2
timber, and though it kept turning and
turning round in the angry waves I locked
my arms around it and held fast. The
wind blew the floating timbers all about
and many pieces struck me. I was
stunned and almost dead, but I clung to
the timber and tore my clothes off as best
I could. They weighed rae down and
made me heavy. I felt better when I got
all my clothes off.
" Maybe it was ten minutes, maybe it
was an hour — how could one in such a
plight measure time? I saw the top of the
pilot house drifting by me. I tried to
reach it, but it went past me at too great a
distance, and I dared not loose my hold on
the timber because I was too weak to
swim; very far. I had been hit in the
chest and had a couple of teeth knocked
out by the flying timbers. I saw dead
bodies floating all about me. The body of
a woman floated past me. I put my hand
on it. It was stiff and cold as ice.
"I guess it was about 4 o'clock in the
afternoon when I managed to reach a big
piece of the hurricane deck. I climbed up
on it and looked around me, and could see
nothing at all. I thought I was the only
one saved from the wreck.
"But by and by others came floating by
— and some of them, clinging to spara and
small pieces of tim ber. were alive. Finally
there were Tom Freece, Richardson,
Ramos, Loliz and Cedro, all aboard this
raft. I don't know how they got on board.
13y this time I was so weak that I could
give them no assistance. I think I must
have fainted for a time, because there is a
blank space in my memory of the time
spent on the hurricane deck raft.
"Oh, yes, I remember the rescue. No one
on that raft will ever forget it. First we
saw some smoke on the horizon far to the
south. We were not quite sure it was
6moke. It might have only been a small
black cloud that portended another squall.
But when it grew plainer we saw that it
was truly a streak of black smoke, but we
could only hope that it would come near
enough to us to see our signal. Most of
us were naked. I had found a piece of
cloth hanging to a drifting spaT and had
rished it up, dried it and put it over my
shoulders. This I took off, and we tied it
East to a thin piece of timber and hoisted
it. for a signal. It was a heavy piece of
timber to hold straight up, and we were all
so weak that it took our combined strength
to keep it aloft. AVhen the steamer came
in sight she answered our signal.
"I can't tell you how joyful we were
then. We had all about made up our
minds to die on the water. Of course we
had nothing to eat or drink for nearly
twenty-four hours. We were almost deli
rious with joy when it was certain that we
were going to be saved. I could have
danced and shouted like a small boy if I
had had the strength to do that. But we
could only look our joy and mutter a few
'Thank Gods!' to each other.
"The steamer ran up alongside us. The
captain stood on the bridge and called out,"
'What ship? a schooner?'
'•The Colinia! the Colima!' we all
shouted at the top of our voices. Then a
boat was lowered and we were taken
aboard. They did not treat us so badly on
board the San Juan. They gave us clothes
and cigars, and when we were strong
enough to go about we enjoyed ourselves
on the way up. But of course we lost our
Kits— everything we had in the world. The
clothes I have on belonged to one of the
sailors on board."
BLINDING HAILSTONES.
Sheets of Ice That Prevented
the Rescue of a Young
Woman-.
Almost at. the same instant that Merel
leaped into the sea from the sinking ship
liis companions and countrymen, Juan
Antonio Ramos and Bruna Cedro, also
sprang from the steerage deck. Jose
Antonio Goliz was also on deck with the
other three. He, too*, would have made
the same leap had not some of the timbers
that were flying about struck him in the
chest and rendered him helpless, almost
unconscious for an instant. His escape
from death was marvelous indeed. A
piece of flying timber struck him with such
force as to throw him into the waves just
as the ship sank. The cold water gave him
back his wits long enough to enable him to
grasp some piece of floating wood, to which
he clung, more nearly dead than alive, till
he floated by the hurricane deck and was
hauled aboard it by his companions.
Ramos was the second of the quartet
of Spanish sailors to tell his story through
the interpretation of Attorney de las Casas
yesterday.
