SOLE SURVIVOR

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 8 December 1930, Page 10

SOLE SURVIVOR

A LTJMBEE CRAFT'S END

CREW'S HOPELESS PLIGHT

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SAN FKANCISCO, 12th Nov. Back from, seemingly certain death, into which, he was cast on Saturday, when the lumber schooner Brooklyn keeled over and sank in mountainous waves breaking over the Humboldt Bar, on this coast, came Jorgen Greve, chief officer of the vessel. He was found yesterday, three days after the wreck, by a fishing vessel, clinging desperately to a piece of the Brooklyn's bulkhead. Semi-conscious, bleeding from numerous wounds, his clothes in tatters, Greve, only survivor of a crew of eighteen, was taken to hospital. He will recover. 3?rom his cot in the Eureka Hospital, the chief officer told a graphic story of the wreck of the schooner bound for San Francisco with a cargo of lumber. Approaching the bar on Saturday, the water was rough to the south but fairly smooth ahead. Just as they were crossing, two tremendous seas struck the- ship's bow. "We lost steering way, and sheered off to the north. Seas came over and smashed the port lifeboat. The starboard boat was hanging loose, full of water. The crew could not bail her, and gradually, as the ship lay beam on for a while, they launched her. The engineer, cook, and a fireman were aboard, but the boat filled as it touched the water. "I ran along the beam and found the captain. A sailor tried to follow but a wave knocked him against the port bulwarks, where he held on to a chain. Three other sailors were for'ard in the rigging. HIS IMPROVISED CRAFT. "The ship keeled over more and more. The top of the pilot-house went over with a big wave. The next took the super-structure. She was now settling. Sho came keel up on the nest sea. Three men climbed the side and got some hold, but a breaker took them off. "I saw the captain and some sailors in the water. They looked glassy-eyed. I took to the water as she went down and swam hard to get clear. I found a piece of bulkhead, four feet wide and eight feet long, with a bit of beam, six by six inches, standing out on each side about two feet. I found two other pieces of wood and used them for a paddle. "I bore away from the shore, as we wore drifting into the breakers. I was stunned by heavy blows, and next I observed I was well off shore, with the current turning. I drifted to Trinidad Head, twenty miles from where we went over. I was then pretty close in. . "It was still Saturday night. At daylight on Sunday, I was off the old whaling station at Trinidad. I paddled hard but- tho current beat me. I don't remember much after that. I did not see any of the other men."