The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 7, 1895, Page 2

© THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1895. e e 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 me 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 foating all about me. The body of a woman floated past me. I putmy hand on it. It was stiff and cold as ice. “I guessit 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 spars and small pieces of timber, were alive. Finally there were Tom Freece, Richardson, Ramos, Loliz and Cedro, all aboard this raft. Idon’t know how they got on board. By 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 smoke. It might have only been a small black cloud that portended another squall. But when it grew plainer we saw that it was truly ak 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 spar and had fished it up, dried it and put it over my shoulders. This I took off, and we tied it fast 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 alofi. When the steamer came in sight she answered our sig “Ican’t tell you how joyful we were then. We had all about e up our minds to die on the water. Of course we bad nothing to eat or drink for nearly twenty-four hot 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 Colima! the Colimal! shouted at the top of our voices. boat was lowered and we were taken aboard. They did not treat us so badly on board the S8an Juan. They gave usclothes and cigars, and when we were strong enough to go about we enjoyed ourselves on 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 lis 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, to;, 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 unconseious 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 we all Then a 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 said. “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 see the ship was going to sink in a minute more! I reached the companion-way and wasgoing 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 gotup. But Ihadto fight 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. Ihad to. ThenI got up. IfI 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. [ 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 bow it was, but I remember of cling- ing to something big that floated. When did I eatch 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 ¢linging fast to this big thing. I wondered what it was. My face was just above its 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 eyes to kide 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. Iknew 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, Raymon 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 1 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 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 allIsaw. Iremem- 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 his chest all hurt and bleeding and was scarcely conscious. He had on a life- | preserver, or else he would have been drowned, for he conld 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 aboutin 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. Idon’t know, of course, being down in the steerage all the time.”” Eaprag nes FIGHTING FOR LIFE. | A Sallor Describes His Desperate Battle With the Waves and Timbers. The most pathetic figures in that melan- | little details 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 haye 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 wus, 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, {doyou? Allright. If you had asked me a few hours or even a few days after the event, I could not have given youa straight yarn, I was so muddled. But things are coming back to me now, and I remember better. I remember that after we left Manzanillo about 4 in the 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 maintopsail, or even a storm staysail amidships, would have helped her up, and there is wrere the sailless vessels areata disadvantage. The Colima began to tremble, and when the sea struck her she would shake all over. That wobbling began toscare 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 rolled to leeward the sea would strike her exposed side and pitch over on deck, slap- ping at the houses on the upper deck with asound 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 k // ¥ .1/ ) % 4 hilaar: gl FOUR MEN WHO SAW THE WATERS CLOSE OVER THE LOST COLIMA., [Sketched by a “Call” artist.] away from us. pose she could swim and had disrobed, as the men did, to save her life. “Inever 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 usimploringly. 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 arms was broken. Then another woman came floating past the raft. Her face was turned upward also, and we knew she was past all help. “Youdon’t know the horror of it all, and I can't tell youit. 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 clothes when I saw him clinging to the raft. It 'was & miracle that saved him in that way. Oh, it was a miracle that any were saved.” — CAUGHT BY THE HEEL. A Man Trled 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-preserver, but the watchman, or whoever it was, would not let me have one. He said there wasno danger. I fought my way upondeck. A man put a stick of wood in front of the doorway and would let no one go upon 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 notswim, 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 canght hold of a piece of the deck and clung to it. 3 “I kicked and struggled and wriggled my feet, while we were both under the water, so that I finally rid myself of the man. Idon’t know who he was. I never saw his face after we weré 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 theraft I wasnaked, 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. Isaw ten men, one after the other, relinquish their holds on their planks and go down. Allof 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 the water, One man that bad As she was naked, I sup- | 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 string, “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 Colima. 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 afternoon and began to get some of the gale, the steamer was very cranky. I once made a trip ori 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. Veryfew 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 accountsin 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, Bl THE LAST RAY OF HOPE SHATTERED-SCENE ON THE MAIL DOCK. . [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 8 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- plaming.” 