"1 saw the danger the ship was in," he
eaid. "I was below deck at the time. Al
though I can swim well, I knew that
swimming alone would save nobody in
such a sea as was raging.
"From the way the ship rolled we could
all see that she was top-heavy, and when
she began to list and not right again, then
the water began to pour into her. At this
time the water did not come into the
steerage, but we could hear it washing
down into the hold. Well, when I got the
life-preserver I fastened it about me the
best I could, and started for the deck. Be
fore I got to the companion-way the
watch came up and demanded that I
should take off the life-preserver. He said
there was no danger. He swore and
cursed at me fearfully, and tried to snatch
the life-preserver from me. I got away
from him. If I had not I would have gone
down to the bottom with him. How
strange it was he could not 6ee the ship
was going to sink in a minute more! I
reached the companion-way and was going
up on deck, when the baker ran out and
tried to hold me. He got in front of the
door, and said I should not go up.
"But I went up; or how could I be tell
ing you this now ? He never got up. But
I had to tight my way up. He tried to
force me, and I kicked him. What else
could I do? Yes; I kicked him on the
hand and on the arm. I had to. Then I
got up. If I had staid down half a minute
longer it would have been all over.
"When I got up the waves were washing
all over the ship. She careened over still
deeper. Just then the captain blew his
whistle. At the same instant a great wave
came. I sprang overboard. When I
came up to the surface the Colima had dis
appeared. It was like the sea opening up
and she disappearing in the vortex; she
sank so suddenly. Things were flying in
the air, and the waves were covered with
floating timbers and wreckage. I don't
know how it was, but I remember of cling
ing to something big that floated. When
did I catch it? I don't know that. Things
happened faster than I could think. I
said a prayer when I went down and
never expected to live to tell about it
Then I found myself clinging fast to this
big thing. I wondered what it was. My
face was just above ita surface. It was
flat and the waves tossed it about so that I
did not know how I should hold fast. I
looked across it and saw seven other men
hanging on, just like I was. If they could
hang fast, so could I, I thought to myself.
"One minute we were way down in a val
ley between two waves and could see noth
ing but huge walls of water all around us.
Then up we went, up, way up, till we were
on the crest of a high wave, and I shut my
ejf ea to hide the sight that met them.
Floating- bodies all around! Oh, how ter
rible it is to see so many dead and drown
ing men and women all around you.
"By and by one of the men who had hold
of the big thing— it proved to be the hur
ricane deck — was washed off. A big wave
caught him and fairly forced him loose
and tossed him far away. Then another
was washed off. I tried to scramble up
on top. I knew I could not hold on much
longer. Some of the others got on top
first. Then a big wave came and fairly
lifted me on top. That same wave washed
off two more of the men on the other side
of the raft. Then another wave came and
washed off the fifth man.
"By and by there were only the three of
us on the raft— all on top of it and safe for
the present. These were Hansen, Eaymon
and myself. We were tired out and cold
and could hardly breathe. We lay down
and would not have struggled very much
more to save ourselves — we were so tired.
I saw the roof of the pilot-house drifting
by and the storekeeper was on top of it, al
most naked.
"Then a young woman came by. She
was naked and alive. She had fast hold of
a piece of wood, and Hansen and I tried
to save her. "We might have done it, too,
for just then the sea was quite tranquil.
But just as she got abreast of us a terrible
hailstorm came on. The wind blew a hur
ricane again and washed the poor girl far
away from us. As she was naked, I sup
pose she could swim and had disrobed, as
the men did, to save her life.
"I never saw such a terrific hailstorm,
and the most of us naked. We hid our
faces in our hands to protect ourselves
from the stones. They were quite large,
and were hurled at us almost horizontally.
They cut and stung like so much shot.
They came against us in great sheets of
ice. and the wind was so fierce that we
expected it would blow us off into the sea.
"If we could have saved the young
woman we would have done so. She
looked at us imploringly. I can see her
eyes looking up at us now. She said not a
word, but the last glimpse we caught of
her when the wind swept her past was
pitiful. We forgot our own misery for the
moment.
