The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 1, 1895, Page 1

VOLUME LXXVIIL-NO. 1. SAN FRANCISCO, SATURDAY MORNING, JUNE 1, 1895 PRICE FIVE CENTS. OVERLOCADING CAUSED THE COLIMA’S WRECK. ., May 31 (via City of ).—Over-loading caused That is the verdict y the Mexican officials who went > of rescue. The steamship car- y cargo, and was unable to ride out the storm, which was one of the heaviest which has ever visited this por- tion of the coast. The Colima was lost in 18 deg. 38 min. north latitude, 104 deg. 14 min. west longi- tude during a heavy storm beginning in the southwest and driving the vessel shore- ward. ’ Captain J. F. Taylor proved a brave man, and did everything to save the ves- sel which man could do, but daring the height of the storm he was killed by a falling spar. Chief Officer D. E. Griflith and Chief Engineer John P. Ebsen met death in the same way. No one was left to manage the Colima, and she went down. The steamship had on board at the time of the wreck 123 passengers and a crew of 80 men. There are known to have been saved: Cabin passengers— STRABEL. SOUTHERLAND. CUSHIN THORNTON. ALBANO. Steerage passengers— BOYD. ROWAN, CERDA. ma. RAMOS. RUIZ GUTIERREZO® MANUELLL Crew— HANSEN. AVILES. CARPENTER. RICHARDSON, FISH. A boat which was in charge of Purser Walter is believed to have been saved, but no definite information has been received concerning it. The steamer Romero Rubio, which went to the scene of the wreck, has returned. She brought back a sack of mail and several small articles. Her crew report that many bodies were found floating about, but that no living person was to be seen. A telegram has been received from the beach at Cuyutla announcing that seven pessons - have landed there. Their names are unknown here and cannot now be ascertained. The steamer Mazatlan, which went to the scene of the wreck, recovered three sacks of mail. Her officers, like those of the Romero Rubio, report that many bodies were seen flcating in the sea, and that much wreckage was to be seen on the waters and along the beach. An order issued by the Mexican Govern- ment required that every effort to save life and cargo should;be made and that those rescued should receive every care. The cargo of the steamship will bea total loss. Survivors who have landed speak in the highest terms of praise of the behavior of the officers and crew of the wrecked steamer during the time of peril. The first twenty-two saved by the steamer San Juan received every care upon reach- ing Mazatlan. The storm during which the Colima sunk was the heaviest known in this section for years. But meager reports are obtainable from Manzanillo, Acapulco, Mazatlan or other points directly on the coast. STORXY OF THE DISASTER. When the Captain Tried to Put About the Colima Capsized. COLIMA, Mexrco, May 31.—Last night the train for Manzanillo brought John Thornton and five other survivors of the Colima disaster. Theirnames are: Passengers: J. E. CHILBERG OF SEATTLE. PETERS. IDOR. Crew: GONZALES. FRED JOHNSON. These men came ashore on & life-raft which they encountered after the ship capsized. Originally there were eight per- sons on the raft, but three, presumably seamen, were washed off. Their names are unknown. Chilberg states that another raft was floating about in the vicinity of San Telmo when they came ashore. Thornton was taking his sister-in-law to Guatemala. She is among the lost. Thornton says that among the first-class passengers lost are the following: | Clellan, a rachman near Coahuayata, says that people are floating on timbers off San Telmo and need help. The Pacific Mail Romero Rubio and Mazatlan to rescue them. 8 Wreckage is strewn all along the coast. Ten cases of petrolenm, a piano and other wreckage came ashore at Cuyatlan. Two bodies are reported to have been picked up at Paloverde. The storm was one of unprecedented severity on this coast. The Government of the State of Colima agents immediately started steamers for | Hundred and Sixteen Escaped. Coahuayana makes the total saved thirty- four, and they bring hopes of more. No women or children appear among the sarvivors so far, as only a strong man could stand the buffeting of the waves and the wreckage, Some of those who did sur- vive are so badly bruised and exhausted that they may die yet, and all the others are more or less hurt, one having his arm broken and all showing bruises. Strenuous efforts were made at once to cut away some of her rail so. as to let the extra heavy deckload slip off into the sea, and at the same time the captain tried to | Received in this city yesterday.] ‘has established a guard along the coast§in the vicinity of the wreck, and is doing everything possible to assist in rescuing the survivors and recovering bodies. STRUCK BY A HEAVY WAVE The Cargo Shifted and the Doomed Vessel Was Lost. MANZANILLO, Mex., May 3l.