THRILLING SEA STORY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1996, 4 February 1907, Page 1

THRILLING SEA STORY.

ISLAND HOSPITAL COLLAPSES IN A lIUIUUCAN'JJ. A thrilling story of tlio son was related, says the “Daily News,” when the West Hartlepool steamer Kirkstall reached Shields from America. While loading pitch pine timber at Pensacola, Florida, for the homeward voyage, a serious outbreak ol lever occurred on hoard, necessitating eight of the crew being removed to the quarantine station. The hospital for the reception of cases from inward,bound vosels is a wooden structure, built on an island about five or six miles from the shore, and the vessels from which these cases are taken havo to remain in the open waterway and hold no communication with the shore while the process of disinfecting is being carried out. At midnight, alter the removal| of the men, a hurricane raged. “The wind,” remarked one ol the Kirkstall’s crew, “was terrible.. I had never experienced anything like it before in the whole of my seafaring career.” The bridge roof of the steamer was bodily torn from the beams, lifted high in the air. and de posited on the deck, and the seas canto down with such force that the vessel was sometimes lifted almost, out of the water. Fortunately tho cables held, hut it was necessary to work the engines continually to keen the steamer’s head to tlie seas. In tins way the. vessel managed to ride out the storm. It was different with the men in tho hospital. The action of the water during the night gradually undermined tho foundations, and at about o o’clock tho following morning the whole structure collapsed. The wooden hospital becamo detached, and it and its occupants were tossed about like a toy in tho angry sea. Ins.ide wore the eight fever-stricken men from the Kirkstall and the attendants. All this was seen from tho steamer, but it was, of course, an impossibility to render assistance. The drifting sick chamber was driven 1 eforo the relentless fury of the-gale, sometimes one way up, sometimes another, about six miles in the direction of Pensacola. Then the wind suddenly chopped round, and it completely capsized. Almost simultaneously. the wills ■■racked and parted, and the sick men and attendants were revealed clinging to the roof, which had nou become not id * p less than a tl.siting raft. To add to the terror the ro w itself began to break up. ami the struggle resolved itself into ■ sit in fight against death. iff" men, though weak and emaciated, fought brovely. Some were washed off the wreckage again and again, but again and again they managed to regain their hold. Some were washed ashore, but three of the men lost their lives. The steward was one of these. He was caught in tho hack-wash and carried underneath some timber when ho had almost reached safety.