"And when the hailstorm went away
and the waves quieted down we looked in
all directions for her, but she was gone.
She could not. have lived through the
storm.
"Presently another woman came floating
by. She was almost naked but was not
clinging to anything, and her face was
turned straight up. We could see that one
of her ann« was broken. Then another
woman came floating past the raft. Her
face was turned upward also, and we knew
she was past all help.
"You don't know the horror of it all,
and I can't tell you it. No one can tell it
all. And the long night. How did we
live through it? If there had not been so
many dead floating all around us it would
not have been so horrible. Oh, it was
cold— so cold.
"Hansen was dressed in all his clotheß
when I saw him clinging to the raft. It
was a miracle that saved him in that way.
Oh, it was a miracle that any were saved."
CAUGHT BY THE HEEL.
A Man Tried to Save Himself by
Clinging to Bruno
Cedlo.
"I did not jump till the ship turned clear
over," said Cedio, through the interpreter,
when it came his turn to tell about the
wreck.
"I tried to get a life-preseiver, but the
watchman, or whoever it was, would not
let me hare one. He said there was no
danger. I fought my way tip on deck. A
man put a stick of wood in front of the
doorway and would let no one go up on
the deck. I fought and fought, knowing
that the ship could not live when she was
turned over on her side like that. I hardly
know how it was that I got on deck, but
somehow I got there. I didn't wait for
the life-preserver.
"Just as I jumped into the water I felt
something on my heel. It tightened and
held fast, and made me strike the water
head first. It was the hand of a man. He
was frantic. Evidently he could not swim,
and caught hold of me to save himself. If
I had let him hold fast we would both have
gone down for good, for it was ten or fif
teen minutes before I caught hold of a
piece of the deck and clung to it.
"1 kicked and struggled and wriggled
my feet, while we were both under the
water, so that I finally rid myself of the
man. I don : t know who he was. I never
saw his face after we were in the water.
When I got rid of him I began to tear off
my clothes as fast as I could. I had taken
off my shoes and coat before I jumped in.
Long before I reached the raft I was naked,
and could float on my back quite easily,
though I was in constant terror that some
one else would catch hold of me and drag
me down.
"All round me were dead bodies and
struggling people. Some were clinging to
pieces of lumber. By and by the sea was
a little more quiet. I saw ten men, one
after the other, relinquish their holds on
their planks and go down. All of them
were wounded by the flying timbers and
the water was discolored with blood
around many of those that floated past me.
"I was struck in the head and neck by
timbers and was bleeding. a little, but the
wounds were not severe enough to make
me lose consciousness.
"I saw lots of life-preservers floating
around in tne water. One man that had
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1895.
on a life-preserver was struck by a huge
spar and killed. He would have been
sayed but for that, for the life-preserver
kept his head out of the water. I saw the
bodies of women and children floating.
Oh, I cannot tell you all I saw. I remem
ber we were trying to save one young
woman, who was still alive, when the hail
storm came up.
"After that all the bodies we saw had
their faces turned straight up. We picked
up Goliz, who was clinging to a beam. He
had nis chest all hurt and bleeding and
was scarcely conscious. He had on a life
preserver, or else he would have been
drowned, for he could not have clung to
the beam unless he had something to help
buoy him up.
"What caused the wreck? The deck was
topheavy. Everybody knew that but the
captain. When the ship careened and
began to roll about in the trough of the sea
I heard lots of men call out to the captain
to cut away the deckload. But he would
not do it. She might have been saved if he
had. I don't know, of course, being down
in the steerage all the time."
FIGHTING FOR LIFE.
A Sailor Describes His Desperate
Battle With the Waves and
Timbers.
The most pathetic figures in that melan-
FOUR MEN WHO SAW THE WATERS CLOSE OVER THE LOST COLIMA.