—(via Galveston, Texas.) Five more survivors of the foundered steamship Colma came ashore to-day near Coahuayana, a town some miles further down the coast than Cuyuela near which the disaster oc- curred, and they report other survivors as still afloat. The latest reports received here to-day of the sinking of the Pacific Mail liner last Monday show that while her speed was slowed down on account of a high sea, she was struck by an unusually heavy wave, which carried away all her forward houses and threw her on her beam ends. In that dangerous position her cargo, for San Francisco with seventeen surviv- ors. Many or the Colima’s- passengers were bound to New York, wher: they were due on June 21. The San Juan will reach San Francisco June 7. The Colima left San Frersisco on May 18, passed Mazatlan on Ma, 24, San Blas on the morning of May 25, a..d left Manzan- illo in the afternoon of May 25, She then drew 23 feet of water and met heavy head winds at once. : The sea grew very rough. :nd it was op- posite the mouth of the Apira River, in 18 deg. 13min. N. latitude and 27 deg. W. longi- tude, at 11 o'clock Monday morning, that the catastrophe occurred. Mrs. Brewer, wife of L. R. Brewer of San Francisco, was lost with her three chil- dren. On the raft which came ashore at San Elma were J. E. Childerg of Seattle, Peters OFF THE ENTRANCE TO MANZANILLO HARBOR. [Sketched from nature by a * Call™ artist on board the south-bound steamship which preceded the Jatal voyage [ the Colima. put his ship about in order to return to Manzanillo if possible, but three large seas struck her in this awkward position in rapid succession, and with the third she went clear over and sank to the bottom very quickly stern first. ‘When she first listed, the passengers all thought she would right herself again, as she had been laboring and rolling heavily for some time before that, and so nearly all of them remained in the state rooms and saloons, and thus were engulfed with her. No lifeboats were Jaunched, accoraing to this latest version of the story, as there was no time forit, but those who saved themselves did so by clinging to portions of lumber, to spars and especially tothe liferafts until the next morning, when the steamer San Juan of the same line, bound north, which had been hove to in the same storm for seven hours, discovered and res- cued them. There were originally eight men on the ROBERTS AND WIFE OF SAN DIEGO. | way to Panama.] W. H. ADLER AND W. J. SHEA OF SEATTLE. MRE. STRUCKMAN. Thornton, Chilberg and. the seamen all and Vider, first-class passengers, and Rob- erto Ganzales and Fred Johnson, sailors. Domingo Albano, also drifted ashore on the wreckage. SEVERELY CENSURED. Overloading and Bad Placing of the Cargo Caused the Wreck. CITY OF MEXICO, Mex., May 31.— The Pacific Mail Steamship Company is severely censured for overloading and bad placing of the cargo on the Colima, to which is attributed the rapid sinking of the steamer. INSTRUCTIONS TO CONSULS. Told to Do All in Their Power to Relieve Survivors. WASHINGTON, D. C., May 31.—The State Department officials are doing all in their power to relieve the American sur- vivors of the unfortunate steamer Colima. The first official news of the disaster came to Assistant Secretary Rockhill Wednes- day night from United States Consul de Cima at Mazatlan. SCENE NEAR MANZANILLO HARBOR. [Sketched from mature by a ““Call” artist who was a passenger on the south-bound steamship which preceded the Colima on the agree that there was a heavy sea from the | badly that she failed to right herself. time they left Manzanillo. The ship made no progress, but they were in no danger until the captain attempted to put about. During this maneuver the ship capsized. They deny that the machinery or steering gear was out of order. Survivors say that all the women and chitdren were in the staterooms at the time of the disaster and that all went down with the steamer. Survivors say also that Purser Wafer was seen in a well- manned boat pulling away from the sink- ing steamer toward the shore. Whether this boat succeeded in reaching shore at some unfrequented point of the coast or was lost in the attempt is as yet conjectural. is still afloat at sea. A telegram received by American Con- sul Faden at Manzanillo from a Mr, Mc- It is hardly probable that it ! Two Mexican schooners, the Albina and and Josephina, and the American schooner Hayes passed the Colima on Sunday night and weathered the same storm which over- whelmed her, and reached Manzanilio but not damaged in the least. The crews of these vessels agree with the rescued passengers in blaming the stevedores in San Francisco, who stored the cargo so badly as to make the catas- trophe possible. It now appears that when she sank the Colima had 216 souls aboard. Twenty-one of those were picked up by the San Juan the next morning. A liferaft with five more came ashore yesterday morning at San Telmo and another dia the same at Cuyuena with three others. To-day’s addition of five who reached on Monday afternoon with all sails reefed, | which included a heavy deck load of lum- | raft which came ashore at San Telmo, but ber, live stock and petroleum, shifted so | three of these lost their hold and were drowned, as the raft was overturned several times by lofty waves. No baggage or other valuables of the passengers or Crew were