The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 6, 1902, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1902. MIRACULOUS ESCAPES FROM WATERY GRAVE BARKEEPER'S LIFE BELT IS CAUGHT IN PROPELLER AS SHIP GOES DOWN - “Sandy” Williamson Lowers Himself From Deck by Rope and Is Hurled CONSTERNATION IN FIRE ROOM Is Heard by the Men Below | ith ber winter coat, all the time keeping nals Hear v | 1 the Walla Walla and a Made for , which w side at the and met get ready about Then we all went on deck. There were and | ;lifl signals given in the engine-room th: and front of the b a mo- sent me aft to the cnief Officer. Rey- s also los eman passenger e upper | Walla W the meantime 1 by Propeller. swung | and suffered a little to starboard , and | raft did not mind that very muc tch came along about 4:30 in the rig- e steamed There were ear by. We aw our raft. of the | on the Walla Walla id of the | “I wa Walla | m, one of the firemen | jo was on Guty be- | Hall. We pulied out, and suffered ex- e { low when the crash occurred, came on the Pomona, with both le He hobbled »ng on crutel moved to his room in_the House in a cariage. He B just fir] up when us. It made an awful jar below reroom and some of the boys made rush_upstairs, but the enginees ost of their firemen remained at sts until somebody passed the ex ion to rd. I did not hear any bells to slow up or to stoy the engineer himself stopped the ship he feit the collision. In leaving the no rafts around the shi irs, so I had to wait m ts and lifeboats were con way from the skip and coming back, or going around one side and then the othe; At the time the steamer sank I went down with her and my feet were hurt again in the wreckage as I came up. Wherr I came to the surface I caught hold of a bench d it kept me afloat until I was picked up by a life raft We were out about thirteen hours before we were picked up me | by the Dispatch. n I got up- turn. The - PULLS CAPTAIN ON THE RAFT Sailor Who Assisted the Master of - the Walla Walla Praises the Conduct of His Superior Ole Johnson, one of the crew of the a, was the man who picked he | up Captain Hall while he was strug; 7 lin the water after the fll-fated st went to the bottom. He said: “Our raft was close to the ship when she sank. I saw Captain Hall and th first officer struggling in the sea, and I tried to get them both aboayd, but only succeeded in_pulling Captain Hall on the raft. He had been injured in the terrible rl of the ocean caused by the suction of the ship as she sank, but while he was nd in pain for the time being he s very cool. After Captain Hall got aboard he or- dered us to go around the scene and look f ag We had a hard experienc from cold before be- 1g picked up, but the old seado; s on our lid All the captain’s thoughts were for the poor de - | 1ls who might not have succ ded in ge ting off the steamer. After eleven hour of tossin bout n the picked up by the Dispatch. =i | COMM:NDS CREW B n e CF WALLA WALLA Eli Stern Says That Captain Hall and His Subordinates Acted With Phenomenal Cool- ness and Bravery. Eli Stern, a traveling man, who was aid: € in my berth in stateroom 28 and ve | was awakened by a terrific crash. I im- ately concluded that something fear- ful had happened, and at once awoke my wife, who wa n_ the same stateroom ! with me, and told her to dres: cool. T ran to the awaken Cc ) and dressing. “I then returned and dressed, putting on my overcoat, and helped my wife -on and keep teroom’ to | i cheered up. nally we ru deck in time to se hed to the side of the { on that s forget s | We then hurried to the other side of the sel, and had to wait our time, but fin- ve managed to get Into the last boat ered. No. 1, with the aid of Captain nel Smith, who was already | | tain Hall was her, or back her, so I think | boat I had my legs crushed. There were | tantly going ¥ | following story of his_ex Against Screw, to Which "He Becomes Fast, but, Retaining His Presence of Mind, Releases Himself as Vessel Plunges. treme hardships from the drenching and . We feel under great obligations to an Nelson, who carried us through. ladies, including n wife, bore the hardship bravely, never complaining, and even helping to row. The experience a frightful one. We metimes we s for an hour never speaking a word to one ther, thinking ev 1g death