman in ; but we got in
again, and when we came right Mr. Peters
was hanging on to the stern. I went to
save Peters, when again the boat turned
over in the awful sea. It was then I lost
sight of Whiting. The large lady was
struck by wreckage and disappeared. I
never saw either of them again. Mrs. Irv
ing held on to the boat for half an hour
later with marvelous tenacity. It kept
turning over, but every time I came
up I found her hanging on to some
portion of the boat and helped her all I
could. Once I got astride the keel and
held her up by leaning over to one side
and holding her firmly by the hand. But
this could not be sustained long, and as the
boat tipped I went over. As I came up I
tried to tip the boat on its keel, and then I
lost Mrs. Irving. She sank from sheer
exhaustion after a noble battle for life.
Peters sank, too, and I never saw him
again, though he was saved.
" When we were in the water the worst
trouble began, for it was only then that
the hurricane struck us with its full force.
The day was blackened and the rain fell in
solid masses. It was not a cyclone, but a
circular whirlwind that caught us in its
very center and would draw the wreckage
together in a circle for a great distance.
Yes, bodies, struggling men and women,
life-rafts and battered boats, all went
into the dreadful vortex. Then a
tremendous wave would rise from
underneath, like a mountain bursting
forth, and scatter the wreckage everywhere
around. It was in this vortex that those
who escaped from the ship were stunned
or killed outright from being literally
ground to death by driftwood that shot
about like monstrous shells.
"How did I escape ? If I saw a log or a
mass of wreckage coming down upon my
head ten feet above me I jumped from my
boat and dived. The only thing to do to
avoid being cut or killed was to dive and
then come up again and swim for your raft.
"The water was extremely buoyant and
I would come up anyhow, though at one
time I thought it would be better dead. All
night long I sat in the submerged boat, and
when I'd get cold 1 would crawl down into
the water between the seats. Fortunately
the water was very warm and comfortable.
I was about twenty-three hours in the
water when picked up by the San Juan.
About an hour or two before sundown the
ocean was calm as an inland lake.all strewn
with bits of the lost Colima. At one time
I was close to tbe shore and could see the
rocks distinctly, but at daylight next
morning I found myself drifting far out to
sea with only a dim outline of mountains
where the coast was.
"I saw the San Juan at 8 or 9 o'clock
A. M., but was not picked up until 11
o'clock. My boat was very low in the
water— almost under the surface— and so
it was long after I sighted the San Juan
that their lookouts found me.
"The captain of the San Juan made a
circuit of thirty miles, and started north
about noon. Ife might have picked up
more if he had stayed cruising around all
the afternoon. I don't think I was two
miles away from the rest of the rafts that
he picked up."
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
"Was anybody 10 blame for the wreck of
the Colima?"
"They have not got a ship that would
have lasted rive minutes in that hurricane.
"It was beyond human skill to maneuver a
ship through it successfully. The hurri
cane, or whatever class of storm it was that
caught the Colima, could crush the stout
est ship afloat as if it were a tiny toy. Look
at the terrible force of the waves. They
tore every stitch of clothing off us before
we were ton minutes in the water. Men
and women alike were shorn of covering
by the wind and the sea. When I saw
Professor Whiting for the last time all he
! had upon him was the shoulders of his
coat ; the rest was torn to atoms and blown
away. Poor fellow, he had lost his mind.
The terrible fate that fell upon his wife
and children — for he must have known
j full well they were swept down to a fright
| ful death in that churning wreckage— it
| took bis sensesfrom him. I believe he
could not realize his position shortly be
fore he went under the waves.
"The captain stayed by his post to the
last. Just before the explosion I saw him
clinging to the railing of the bridge and aa
I was whirled away in the water he gave
two faint blows of .the whistle. But he
never left the bridge. He sank with his
ship."
ON THE DECK RAFT.
Jose Monica Merel Wound His Arms
Around a Floating Tim
ber.
One of the most distressing chapters of
the wreck of the Colima is that related by
three Spanish sailors through an inter
preter in the smoking-room of the San
Juan yesterday afternoon. The sailors are
Juan Antonio Ramos, Bruno Cedio and
Jose Monica Merel. They are three of a
quartet of Spanish sailors who came up on
the steamer Portland under contract with
the Pacific Mail Company. The contract
bound the company to return the sailors to
their home at Panama from San Francisco.
They were passengers on board the Colima
and bound for Panama. Jose Antonio
Loliz is the last of the four. He was saved
from the wreck, but in such a pitiable
physical condition that he was too ill
yesterday to tell his story.
Attorney J. B. de Las Casas performed
the good offices of interpreter, and through
him these three tales of the sea were re
lated. Merel spoke first.
"When she began to roll there was a
panic in the steerage, and everybody there
seemed to realize that something fearful
was going to happen. When she listed
way over on the port side and did not
right again we all rushed for the starboard
or high side of the vessel, which was also
the landward side. I can hardly re
member what the others did. Every man
was for himself at that time. All was
great confusion. The women were scream
ing and some of the men were frantic. I
was on the steerage deck or I should have
gone down with the rest. Many others
were on the deck with me, but the guards
would not allow any more to come up the
gangway, though they fought and pleaded
to be allowed to come up. How terrible
it must have been to have died down in
that hold— to have the waters rush in upon
them and no chance for escape in any
way. Some men on the steerage deck I
saw with life-preservers, but the guards
came after them and cursed them and
made them take off the life-preservers. I
could not get one. What a shame it wag.
Everybody on board could see that the
ship was going down, everybody except
the officers and the crew. On the port
side tons of water was washing into the
hold with every sea. It was a terrible
storm, and the waves were big and high
and angry. Some waves washed clean
over the ship as she lay there in the
trough on her beam's end. I heard men
cry out to the captain to cut away the
deck-load. She might have righted then.
But the captain was too sure. Somehow
he could not see the danger as we saw it.
" Well, when I felt her rolling atill
deeper — you could feel her getting deeper
and deeper in the water— l tore off my
coat and shoes and jumped into the water
from the starboard side. I sank, and
when I came up and looked around I
could only see what looked like the width
of a man's hand of her hull above the
water. Then the eddies from the sinking
vessel caught me and I was forced down
again. I think it must have been the hall
of a minute before I could struggle up to>
the surface again. I looked for the shio.
She was gone. The sea was covered with
floating wreckage. I caught a piece of