saved. Three dead bodies came ashore to-day near San Telmo. One is that of a woman supposed to be the wife of a jewelerin Pochutla. The Mexican steamer Romero Rubio, which was sent out to search for survivors, saw the body of another woman, but did not pick it up. The crew feels confident that more sur- vivors will be found still clinging to lumber or rafts. The shore from San Telmo to Cuyutlena is strewn with lumber, petroleum, cases and general wreckage, and the Pacific Mail steamer Barracouta has been sent up from Acapulco to cruise about for the same pur- pose as the Rubio. The S8an Juan left here on Wednesday He reported 170 lives lost, and that the ship had on board “half a million in American interests,””. supposedly referring to goods belonging to American shippers. He asked whether he should proceed to the scene of the wreck. Rockhill in- structed him to do so atonce, and if he could render any assistance to reyort to the department at once. A message was also sent to United States Consul Bartlett at Acapulco to learn whether he could be of any assistance, and instructing him to co-operate with the Consul at Mazatlan. The coast near Man- zanillo, where the Colima stranded, is wild, and the natives are likely to loot the ship if prompt steps are not taken to guard her, . IDENTIFYING THE VICTIMS. Residents of the Coast Who Perished in the Disaster. LOS ANGELES, CiL, May 31.—The identity of the passenger C. A.'E. Orme, who went down’on the Colima, has been a mistaken one in the 8 thus far. He was 2 wealthy Englis| 5 & member, of the Junior Constitution Club of Lon- don and a great traveler. For six months before the disaster he lived in this city with a friend, F. S. Hutchings. He pur- chased his ticket for New York in this city and went to San Francisco to take the Colima. He has a sister, Mrs. Wilson, in London and friends named Blair, who are bankers in San Francisco. He had been around the world three times. BERKELEY, CaL., May 81— Mrs, Helen (instead of Miss Ellen) Muller was a nursemaid to the children of Mrs. Whit- ing. She bhad no mother here. Her parents, if living, are in Germany. Pro- fessor Whiting’s late residence is on Dwight way, so that is how Mrs. Muller happened to live on that street. She was 34 years of age and had lived with the ‘Whiting family since last August. She separated from her husband, who is some- where in 8an Francisco, and has an only child, who is also in the City. SAN BERNARDINO, CaLn., May 3L— John Alder, a brother, and T. J. Kennard, a brother-in-law of W. H. Alder, one of the Colima’s victims, leave Redlands to-mor- Tow morning for the scene of the disaster. Alder. hopes to obtain a history of his brother’s fate, and if possible to recover the body should it be among the dead. They go by rail to Guaymas and hope to reach Manzanillo within four days. Mr. Alder carried $21,000 insurance in favor of his mother and his sister, Mrs. T. J. Ken- nard. SANTA CRUZ, CaL, May 3L—It is thought here that C. L. Cooledge, who is reported among the missing from the Colima, was a former resident of this city. He is a printer and was for some years em- ployed in the Sentinel office. SEATTLE, WasH., May 3L—Later in- formation respecting the Spearin case demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that the man who was drowned at the sinking of the Colima was Windom T. Spearin of this city. The woman who passed as his cousin was Matilda Phelps, known to some of his friends as his wife. PROFESSOR WHITING'S WILLS. He Took Precautions Before Starting on the Fatal Trip. OAKLAND, Car., May 31.—Fearing they Jaugers of the sea and periaps Laving a premonition of disaster, Professor W hiting of the University of California, the in- structor who was drowned in the wreck of the Colima, left two wills, which were made just previous to his departure. The first document provided that in case any- thing should happen to the family while on the journey and all were lost the prop- erty, which consisted of lands and securi- ties in his native home of Cambridge, Mass., should be given to his mother and other relatives residing there. * The other provided that in case of acci- dent and any of the family survived these should receive the estate. Professor Whiting appears to have been a coldly practical man, yet with a certain superstition which led him to take all pos- sible precautions before leaving the land for the perilous voyage to Panama. He was told by his physicians that he must take a rest from his labors, and decided to visit his childhood’s home with his family. Thinking that the sea voyage would do him good Mrs. Whiting proposed that the journey be made by water. The professor the dangers to be encountered, but she laughed fondly at his fears, and aiter a little consideration he agreed to sail on the Colima. Then he made the wills, and as a further matter of precaution he sent them to his mother’s lawyer at Cambridge, where they the wreck had reached the East. Professor Whiting, while not expressing any definite fear of disaster, often spoke of the dangers that must necessarily be gone through on such a journey and