[Sketched by a "Call" artist.]
choly scene presented on the San Juan's
decks as she slowly steamed into her dock
were George D. Ross, boatswain's mate of
the Philadelphia, and Louis L. Zangarre,
seaman of the United States steamer
Olympia, the survivors of the seven men
sent from Mare Island to their homes in
New York for discharge from the naval
service.
Half-clad in torn remnants of their once
clean blue uniforms, pieced out with old
clothes contributed by the generous crew
of the San Juan, they indeed looked the
worn and broken-down shipwrecked
mariners they were. Zangarre wore an
old long coat, a pair of coal-dusty over
alls, the gift of some fireman, and
on his sore and swollen feet were
Japanese straw slippers that fell off every
painful step the poor fellow took. In his
hand he carried two small cigar-boxes,
lashed together with a bit of strhig. "I
wonder if the custom-house officers will
confiscate my two big Saratogas," said the
tar, with grim humor. "I am trying to
smuggle ashore a piece of soap and a spool
of thread, also two needles; but don't ex
pose me. The needles I saved from the
Coliraa. They happened to.be sticking in
my trousers. The waves somehow washed
the shirt off my back. Don't know where
I got the soap; must have hooked it some
where."
Ross was clothed in old garments from
the scanty wardrobe of some steamer deck
hand. His stockingless feet were in a pair
THE I«AST BAT OF HOPE SHATTEBED-SCENE ON THE MAIL, COOK.
. [Sketched by a " Call" artist.]
of very ancient shoes and for a hat he wore
on his head a soiled rag — the bandage
over several severe wounds received while
fighting for his life among the surge-tossed
planks that day of death off Boca de Apiza.
His baggage was his blue uniform shirt,
rolled up in a wad and carried under his
arm.
"It's all I have to start a new cruise in,"
said he, "but as I am clear of that terrible
day, with what's left of me, I'm not com
plaining."
Boatswain's Mate George D. Ross is a
very intelligent man and an old naval
sailor, having served in the cruisers of Un
cle Sam upward of thirty-six years. His
five lost shipmates were: Gustave A.
Mewis, yeoman; C. Walake, coxswain;
Johannes J. Nouwens, seaman: J. H. W.
Smith, first-class naval apprentice ; John
W. Crew, coal-passer. They were all
homeward bound, after a three years'
cruise, for discharge.
"I have put in a long service in the
nany," said he, "and have rode out storms
of wind and storms of shell. Of course, I
have passed through all the perils almost
that beset a man on the sea, but all my
past experience is forgotten when I re
call those awful days of the Co
lima disaster. Not only was the dan
ger from one source dragging our lives
from us. but a peril from another cause
was driving at us. Those heavy, loose
planks flung by the great waves, and
thrown end over end by the hurricane fall
ing down upon the poor fellows struggling
in the water, was the most terrible sight
that ever a sailor saw. And then the big
pieces of deckhouses upon which we took
refuge capsizing on the top of the high
mountains of water and rolling us under
some to be crushed down into their graves
and others to arise on the surface and try
to drag themselves on to the timbers.
"You want a sailor's story of the wreck,
do you? All right. If you had asked me
a few hours or even a few days after the
event, I could not have given you a straight
yarn, I was so muddled. But things are
coming back to me now, ana I remember
little details better. I remember that
after we left Manzanillo about 4 in the
afternoon and began to get some of the
gale, the steamer was very cranky. I
once made a trip on the old Moses Taylor
—'Rolling Moses' they called her. Well,
the Colima soon got to doing pretty good
work in that line herself, but she went at
it differently. She would begin to swing
over and would suddenly go with a jerk,
as though she intended to make a good
start and go clear around in a circle. But
of course she would come up again and go
the other way. | The wind, kept getting
stronger and stronger and she labored
awfully. But Captain Taylor kept her
headed well up to the sea, and— and I
want to say right here, before I forget it,
that poor Captain Taylor staid at his post
and died there like a man. I believe he
did everything that mortal power could
do to save his ship and all hands on board.
