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| Brtitish steamship Roddam anchored at Castries, St. Lucia. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, May 19, 1902.
STORY OF THE RODDAM.
Captain Freeman Tells of the Terrible Experience.
IS IN HOSPITAL AT ST. LUCIA.
Roddam Just Arrived and Anchored at St. Pierre When the Eruption Took Place—Volumes of Red Hot Matter Fell on Vessel, Burning Ship and Killing and Injuring Men.
New York, May 19.—The Norton line steamer Etona, Captain Cantell, arrived here from the River Plata, via St. Lucia, where she called for bunker coal on May 10.
"At St. Lucia on May 11," said Captain Cantell, "I went on board of the British steamer Roddam, which had escaped from the terrible volcanic eruption at Martinique three days before.
"The ship was covered with a mass of fine bluish grey dust or ashes of cement-like appearance. In some parts it lay two feet deep on the decks. This matter had fallen in a red hot state all over the steamer, setting fire to everything it struck that was burnable, and when it fell on the men on board burned off limbs and large pieces of flesh. This was shown by finding portions of human remains when the decks were cleared of the debris.
"The rigging, ropes, tarpaulins, sails and awnings were charred or burned and most of the upper stanchions and spars had been swept overboard or destroyed by the fire. Skylights were smashed and cabins were filled with volcanic dust.
"I visited the captain of the Roddam in the hospital at St. Lucia, where he gave me an account of his terrible experience. He had just arrived and anchored at St. Pierre, Martinique, on the morning of Thursday, May 8.
"The captain was standing near the accommodation ladder talking to the vessel's agent, who had come on board, when he saw what appeared to be an enormous black cloud, like a wall with patches of fire in it, approaching the sea from the land. With it came an immense tidal wave of boiling water, accompanied by a loud and terrible noise. He shouted 'take shelter' to the crew. Immediately the steamer was caught and tossed over on her side, almost capsizing. Darkness fell like a pall and volumes of red hot matter showered down, while the air was thick with sulphurous [sic] fumes and dust. The sea was a confused mass of boiling mud.
Ship Was Set On Fire.
"Fire broke out in different parts of the ship. Screams, groans and shouts of agony from the injured people, mingled with the terrible noise of boiling water and rushing air, together with the falling fire, caused a most horrible confusion and frightful din. This shock lasted for a few minutes.
"The captain of the Roddam, knowing that his vessel had steam up, and instantly realizing the necessity of escape, rushed to the engine room annunciator and signalled below to start the engines at full speed.
"The terrific tidal wave which had swept over the Roddam and nearly capsized her, had parted the cable and the vessel was adrift. When the engines started it was found that the steering gear had become disabled in some manner and could not be worked.
"For more than an hour the Roddam's engines were worked, backing and going ahead, with the hope of bringing her head toward the sea and away from land. Once she got dangerously near the steamer Roraima. Both vessels were in flames. Some of those aboard jumped into the boiling water; some fell dying to the deck. All this time the red hot matter was falling and the water was hissing and steaming dense masses of vapor. Smoke and dust filled the air and poisonous fumes spread about.
Steering Gear Disabled.
"After some time the Roddam's steering gear moved a little and enabled the captain to head her out to sea and with considerable difficulty he managed to steer her a little distance from the land. As the air cleared the scene on board of the ill-fated Roddam became all the more ghastly. The ship steamed on through thick hot dust. The screams from the injured became more audible. Some rushed frantically about with their clothes on fire and large pieces of flesh burned from their arms; others in their agony lay writhing in the red hot dust.
"In about two hours the air became gradually clear. An investigation of the casualties on board showed that besides the captain, who was frightfully injured, only two engineers, two sailors and the boatswain were able to do duty.
"Fire was still burning about the ship and the rigging was in flames. The captain decided to try to reach the Island of St. Lucia, 45 miles distant. This he succeeded in doing by 6 o'clock on the evening of May 8. The steamer was difficult to handle owing to the partially disabled steering gear which could not be made to work properly. In the time occupied on this terrible voyage the experience of the survivors was still worse than that already gone through. The brave captain and his few men fighting the fire exhausted and scalded, struggled and worked trying to do something to assist their dying shipmates. Those working below strived to keep up the steam.
"The captain, suffering the greatest agony, succeeded in navigating his vessel safely to the port of Castries, St. Lucia, with 18 dead bodies lying on the deck and human limbs scattered about. A sailor stood by constantly wiping the captain's injured eyes.
"I think the performance of the Roddam's captain was most wonderful and the more so when I saw his pitiful condition. I don't understand how he kept up; yet when the steamer arrived at St. Lucia and medical assistance was procured, this brave man asked the doctors to attend to the others first and refused to be treated until this was done.