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; €. Walske, coxswain; Johannes J. Nouwens, seaman; J. H, W. and I began to think that affairs were not in the best of condition. She would roll 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 suspeuded 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 wavye 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 drifiing 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 ? upon her just as she heeled over till her deck was almost perpendicular and the great weignt 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. Adfter 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, s0 I escaped the suction when she went down into her grave 600 fathoms below. Then began my fight. I would hug 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, Iam a fair swimmerand 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, orI, 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 seas.” i s St LOST HOMEWARD BOUND. The Colima Wallowed In the Seas on Her Trip to Death. Louis L. Zangarre. ordinary seaman, U. 8. 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 steames out 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 50 cranky that she careenad 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 he 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 along. ““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 five poor ship- mates.” A S 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 piace 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. Mec- 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, alsoamong 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 Mail 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 havego opportunity of conversing with people that they sent a special tug out 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 1834 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 is 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 CArL 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 Colima felt. Mate Hansen and Store- keeper Richardson disembarked as fast as they could, as if to avoid interviewers. The three steerage passengers, however— T. J. Oriel, a Btockton electrician; Gustay 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 aiter 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 valuablesif 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 caretully in- structed to say nothing to anybody about the disaster, its possible cause, or the cir- cumstances attending the picking up of the waifs. et ORIEL’'S STATEMENT. He Says Captalin Pitts Left the Scene of the Wreck Altogether L ‘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’tbeen 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 prety 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 8 A, x, Monday it began 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 seuppers 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,’ 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 lookea like a dead man, _1 guess I was the last man who saw the chief engineer. The ship listed terri- bly after that. “Iwent 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 Phiiadelphia 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?’ T 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 p 4 “I went up the companion ladder on to the deck. She listed so badly that all T could do was to get to the deck on the port side. “Iam 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 righton her beam end and her smoke: k 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 1 of water into her. We were battered, bruised and cut pretty badly by the pieces of Iumber which beat around in the waves,"” Here several of the men opened up their coats and showed some ugly cuts and gashes on_ their bodies which the 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 leit 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. to it by a sleeve. The chief steward was | killed by the flying lumber in the waves. Zangarre had tried to get him out of the messroom. “The time the Colima sunk was about 10:45 . M. Monday, May 27. We were in the water and on the raft until about 8 o'clock Tuesday morning following. G. 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 .o that day. Captain Long picked up Rowan too. “I'll swear that when the San Juan left there was a man ona 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 thought he would be cut in two if he tried. “Raymond Aviles saw several men and women' 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.” Oriel explained the prominent part take rescue by Captain Long, who was formerly captain of the Colima himself. He saids: “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 araft. Iknow the San Juan must bave left about the time I said itdid, because I woke up about2:300r 3 p. ». and the San Juan was well on her way to Man- zanillo. “The story I got from the sailors of the Others Failed Hood’s Cured Mr. C. S. Groby is a well - known resident of Dayton, Ohio, and a promi~ nent member of the K.of P. He says: “T had two severe attacks of inflam- matory rheumas tism. Itried thres of our home physis cians, but realized scarcely any relief. I took medicines faithfully, but was unable to see any improvement. I then visited a specialist, paid him $50, but he did menogood. I was then advised to take Hood’s Sarsaparilla. Idid so, and befere Istopped 1 hed taken fifteen bottles, a bottle just lasting me one month, as I took it very regularly, three times a day at meal times. Ever since I took Hood’s Sarsaparilla I have been entirely free from rheumatism.” , . Hood’s Sarsaparilla Is the Only True Blood Purifier This is why it cures even when all other medicines fail. Insist upon Hood’s. Hood's Pills g b e FOR BARBERS, BAK- B R “ s “ Es ers, bootblacks, bath- houses, billiard-tables, brewers, bookbinders, candy-makers, canners, dyers, flourm| foundries, laundries, paper- hangers, printers, painters, shoe factories, stable~ e O CHANAN RO Brush Manufacturers, 609 SacramentoSt. Dr.Gibbon’s Dispensary, 623 KEARNY & Established e Tiost lauhapad. Debility of isease wearing on bodyand mind and e Pimoasen The doctor cures when others fall. Try EI:‘ s low, | Br.3, ¥\ GIBRON, Box 1997, We found the coatof Captain Taylor tied # <