"I and the rest of my shipmates were in
and out of our berths during the night, but
being accustomed to the sea we had no
thought of possible danger. Morning found
us with the southwester pouring into the
plunging boat harder than ever. Very few
if any passengers showed themselves on
deck, and I don't believe a single lady or
child turned out of their berths. In fact,
they were all seasick. That accounts in a
measure for their total loss — those who
happened to be on the upper deck when
she went on her beam ends were swept with
the wrecked houses into the sea, and those
below were drowned like rats.
"As the day wore on the seas got higher,
and I began to think that affairs were not
in the best of condition. She would roil
deeply, and I noticed that she would go
down to the lowest notch and hold herself
there, as loath to come back. Then she
would roll to the other side and hang
suspended the same as before. I thought
it odd, as I never felt a ship roll that
way.
"During one of her deep lee rolls a big
wave seemed to sweep along the lee rail,
and a remarkable thing occurred. The big
billow cleaned all the boats off that side as
though they had been cut away with a
knife. Then those boats went drifxlng
away perfectly upright on the sea like big
white ducks, quickly disappearing over
the top of the wave. Of course, they were
capsized and probably foundered, as no
boat, unless finely handled, could live in
that tumble of water.
"I now saw that it was with difficulty she
could keep up to the wind, and I knew if
she broached to we were gone, as nothing:
could live in the trough of those seas.
Then she needed canvas. A close-reefed
foresail, or main topsail, or even a storm
staysail amidships, would have helped her
up, and there is wnere the sailless vessels
are at a disadvantage. The Coiima began
to tremble, and when the sea struck her
she would shake all over. That wobbling
began to scare me. I looked at the boats
securely stowed along the weather rail,
and wondered if we could ever manage to
get them in the water. I could feel a
sort of movement when she trembled
down on her side, and I now know that
the cargo was moving every swing. The
gale would scoop up tons of water and fling
it through the air. When the steamer
roiled to leeward the sea would strike her
exposed side and pitch over on deck, slap
ping at the houses on the upper deck with
a sound like thunder. The wind seemed to
fairly boom over the ocean with a noise
that was deafening. I saw the captain and
First Officer Griffiths together during all
that day, and the other officers at their
places around the decks, proving that they
were doing all they could to save the ship.
"Presently she fell fairly off and the end
soon came. A monster sea came down
upon her just as she heeled over till her
deck was almost perpendicular and the
great weight of water held her there. The
houses were ripped from their fastenings
and broken into kindling wood and went
washing away to leeward. I saw several
persons, among them the bluejackets from
Mare Island, suddenly swept down into
the boiling water and disappear. Then the
lumber began to go. The planks would up
end, a big lot of them together, and fly out.
on the water. It seemed if the whole for
ward part of the vessel was breaking up.
"I then felt myself hurled from my hold
of the weather-rigging, and I was moved so
quickly under the water that I don't know
just what did happen. After a long, long
time, I came up in the open air in the mid
dle of a mass of boards and broken tim
bers and grabbed a plank for support. I
looked around and the poor old Colima
had entirely disappeared. I had been
washed quite a distance to leeward of her,
so I escaped the suction when she went
down into her grave 600 fathoms below.
Then began my fight. I would hue the
plank with a strong grip, but the plunge of
the water would wrench it from me. I
would swim around some time, get back
to my old board or bump against
another one — they were so thick one was
as handy as any. I got some awful licks
from the big bits of wreckage jumping
around. Those on my head hurt the
worst, and I thought several times that I
would let go and sink out of that wild
drift that was beating around in all direc
tions. lam a fair swimmer and had no
trouble in keeping on the surface, rough as
it was, but who had a chance for life in
that place? I saw here and there a head
bob up and a man would grab something
floating near him and hang on. Then a
sea would dash us all down into a deep
valley, and when I got aboard my plank
they would be gone and their support
would be whirling over and over
empty. I saw Apprentice-boy Smith
and Coxswain Walske near me, clinging to
a piece of the wreckage. I tried to work,
myself over to them, when we were rushed
wide apart by a sea that broke between us,
and when the water smoothed down again I
couldn't see them. Two persons came
close to me, lying over a large plank, and
seemed to have a good hold. We all
mounted upon the crest of a sea, the wind
caught the end of the board which was in
the air and just whirled it out of the water
with those men clinging to it. When we,
or I, settled down on a quieter place the
other board had no body on it.