"My interview with the captain brought out this account. I left him in good spirits and receiving every comfort. The sight of his face would frighten anyone not prepared to see it.
"We sailed from St. Lucia on the morning of May 11, and at 2 o'clock in the afternoon passed the island of Martinique. The weather was perfectly clear, and we had a good view of that part of the island which had suffered by the volcanic eruption a few days before. The formation of the island is quite altered and the whole northern part where the town of St. Pierre once stood is covered with a mass of ashes and lava.
"At about 2:30 o'clock, as the Etona was passing the island a tremendous upshoot of smoke and dust took place and in a few moments the ship was covered with fine dust-like cement. We were about three miles distant from the island at the time. The ship's engines were put under full speed and for a time considerable anxiety was felt on board. For an hour or two the ship was covered with dust and enveloped in a thick cloud, and the air was filled with sulphur fumes. It must have been another eruption and the dust must have been sent a great distance in the air because it traveled against the wind and at a tremendously rapid rate."
DEATHS AT ST. VINCENT.
Sixteen Hundred—Four Thousand Destitute—Aid for Six Months.
Washington, May 19.—The United States consul at Barbadoes wired the state department this morning as follows:
"Barbadoes, May 19.— Sixteen hundreds deaths on St. Vincent; 4,000 destitute. Immediate wants supplied. Aid needed for six months. This authentic.''
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Coal Strike.
The New York Sun makes the following very fair and impartial comment upon the present coal strike, saying " The coal strike just undertaken may be the most disastrous in its effect on industry that this country has ever known. At this time the man or newspaper attempting to give a false aspect and a vicious purport to the contest by appealing to passion, is either not wise or no friend of the community. The points of the contest are so simple and so clear that they afford no room for misunderstanding and no excuse for misinterpretation. They put to shame the demagogue who would have the public pronounce in favor of the strikers merely because they are poorer than the presidents of the great companies with which they have quarreled. If all disagreements in buying and selling, of which this is but an instance, were to be decided in favor of the man with the fewer dollars in his pocket our system of law and justice would vanish.
Those commonly known as miners, the strikers in this instance, are also employers. They employ other men to do the rough work for them, to whom they pay a portion of the wages—ranging from $10 to $15 a day—that they receive from the railroads, having left for themselves something between $4 and $5 a day, after they have paid for their tools and powder. In the eyes of the under-miner, the sub-employee, his employer's wages is so great that he thinks he should have a greater share, just as laborers generally demand higher wages when they see their employer's profits increasing.
Of this subterranean dispute the public has heard little. There has been no appeal to the civic federation, no request for arbitration. The miners have refused to share their stipend, but have attempted to satisfy the demand made upon their own employers; and upon this the fight is joined.
The railroad presidents, considering first the interests of the property they represent, decline the miner's terms, and their right to do so is rightfully as perfect and as inviolable as was the right of the miners to refuse the demands of their helpers, or as is the right of the helpers or any other men to refuse to buy a hat.
Something remains to be said about the effect of this strike. In the last two weeks we have had a very fervent agitation about the price of beef. Scared columns upon columns of newspapers have denounced the "Beef Barons" as inhuman, and the processes of the federal government have been set in motion to punish them as criminal, as conspirators banded together to fleece their fellows. Yet the trouble arising from the great price of beef is not a drop to a bucketful compared to the trouble that must follow the rise which this strike has already caused in the price of coal. The agreement between the beef merchants is denied, and on its face is theoretical; while the miners' union is avowed and directed with every formality that marks a monopoly controlled by some central power.
In saying this we are not speaking in prejudice against the strikers. We are merely citing facts which it is incumbent upon the public clearly and fully to appreciate. The rise in the price of beef is already disturbing industry in all directions, like a violent rise in the price of bread; but the greater the cost of coal is of incomparably wider and more serious effect.
If the miners control the labor market absolutely, the fact will soon be seen by the railroads, and the later will yield the case, though otherwise the coal companies will obtain other workmen and begin business anew. And the more impartially the contest is treated by the public and the more jealously and rigorously the laws and all rights existing under them are upheld the sooner and the more advantageously for the public will the contest be ended.
BURNED TO DEATH.
Mrs. Charles Darling of Virgil, N. Y., Was the Victim.
HELPING HUSBAND BURN BRUSH.
Clothing Caught Fire—Lady Over 80 Years of Age—Daughter Badly Burned in Trying to Save Her Mother—Leaves a Husband and Six Children.
Mrs. Charles Darling of Virgil, a highly respected old lady of 80 years, was Saturday afternoon helping her husband burn the brush of some willows which had been cut when her clothing caught fire. She was so badly burned that death followed on Sunday morning. One of her daughters was so badly burned in trying to save her mother and in her efforts to extinguish the flames in her mother's clothing that it is feared that she will lose both of her hands. Mrs. Darling is survived by her husband and six children.