expressed some regret that his children, to whom he was fondly devoted, should be exposed to them. He told a number of people that he had made the two wills and forwarded them to his home, so that in caseanything happened, his family or rela- tives in the East would have the benefit of his belongings. The grief his many friends at the university and in Berkeley feel over his death makes them unwilling to talk of the matter, but a number of the wives and daughters of the other profes- sors knew of the wills and of his strange feelings regarding the journey by sea, and much comment has been excited by the peculiar circumstances. Miss Hilgard, daughter of Professor Hilgard, and Mrs. Wilkinson, wife of the superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind Asylum, heard the wills spoken of, and, while not imputing any motives other than were practical ones to the professor’s action in preparing for the journey as he did, have a feeling that something must have warned the professor that he was in great danger. “He had a premonition of evil,” said a lady at a gathering at which the matter was being discussed the day after the news of the wreck arrived, ‘“for he looked worried and anxious from the time it was decided to go by water, though he tried to appear cheerful.” IRE ON THE SAN JUMN Sixteen of the Survivors of the Colima on the Way to This City. Stories That Others Have Been Res- cued Circulated Among the Anxious. ¥ In this City yesterday a diminishing in- terest in the foundered Colima and her human freight was shown. A few of the | immediate relatives of the missing calied demurred to this, caliing her -attention to | had doubtless arrived before the news of |° Additional Details of the Horror on the Mexican Coast, in Which Only Thirty=-Four Out of Two on the accommodating general passenge quire for further tidings, A little knot of lives and a noble ship had not disappeared in the waves. There was none of the sub- dued crowd, the wan and tear-stained faces of twenty-four hours before. Bitter | anguish had given place to dull heartache | and hard dry sobs to the tears of the be- reaved. On the streets before the newspaper of- fices little knots of men and women read the meager bulletins-and turned away with a muttered curse for the ‘“coffin boat.” An idea became prevalent during the later hours that the officials of the steamship company had learned the par- ticulars of the disaster and were withhold- ing them in the hope that more survivors agent of the Pacific Mail Company to in- | newspaper men pre-empted seats outside | the railing, but otherwise the company | offices at 425 Market street took on an ordi- | nary everyday appearance and business | was transacted just as if over a hundred | sprung a leak and foundered and had not as reported, run upon a hidden reef. A still later bulletin announced that the women were in their staterooms and went down with the ship. The agony it caused those whose lady friends were in the disaster can well he imagined. Descrip- tion is impossible from the fact that those reading it hastened to hide their grief in their homes. At 5 o’clock the first definite news of the day was received. Itcame in cipher from the Mazatlan agents of the steamship com- pany, and being translated read as follows: The San Juan sailed May 31 at4 A. M. for San Francisco carrying sixteen passengers of the FERNANDEZ MENDEZ & CO. The San Juan makes no stops between Mazatlan and this port. She will pass off San Diego on the morning of the 3d inst., and may stand in and show her signal as the coast steamers frequently do—in order to be reported to the Merchants’ Exchange here. The San Juan, if she makes schedule time between here and Mazatlan, should arrive off the heads about daylight of the 6th inst. Who are the passengers she carries is unknown, save only in the case of young Cushing. Last evening the office of the Pacific Mail Company was kept open, as has been done ever since the loss of the Colima was first announced. Passenger Agent Avery and a telegraph operator were on duty tiil midnight, but no dispatches were received and there were but few callers. If there is a happy mother in San Fran. cisco to-day that mother is Mrs. William PIEDRA BLANCA, THE PRINCIPAL received in the *“ Call” office yeslerday.] might be found before the truth should be- | ously denied, but their words bore little weight with the anxious few. 1n some way it became known that the steamer San Juan was at Mazatlan, but scarcely an individual knew how it was learned. Across the bay Mrs. C. H. Cushing, ‘whose two sons were passengers on the ill-fated steamer, received a dispatch from one of them. Others, friends of the res- cued, received similar messages, but they were not made public. Mrs. Cushing’s dispatch read: MAZATLAN, May 30, 7:22 P. M. Via Galveston. Mgs. C. H. CUSHING, S8an Francisco—Am here. Returning on the San Juan. C. H. CUSBING JR. Not a word was said concerning his brother’s fate, and the mother is 1n doubt whether the omission was made because he knew nothing or because he knew too much. From the dispatch the inference was drawn