"I saw a dead woman float past me the
skirt of her white nightdress spread out
about her. I think she had just been
knocked from something she had been
clinging to, as she soon disappeared.
"I kept working around on my little raft
and whenever I saw anybody I would try
to paddle up to them as it was getting
dark, and somehow I was afraid to be
alone or wanted company. I finally found
another struggler and we became ship
mates on one raft which we made out of
our two rafts. We were rescued next day,
and so I escaped the fate of the poor over
loaded Colima that lies under the Mexican
Beas."
LOST HOMEWARD BOUND.
The Colima Wallowed in the Seas
on Her Trip to
Death.
Louis L. Zangarre. ordinary seaman, U.
S. N., one of the rescued on a raft, was on
deck when the Colima went over on her
final roll and was thrown into the sea with
the wreckage.
"The men who sent that steametout top
heavy," said he yesterday, "with a hurri
cane deck loaded up with lumber so that
you could not move forward, and her coal
bunkers almost empty and with light
freight between decks, did a horrible thing.
"Why she was so cranky that she careened
from side to side even before we got into
the stiff blow and when the gale came
down upon us she fairly tottered. She
wallowed over the seas and her cargo
shifted at every twist of her hull.
"Just before she went down the captain
ordered the third mate to cut away all the
spars and relieve the ship. If be had
given that order sooner and also heaved
that lumber and shingles overboard she
would have ridden out the gale.
"Every seaman knows that so good a
vessel as the Colima need not have been
lost. After she went down and these
planks were dashing around in the sea,
killing and drowning the people trying to
swim in the mad, whirling waters, none of
the helpless women and little children
could be saved.
"And then the Pacific Mail officers gave
us to understand that it was best for us to
keep our mouths shut. They are more
anxious to hush matters up than they are
to let the truth be known apparently.
"Captain Pitts of the San Juan cruised a
few hours around in the floating wreckage
and then hurried away on his course, fear
ful of losing time on his trip and being rep
rimanded for loitering aiong.
"Well, I guess Ross and I will have to
try it again, and I wonder whereabouts be
tween here and New York we will get cast
away next time. It's hard to serve three
years at sea in a foreign station and then
be lost while homeward bound on a pas
senger steamer, like our rive "poor ship
mates."
AMONG THE MISSING.
Mrs. McDonald Has Now Given Up
All Hopes of Her Husband's
Rescue.
Among the anxious ones who waited
yesterday for the San Juan to dock was
Mrs. Frances McDonald, wife of Fireman
McDonald, who is supposed to have gone*
down on the Colima. McDonald resided
with his wife at 530 Howard street, and
was making his first trip on the Colima.
"He had been after the place for six months
or more," said Mrs. McDonald yesterday,
"and about three months since succeeded
in getting the promise of a place with the
Pacific Mail Company. He was put on for
the first time when the Colima sailed on
her last trip from this port. I have given
up hope now. They tell me that he went
down with the others, though I cannot
even yet realize it. Somehow I thought
that the San Juan would bring him home,
though his name was not given in the dis
patches as among the saved. Mr. Mc-
Donald was a steady hard-working man
who provided well for his family."
Mrs. McDonald was accompanied by a
woman who resides at 264 Brannan street,
and with whom Coal-passer Archie Dow,
also among the lost, roomed. Dow had
lived at 264 Brannan street for some
months past, and was favorably known in
the neighborhood.
Both women expected to see them step
off the San Juan, and when told that they
had not been numbered among the saved,
they gave free expression to their grief.
TIED HIS TONGUE.