to us “I wish to say moment would hing phenomenal, He stood on the deck of his lost ship cool and collected, and eve word that he uttered meant the saving of a life. The officers and crew were also brave and gallant. The people of the steamship company and the citizens of Eureka treated us with ore than kindness, looking -after every small wish we might have, and even re- fused to accept payment from any one.” B e e e e o ) H.DY RISKS LIFE T0 SAVE MOTHER Continued From Page Three. seemed to think he had only had a little ducking in a millpond instead of a thrill- ing experience in midocean as he told the perience at the ay morning: adway dock yeste a in my bunk asleep when the ran us down, but I did not hear the crash nor feel the jar of the collision. My mother woke me up and we dressed quickly and went on d The excite- ment an high, but Captain Hall and First Mate Nilsen kept calling out for everybody to keep cool, telling them that th would get into the lifeboats rafts all right. They handled the situa- tion with great coolnes and the crew helped to pacify the passengers. Every- body was scrambling for Lfeboats, and the men in the boats had to pull away to make the struggling people behave them- selves. inally they all got cooled down, and life | and the work of rescuing the people went | leaving the ship, and = | off the boat, be on in tip-top shape. I saw a big lifeboat there was room for one more in it I asked the men to take my mother along. She did not want to leave me, but 1 wanted to see her safely use I knew 1 could take care of myself better when I knew she was safe. “After I got mamma off I started to hunt around the ship for a chance to get off in a boat myself. By this time nearly everybody had left the ship, so I went up- stairs, where I heard some men talking. The first mate was up there. with some more of the crew and they were trying to get a big life raft loose. The ship was sinking fast by this time, and. the mate and his men were working for dear life. The raft was too big to handle, or some- thing else which I couldn’t understand was the matter; so I saw a raft in the water below me with a lot of men on it, and 1 went downstairs and got aboard of Picked Up by the Dispatch. ‘“We pushed away from the side of the Walla Walla, and s so far down in the water then that we could touch her rail. e mate and his raen were still up- | stairs, and I think when the boat went | i | | | down they went down with it. We worked for two hours on our raft trying to get the oars loose, and when we finally got them loose the strongest men in the party handled the oars and we struck out for shore. “The waves shed over us all night and everybody was exhausted and chilled to the bone when the steamer Dispatcn picked us up the next day. We saw two teamers pass us during the day, and all f us made frantic efforts to signal them. ‘key did not see us, and we had to float around until 2 o’clock Friday afternoon before the Dispatch picked us up. We were all chilled and completely exhausted. They threw us a rope, but nobody on board had strength enough to make. it f. Then the men on the steamer, see- ing that we were too weak to help our- selves, made a loop on the end of the rope and threw it to us. We put the loop un- der our shoulders and were hauled aboard one by one. It was a terrible experience. 1 didn’t think it would be when we start- ed off, but when the waves washed over us fo few hours ‘and I began to get cold 1 found cut to my sorrow that I was up against a serious proposition.” at the bravery of Cap- | NN, P amtm B N —n s\ ;. | v s : & \ llEyDEHBMm | | | | ! i | — SURVIVORS OF THE WALLA WALLA DISASTER Wii0 SUFFERED GREAT HARDSHIP. 