that the San Juan, having spent two days in the search, had abandoned it and continued her voyage with those she Tescued still on board. At 1o’clock, in the steamer office, the following bulletin was posted: DISPATCH TO MRS. PETERS. Louls is safe. Picked up by the Barracouta. ‘WILLIAM PETERS. A flutter of hope passed over the little Quartermaster Charles Hagerstrome. group that read it. “If the Barracouta saved him it might have picked up oth- ers,” was the remark, and a desultory search for further information was the re- sult. “We bave received absolutely no infor- mation,” was the only satisfaction vouch- safed by the steamer people. “We have given our agents carte blanche in the mat- ter of expense and have ordered them to wire every incident. We wiil spend dollar for dollar with the newspapers to get in- formation, but nothing has come as yet.” Later in the afternoon the newspszor bulletins notified the anxicxus that the Barracouta had found a raft bearing six men. The names of the men saved were an- nounced as follows: Cabin—John N. Thornton, J. E. Chil- berg, Louis H. Peters, — Vindor. Seamen—Fred Johnson, Reyserto Gon- zales. The man Vindor is said to have boarded the steamer at Mazatlan. It was also stated that the wreck was caused by the overloading of the steamer and by an' injudicious stowage of the cargo. This was taken to mean that the steamer, straining in a heavy swell, had come known. Thil (he officials strenus| LANDMARK OF MANZANILLO BAY, [““We just passed a large steamer, the Colima, about a quarter of a mile cff and are now sailing on the smooth water with nothing insight but a low line of blue hills in the distance.” — Eztract from a letter by Percy Gray of the *“ Call” art de partment, who was a passenger on & recent south-bound steamer for Panama, and whose sketches from nature off Manzanillo were | Peters, who has apartments at the Russ ilouse. N \ Her son Louis was one of the passengers on the ill-fated Colima, and for two days and nights she was a prey to anguish which can only be understood by the mothers of the community. Her beloved son had started for Guatemala to take charge of his father’s business, so that the latter might come home for a short vaca- tion and visit with his family. “For two days and nights,” she said, “I hardly closed my eyes. The picture of that awful scene burned into my brain, and turn as I would the crested and tall, crumbling waves in the darkness of that terrible night rose before my mental wision and their booming sounded in my ears. I could not escape the horrible picture, and if my suspense had lasted much longer I fear my mind would have become un- balanced. ‘“But, oh! the relief that came with that cablegram. There were only four words, ‘Louie saved by Barracouta,’ but the most eloguent chapter from the pen of a Dumas could not have filled my heart with such comfort and joy. Louie is but 23 years of age and that was his first voyage. Just to think what the poor boy must have suf- fered the two days he was afloat! “From late advices I learn that he has been landed at Colima. The general im- pression so farasIcan judge isthat the accident was due to the unseaworthiness of the boat. It is not considered a danger- ous part of the coast where she foundered, and I am told by those well versed in nautical knowledge of that part of the coast that the machinery of the boat must have been badly out of order to render her so fatally unmanageable. But I thank God my boy is safe, and do not forget to offer a silent prayer for those who were lost and the ones they left behind.” CAUSES OF SHIPHRECK, Vessels Often Go Down at Sea Without a Colli- sion. Varlous Theorles as to the Manner in Which the Colima Was Sunk. ‘When a vessel is said to have foundered it is understood that she has gone down in .the open sea, and that her loss has been { occasioned not by collision with a rock or reef or others of her kind, but tc the fury | of the wind and water or to some inherent | defect or accident to herself. | Often the causes of the sinking of a ves- | sel is due to her own motive power, her | engines and boilers, for the explosion of | the one or the breaking of the other is apt | to open a hole through the bottom plates | and admit the sea. Such was the case of | the City of Paris,one of the big trans-Atlan- | tic liners, some years ago. She was speed- | ing through the water at nearly twenty L ¥ots, when the main connecting-rod of | her engine, the rod which transforms the | direct movement of the piston-rod to the ‘ retiprocating motion of the crankpin, | bfoke in the middle. The rest of the en- ghne continued its motion, and the tremen- Jous casting, still attached to its crankpin, tvas whirled round and round until it had torn a hole in the bottom of the vessel | large enough almost for a carriage gate- i way. The Paris and the 600 people who | were on board of here were only saved be- cause of her watertight compartments, As it was she sank to her rail, and after | some days of fine weather reached port in | safety. There are those who adhere to the opinion that something of this sort has happened