Pacific Mall Officials Afraid That
Second Officer Hansen
Will Talk.
The Pacific Mail officials were so anx
ious to get Third Officer Hansen off the
San Juan and into the office where he
would have^no opportunity of conversing
with people that they sent a special tug
otit to meet the steamer and took him off
before she docked. A. F. Richardson was
also taken off the steamer by the tug.
Upon reaching shore Hansen was whisked
into a hack and taken to the Market-street
office of the Pacific Mail Company, where
he was kept at work upon a statement
until 8:30 o'clock, when he was allowed to
go home to his wife, who had anxiously
watched in the doorway of the house at
18}£ West Mission street all the afternoon.
Mrs. Hansen could not understand why
her husband did not come home, or at
least send word of his safe arrival in port,
and when it began to grow dark she sent
out her two brothers to look him up.
While they were away Hansen made his
appearance, having been released ten
minutes before from the Pacific Mail kin
dergarten for the suppression of news.
"I have no statement to make," said
Hansen in reply to a request for some ex
planation relative to the disaster. "It
would not do for me to talk. I have just
finished a report to Mr. Schwerin and to
morrow I shall make another to the Gov
ernment inspectors. Mr. Schwerin will
use his own judgment as to giving this out
for publication. If he chooses to do so,
that ia his business, not mine, but not a
word from me. That is strictly pro
hibited."
WERE MUM AT FIRST.
General Reluctance of the Rescued
Men to Talk of the
Wreck.
At first when the representatives of the
Call boarded the San Juan from the rev
enue cutter Hartley the rescued men were
very reluctant to talk. Albert Carpenter
stated bluffly that he didn't want to talk
until the official investigation was made,
and he somewhat candidly conveyed the
information that he had been told by the
officers of the ship to stay aboard the San
Juan until further orders. He was a fair
indication of how the others of the crew of
the Colinia felt. Mate Hansen and Store
keeper Richardson disembarked as fast as
they could, as if to avoid interviewers.
The ttiree steerage passengers, however —
T. J. Oriel, a Stockton electrician ; Gustav
Rowan of Ghent, Belgium, a violinist of
Scheel's orchestra, who was going to New
York when the accident occurred, and
Henry William Boyd of Birmingham,
England, jeweler, who had been on his
way home from Tahiti— became a little
more communicative after a while.
They first excused their unwillingness to
say anything on the ground that they ex
pected the Pacific Mail Company would
give them more money to compensate
them for their sufferings and loss of cloth
ing and valuables if they kept their tongues
still. Mr. Oriel was the first to break the
ice, and when he once got started he proved
communicative enough.
He made some startling statements
about Captain Pitts and informed his in
quisitors that all the firemen and crew of
the ship and the sailors of the Colima had
been gathered in a kind of meeting by the
officers of the San Juan and carefully in
structed to say nothing to anybody about
the disaster, its possible cause, of the cir
cumstances attending the picking up of
the waifs.
ORIEL'S STATEMENT.
He Says Captain Pitts Left the Scene
of the Wreck Altogether
Too Soon.
Mr. Oriel told his story in an intelligent,
straightforward manner, with great de
liberation, and with proper regard for the
sequence of events from the time the
Colima left Manzanillo. He said:
"It was about 4 p. m. Sunday, May 26,
when we left Manzanillo. We hadn't been
out more than two hours when I was on
the hurricane deck and heard them give
orders to take in all the awnings, and the
wind began to blow pretty fresh. I was
going to Tapachuli, Mexico.
"The sea arose to a heavy swell. It
wasn't very bad during the night, although
the ship rolled and pitched considerably.
At Ba. at. Monday it begun to get worse,
and the storm became more and more
furious until the Colima went down.
"Before she sank she listed to the star
board side, and every time she would list
a little more, never coming back to her
right position.
"I went below about 9 a. m. and went
into the storeroom, being pretty seasick.
While sitting there I noticed that the
water would come up to the starboard
scuppers and strike the deck on the inside.