5 BOY HERO DEVELOPED BY WRECK ———— A. Meydenbauer Forces Mother Into Last Seat in Boat. ISS ROSE PETERS, who was going north to be married, RS. A. MEYDENBAUER, who was one of the brave women bécame separated from her who survived the wreck and 15-year-old son Albert during returned to this port on the the excitement of getting the Pomona. She tells the follow- passengers into the lifeboats, ing story of the wreck: had a sad experience. Albert| “I was sleeping when the other boat was accompanying her on her | bumped into us. I dressed quickly and Jjourney to her home in Seattle, and when | went on deck, and Captain Hall ordered the crash came the youth bravely refused | me upstairs on the upper deck to get into to go in a lifeboat and gave his mother | the life boat. I joined a party after put- his place there instead. There was only | ting on a life preserver given me by one one place left in the lifeboat when the | of the crew. orders came to abandon ship. The offi- | “In our boat were Mrs. Captain Stream, cers in charge ordered Mrs. Meyden- | Mr. and Mrs. Stream, Mr. and Mrs. bauer into the boat, and as there was no | Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Stern, Mr. Harries, room for her son she refused at first to | one of the sailors, and Mr. Neison, an- 0. The little fellow bravely advised her | other of the sailors. It was in charge of | to obey orders, saying that he would take | QUartermaster Ettershanks and he proved oo himself a brave and capable seaman. In care of himself. And he did. He found | fact through the twenty-one hours of suf- a place on one of the life rafts and met | fering we underwent before being picked his nearly grief-crazed mother on the | up all of the men in our boat displayed shore. Mrs. Meydenbauer said: great bravery and cool judgment. Mrs. “It was a trying experience with me, | Meydenbauer of Seattle, whose son was irf suffering untold physical torture from the | another boat, was also one of my com- cold and exposure and mental pangs by | panions in the life boat. She was sorry | not knowing whether or not my son got | she became separated from her son and off the sinking ship. There was a large | suffered great mental anguish in addition crowd in our lifeboat and we had to hud-| o the tortures of cold and exposure. We dle up to keep out of the way of the men | were crowded together like peas in a pod, who were managing the boat. ‘We were | hut everybody tried to make everybody out nearly twenty-one hours before we | ejse comfortable. 3 . were picked up by the tug Ranger. We | «Ajl during the night following the col- signaled to two steamers the night be- | lision we were tossed about by a choppy fore, but they did not see us. Miss Pe- | sep and we all became chilled through ters, who was in our boat, gave the quar- | and through. The men took off their life termaster in charge her shawl, which he | preseryers and placed them on the bottom put on the end of an oar, and this he | of the boat for the women to keep their used to signal the tug that picked us up. | feet out of the water. At times it looked It was freezing cold, and we were | ag if we would never get ashore. We were drenched through and ‘through by -the | all drenched to the skin and as the cold aves that frequently broke over the snap set in in the morning the situation feboat. I laid down in the bottom of | hecame terrible. We shivered and shook the boat most of the time, and at times | from head to foot and I believe if it was I felt as if I would rather die right then | not for our life preservers we would have and there than endure the agony any | died from the cold. longer. When I met my darling boy in| “«In the morning we were off the Hum- Bureka I cried with joy, for T had little | poldt bar and the quartermaster took my | hope that he would get 'off the boat be- | red shawl and tving it on the end of an fore she sank. oar he tried to signal a passing steamer, L e but it did not see us. A few hours later Fire Destroys Lodge Rooms. we saw a sailing vessel coming out of GAZELLE, Jan. 5—The Woodmen's | Humboldt Bay and right after it was a Hall of Gazelle was burned at midnight. | “SPoaty o who were rowing our boat It was erected last year at a cost of $4000. | pulled foe dear life and one of the party The lower story was. occupied by 8. J.| waved a signal of distress. The tug, which Peterson, a general merchant, whose en- | proved afterward to be the Ranger, picked tire stock was lost. It was insured for | us up and hauled us aboard. It was a $4000. The upper story was used as a | world of relief to us all to get aboard that lodge room by the Woodmen of the World, | tug. They gave us the food and water we Mount Shasta Camp of the Women of | had all been longing for and treated us Woodcraft, Mount Shasta Circle and 0dd | verv kindly. Fellows Lodge No. 49. The furnishings ‘““There was a stout man aboard our of the lodge rooms were destroyed. 