ADRIFT ON A RAFT. THE WRECK OF THE HARVEY MILLS

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 191, 12 February 1887, Page 5

ADRIFT ON A RAFT. THE WRECK OF THE HARVEY MILLS

A Mate's Thrilling Story. There is alwaye something picturesque about the story of a shipwreck when given in the words of a seafaring man who ha* actually participated in the scenes which he deacribea, but the ptory becomes won derfully so when the peril has been of an extraordinary nature and when the narrator is almost the sole eurvivor of a large crew. Such a tale related in such a picturesque fashion was that told to a " Chron xcle " reporter yesterday morning by T. J Cuehman, first mate of the ship Harvey Mills, which foundered off Cape Flattery on December 12ch laet. The mate, who is a wiry little man of about 35 yeara of age, arrived in San Francisco yesterday morning at 9 o'clock, in company with two fellow survivors, on board the Orizaba, from San Pedro, to which port they had been taken by the barque Majestic. " We were towed to Port Towneend from Seattle on December 12th," eaid the mate, " and the next day proceeded to sea in tow of the tugboat Tyno. It wab about daylight of the 14th when the line was thrown off, and, the wind being fresh from the southeast, we, made sail and stood out. The Harvey Mills had a crew of twenty-five, tore and aft. She hud noa on to 3,200 tons of c»al on board. Hor registered tonnage was 2,097 tons, so that, while I do not mean to say that she was overloaded, you can see thatshe was carrying all she conveniently could. The coal had been well put on board, however, and I don't think it shitted a bit, because I noticed afterwards that whenever there" was a lull in the storm she righted and rode on an even keel. This storm came on about 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning, the 14fch, and two hours after the fore-top-gallant sail went in two with a report like that ot a cannon. We took in some of the canvas then, but the wind kept on increasing and we furled the upper topsails at 2 o'clock. All that afternoon the wind blew harder and harder, until it had risen to a shocking gale, the )ike of which I had never experienced. As the evening came on the seas began to run very heavy, and the ship strained and laboured and plunged as though she would surely go to pieces. Sho Btutnl}Ud along with her port taffrail mostly under water, the, wind howling worse than ever and the wave* hammering us like fcury.

working at tbe Pamps, " Still I thought the ship would weather through all right, but about this time I happened to go into my room and found it

ull of water. 1 baled it out, wiped it rlrv, 1 and had turned to fix the port hole and grating, when, on looking around, I saw ro my consternation that tho room was once more full of water. Then I paw that tho straining of the ship had Jone pome fearful work, and after consul tinsr with the captain we sounded the pumps and found nineteen inches of water. At S o'clock that night we Bounded ajrain and found twenty two inches. Thyn w o decided toman the pump? 1 , and started them with the ship totsing badly and now .«>howing a etfcady list to port. Eveiy fevy minutes tho f-oiB would plunge on the deck, "weeping everything movable. The port quarter boat was takc-n flyinjr out of the (•iiids,ftnd at every wuvo there would be a Shriek as some man was carried away fioin the pumfw. The decks were now cnntinually under wafer, the cabin vo^ stove in and ftiled, and, as a la«t rt°ource, we tigged the bell pumps aud worked th^m from cho forward houne We could nuke no effect on the body of water that had got iuto thu ship and wav making her roll like a log, and at midnight wo decided that uur only hope was to keep her off before the wind. We tritd this, but eho would not answer to her hultn, and after losing a jib and btuysiril, «c guve up the job.

Taking to tho Boat. ''■ We pa-sed that night the Lord knows hcm\,Rnd when Wodne-dny morning chciic, and it cotnas soon after 4 o'clock in those -high latitudes, wo found the ship on her beam end?. To eaeo her up, if pjigpible, the captain had the main and mizzeu mue r s cut away, out &a our ill luck would hive it, this only mad».' matters worse. The mizzenmapt in falling stove in the afterlioumj, and that, aa you shall hear, was the salvation of tho?e who were eavod. The mninruast stove in 1 belong boat, pounded away at the chip's nido, und waior rushed like a mill-stream into tho hold, a»d it wae decided to übandon the wreck. The only bonti left was the lifeboat, and as it was being lifted from the skids Captain Crawford told mo that he could not swim. On this, I iDsteted that he should get into the boat, and that I would trupt to r he htup. He demurred ox this, but I forced him, and aa we were thua arguing the chip gave a groat lurch and wayhed tho boat away. As it went ihe captain and five men jumped after it. There was a commotion in the wreck alongpido, and up came tho boat with all six clinging to it. They righted her, when another set tolled them all over. Ag ahe swept by the mizzen gangway, I saw but three clinging to her. Then came another breaker, and as the boat flew away into the riarknesp, I caught a glirapbe of tho capta.n and one man clinging to tho upturned keel.

