DEATH CHEATED

Shannon News, 4 January 1924, Page 3

DEATH CHEATED

EARTHQUAKE INCIDENT.

Only a matter of seconds separated •Mrs T. Waddcll, who returned to Sydney to-day by the Niagara, from certain death during - the Japanese earthquake. ■

She and her sister were at Yokohama at the time of the catastrophe, and intended going 'to Kobjß by train. But at the last moment they decided to go by boat—the Empress of Australia, The ship was to put off at noon on September 1. Mrs Wedde'll was walking up the gangway, when the first convulsion shook the city. Thinking it was a tidal wave, she rushed on to the deck of the steamer, and then looked round. The wharf had disappeared and a party of friends who had come down from the hotel to see her and her sister off, had been engulfed. The boat appeared to mount up and up, and then it crashed down, and seemed to strike the bed of the sea. It was thought that the boilers and engines had suffered, but they were found to be intact. The next Mrs Waddell saw .was the remaining portion of the wharf in flames. City buildings had disappeared, and there was one vast area of Harao.

The position of the Empress of Australia was one of extreme peril, for the vessel was still moored to some of the piles.

"To make matters worse," she relaled, "another ship ran into us, and our propeller was 'broken. "There we were, tied up to the blazing wharf, with burning boats all around, and without a propeller.

"The Chinese crew, numbering 50, were Wonderful, working without panic. They utilised.every one of the 130 hoses, and kept the boat under a steady deluge of water. ""The next day the Standard Oil Company's tanks burst, and a flaming flood of oil—the flames being from ir>o to 200 feet, high—came down the water towards the steamer. "Our only tmance of salvation was a change of wind, and this, luckily, occurred.

"The following day the ship came lo an anchorage a quarter of a mile from the shore, and it was converted into a hospital. More than 4000 suf. ferers were treated."

Crowded with refugees, the vessel later sailed for Kobe, whore Mrs Wad-

del] was able to get a steamer to Vancouver on September 18.