1life boat. I don’t know his name, but they GRIM WIT OF JOVIAL PASSENGER LIGHTENS HEARTS OF THE WOMEN Young Lady Whose Marriage Bells Were to Have Sounded Melody in the North Relates the Story of Interminable Hours of Suffering in an Open Boat Before Rescuers Arrived. all called him Doc. Well, the mén they called Doc was the life of the party. He had a jovial disposition and when evers thing was at its worst. he would make some funny remark and all who could laughed feebly. “Upon arriving at Eureka the people of that city treated us in royal fashion. We | were cared for tenderly and the women | gave up their clothes to us. When I land- | | ed at the dock thisemorning I wore odd bits of clothing which kind women of Eu- reka had given me. My own had become ruined and torn. The people of Eureka are entitled to much credit for their kind- ness toward we shipwrecked sufferer: The officers of the Walla Walla also d serve great credit. Captain Hall was brave nd cool-headed, and if it were not for him T believe that more would have been | lost.” BOAT DASHES AGAINST SHIP F. L. M. Smith Tells How Tiny Craft | in Which He Secured a | Place Was Started Leaking. | F. L. M. Smith, a traveling man, who | was a passenger on the ill-fated Walla | Walla, s “I was awakened by my room mate about 4:12 o’clock. I don’t know his name, but he announced that an accident oc- | curred. I got up and saw that great e: citement prevailed. The officers were then preparing to lower the boats. [ hastily dressed and joined Mr. and Mrs. Stern, friends of mine. Our cabins were on the main’ deck and I secured a place in boat No. 1, the last boat to leave the ship. She was quickly filled with eighteen people— eleven men and seven women. When we struck the water she dashed violently | twice against the ship and commenced to | lezk badly. Three men and one woman, | whose names I do not know, clambered | from our boat into an adjoining one, ow- ing to their fear of the boat filling with water. We pushed off and as the waves commenced to dash over us we had to head her from the wind to prevent filling. We unanimously elected Seaman Nelson, one of the vessel's crew, as captain and under his guidance we pulled out. Our boat was leaking rapidly and we were compelled to ball constantly until w were picked up twenty-nine hours later. “A short time after ight we sighted the steam schooner Dispatch and hoisted a portion of one of the ladies’ dresses on | W | cool. Flavors an oar and yelled lustily to attract her attention. _She immediately responded with two short whistles and we congrat- ulated ourselves that she had seen us and that the trouble was over, but in a few moments she sailed away and we were compelled to resume our course to land some thirty miles away. The wind was high and the sea dashed over us frequent- 1y. and we were all drenched to the skin. About 2 o'clock the sea subsided some- what and we changed our course to strike land nearer and about 4 o’'clock we sight- ed it. We discovered the town of Samoa on the coast about ten miles away, but were_unable to reach it until 7 o'clock in the evening. “‘A heavy surf was running and we were unable to land or attract attention and were compelled to lay off for the rest of the night. When morning broke we found the coast so dangerous that landing was unsafe, and -we pulled until 9 o'clock, when we were picked up by the tug Ral- nier, which took us iuto Eureka. “The citizens there did everything in their power to relieve us, furnishing clothing, medical attendance and every a ance. ““Captain Hall and his officers a are entitled to the highest praise f coolness and good disc doubtedly saved many lives w wise would have been lo: d crew or their which un= ich other- Young Hunter Killed. SAN DIEGO, Jan. 5.—Jay J. Briggs, 15 vears old, s killed ,while hunting at Bl Cajon to-day. He was riding a bieycle and carrying a shotgun. The w struck an obstacle and the gun was dis- harged, the contents tearing off the top of the boy's head. He was a nephew of am Stell of El Cajon. What Shall We Have for Dessert? This_ question arises in the family every day. Let us answer it to- Try Jell-O, a delicious and healthful dessert. pared in two minutes. No beiling! " no baking! add boiling water and set to — Lemon, Orang berry and Strawberny. Get a P at your grocers to-day. 10 cts. eel