Adrift on the Ocean. " Aa well as 1 could make out it vra« now about 5 o'clock in the morning, and, turning to the fhip, I found that cloven ut v-, were left, and for a few minutes we al! clung to the starboard side of the afr.er-hou-e. Pretty soon I felt Iho ship tremble and ftafigor,and so rushed to tho btarbjard rail. There was another heavy rolling plunge — a moveuiuni. that eoomed to have aU movements in ie—and knowing that) the end wue coniiog I jumped out and swam as far as possible to be out of the suction. When I routed and looked around the Harvey Mill* was just ijoing slowly down fctern fnremoat. As coon as I saw that the foundering wan complete I swum back to the epot and with three other men got on a pieco of the aftur-hou'-e dock which had been loosened by tho fall of the uaizzen mast, as I have described it to you We drifted here and there all that day^and in j the morning of Thursday saw another piece of the after house duck floating to our right with the men on it. They "tried to come up to us, but owing to the fact chat a f-kylight formed part of our raft it caught the wind and we drifted faster than they did. All day long they kept working away to get up to v", using pieces of scantling, and as evening c-itne they managed to get alongside. I did i>ot liko their society at all, for as they came slowly up to us I taw that they were singing, dancing, and having a regular fandango, and all apparently crazy aa March haies. They shouted tha"t one of their number had been lost, and sure enough they were now only four instead of five as I had seen that morning Ono of their propositions was that we should laeh the two fragmentß of the deckhouse together, but 1 would have none of them Then thoy wanted to come on to our poor raft, but v-o boat them back, and t-o nightfall came on and v,e never saw them again.

Sufferings oi tne Wrecked, "The weather had not abated in the least. The wind continued to blow great, guns, ar«d tho sea was po high that our ratt was nearly all of the way under water. It did not sink, however, Tor it had buen co battered about that Uio tongue and givoved woodwork lay along the water like a sheet of india rubber. Wo had not a single thing to eat or a drop to dunk, and yet I did not seem to srffor much. One reason why I did not feel any great degree of thirst, perhaps, was that while the three seamen were clothed with oilskins, I had only ehirt, pantaloons and socks on. Consequently my body was constantly wet, while theirs were kept comparatively dry, so that I enjoyed tho benefits of absorption. At the same time I did suffer acutely from cold, and my feet even now are so numb that I really do not know that I have any such extremities, So the 16th passed, and when tho 17th came it found us very weak, but hopeful. A rainstorm came on, and while it lasted we Bat with our mouths open gaping like co mtny young birds. That day, too, a barque hove in sight, but though we hoisted thiee pairs of pantaloons oo a stick, ' and shouted until we could scarcely .whisper, she squared away and left u§ wfien only two miles distant.

Rescued at Last. "When Saturday broke we were pretty nigh hopeless, but we brightened up as we sighted a burqeutino and caw that ehe had noticed a signal. She ran for us, but the night came before she reached us. All night long she stood by us showing her lights, but though we tried to make our whereabouts known, we could not do so. Then a thick fog came up, and when it; closed in on us and phut out the friendly light, we asked to die. Soon after that one of the sailors started up from the corner where he had been muttering and mewing, and Baying he was going out to buy some Btraw, walked overboard and was drowned. When Sunday morning dawned the tea seemed full of ships, bnt we could not move. The sicrnal, however, fluttered away, and at 9 o'clock we saw a barque bearing down for üb. Then we paw a boat lowered, and in another hour we were on board the Majestic, of San Fran Cisco. The rescue came just in time, and thanks to Captain Bergman and his wife, we were so well taken care of that whea we were set ashore at San Pedro on the 6th, we felt quite ourselves again."