I asked what it meant. I was told, 'Oh, it
will run off as fast as it will come in, 1 and
so it did.
'While I was sitting there the quarter
master came and said somewhat excitedly
that he wanted to see the engineer. The
chief engineer passed me while going to
him and came back in three or four min
utes.
'When I saw him— well, I guess he
knew what was up— he looked like a dead
man. I guess I was the last man who saw
the chief engineer. The ship listed terri
bly after that.
"I went to the steerage quarters and
most everybody had gone below by that
time. The crew of the Colima and the
steward and the seven men-of-war's-men
from the Philadelphia were endeavoring
to calm the passengers.
"The yeoman— a petty officer- of the
Philadelphia came to me and said, 'It's all
up with us, old man.'
" 'Do you think so?' I asked.
"He said 'Yes,' and held out his hand
and said 'Good-by!' Then he went on
ahead and when I saw him again he was
on a sack of flour, kneeling and prayiner.
"I went up the companion ladder on to
the deck. She listed so badly that all I
could do waa to get to the deck on the port
side.
"I am pretty sure that the third officer
had cut the lashings and let the lumber
slide off the deck.
"When I got up the side and made for a
boat with one of the seamen I looked down
and the ship was lying right on her beam
end and her smokestack was shipping
water. Her decks were all bulging out. I
thought the boat was no good and jumped
overboard into the water.
"After I came to the surface I got hold
of a box and subsequently was washed
from one thing to another until the weather
moderated. There was a fearful squall
after the Colima went down. G. Rowan
was washed and knocked about pretty
much as I was, and three of the men were
badly burned with some kind of acid
which had escaped during the breaking of
the ship's timbers and the ru^li of water
into her. We were battered, bruised and
cut pretty badly by the pieces of lumber
which beat around in the wavefc"
Here several of the men opened up their
coats and showed some ugly cuts and
gashes on their bodies which tLo floating
lumber had made. Mr. Oriel continued:
"We finally got on to raft— five of us,
Juan A. Ramos. Bruno Cedio, A. L. Car
penter, Thomas Friese and myself. Captain
James H. Long, who had left his ship, the
Willamette, at Panama, came out from the
San Juan in a boat and picked us up.
"Our raft was part of the bridge, so
Friese and Carpenter, the seamen, said.
We found the coat of Captain Taylor tied J
to it by a sleeve. The chief steward waa
killed by the flying lumber in the waves.
Zangarre had tried to get him out of tho
messroom.
"The time the Colima sunk was about
10:45 a.m. Monday, May 27. We were in
the water and on the raft until about S
o'clock Tuesday morning following, (i.
Rowan was the last man to be picked up.
He was rescued about 1 r. m. The San.
Juan left the scene of the wreck about 1:30
p. M. that day. Captain Long picked up
Rowan too.
"I'll swear that when the San Juan left
there was a man on a raft, Jack Hannon,
a fireman, whose home was in this City.
He has recently been married and leaves a
wife here. I know he was on a raft, be
cause I had hold of his hand. I wanted
him to jump on to our raft, but he was
afraid. He thouglft he would be cut in
two if he tried.
"Raymond Avilcs saw several men and
womenr not far from his raft and two
babies. If Captain Pitt had cruised around
there for several miles he might have
saved many more."
This George D. Ross corroborated, say
ing. "That's what he would." Mr. Oriel
explained the prominent part taken in the
rescue by Captain Long, who was formerly
captain of the Colima himself. He sa;<i :
"The first mate and boatswain of the
San Juan and Captain Long and a volun
teer crew from the Aztec, a new vessel,
who were on their way up here, did most
of the saving of the shipwrecked men.
"Mate Hansen told Captain Pitts he saw
four men on a raft. I know the San Juan
must have left about the time I said it did,
because I woke up about 2:30 or 3 p. m. and
the San Juan was well on her way to Man
zanillo.
"The story I pot from the sailors of the
Others Failed
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