REFRIGERATOR CARS
To be Run Over the Lackawanna Railroad Twice a Week.
Shippers of butter, cheese, eggs and other perishable freight will be pleased to learn that the Lackawanna railroad is to put on again this year the special fast freight refrigerator service to New York, Newark, etc., which met with such general favor with shippers and receivers last season. Cars will be run under ice from points east of Owego, including that city, and on the Syracuse and Utica divisions to Scranton, Newark and Pier 41, New York City.
This service will be begun on Thursday, May 22, and will continue on Tuesday and Thursday of each week, arriving at eastern destination on Wednesday and Friday mornings, respectively.
A special time schedule has been prepared, and all agents will furnish information concerning the handling of this important traffic.
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| Fire Chief E. N. Sherwood. |
FIREMEN'S CONVENTION
Would Like to Come to Cortland Again This Year.
IT WAS HERE LAST IN 1898.
Cortland Must Raise a Big Bundle if it Comes—Committee to Solicit Appointed by Chief of Fire Department—Rain Could Not Interfere With Parade Now As It Did Before.
Chief E. N. Sherwood of the Cortland fire department has been informed by President Frank Cole of the Central New York Volunteer Firemen's association and the executive committee of the association that Cortland may have the next annual convention, which is held during the early part of August. The convention will be accepted by the Cortland fire department, provided that the business men of the city will donate sufficient funds to carry the project through.
A meeting of the board of engineers has been held, and Chief Sherwood was appointed chairman of a committee to take charge of the preliminary arrangements. Mr. Sherwood has named for this committee a member from each company as follows: No. 1, H. L. deClercq; No. 2, M. E. Sarvay; No. 3, R. E. Caldwell; No. 4. M. T. Roche; No. 6, M. L. Withey. This committee will soon begin an active canvas among the business men of the city, and Chief Sherwood will be ready to make his report to the executive committee of the association at its meeting in Ithaca May 31, at which time a place for holding the convention will be fixed.
The association was held in Cortland in 1898, and a larger crowd was in attendance, but the last day was very rainy, and the parade was abandoned. At that time Cortland had no asphalt pavements, and in all the place did not show up to as good an advantage as it would now. No matter how rainy it might be, a parade could now be conducted on Cortland's excellent pavements.
The last convention was held in Auburn in 1900, and was a great success. Last year there was none on account of the Pan-American exposition.
The Central New York Volunteer Firemen's-association is made up of forty companies in the counties of Cortland, Broome, Tioga, Tompkins and Cayuga. These companies are finely uniformed and equipped. The most of them take to the annual convention a band, and these bands are among the best in the state. The convention is generally in session for three days.
THE NEW DIRECTORY.
Canvass of the City of Cortland Begins this Week.
E. A. Tripp of DeRuyter with three assistants will at once begin the canvass of the city of Cortland for the new directory which is to be published by George Hanford of Elmira who has prepared many directories throughout this vicinity, and who succeeds the late Samuel Parsons as the publisher for Cortland.
Died in Sampronius, N. Y.
Mrs. N. J. Henry died at her home in Sempronius this morning about 2 o'clock, aged 61 years. She is survived by her husband, two sons, Frank and Earl Henry, and one daughter, Mabel. Mrs. Henry was formerly a resident of Homer. Funeral services will be held at the home in Sempronius, Wednesday at 3 p. m. to be conducted by Rev. C. W. Negus, pastor of the Homer Baptist church and the remains will be brought to Homer for burial.
BREVITIES.
—There will be no choir rehearsal at the Congregational church tonight.
—There will be a special meeting of Iskoot council, D. of P., in Red Men's hall tonight at 7 o'clock.
—A forecasting station of the United States weather bureau is to be established at Syracuse university.
—New display advertisements today are— Gas Light Co. Gas ranges, page 8; S. Simmons, Clothing, page 6.
—About one person each day on the average is arrested and fined $1 for bicycle riding in violation of the city ordinances.
—A regular communication of Cortlandville lodge, No. 470, F. & A. M., will be held in the lodge rooms Tuesday evening.
—There will be a meeting of the Woman's Relief Corps tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock at G. A. R. hall. A large attendance is earnestly requested.
—There will be a meeting of the Congregational church and society this evening at 7:30 o'clock. All members of the church and society are urged to be present.
—The new Lehigh Valley passenger train between Elmira and Auburn made its first trip today. The connecting train between Freeville and Cortland arrived here at 1:10 p. m., exactly on time, and returned at 3:40. It carried a large number of passengers.
—The rain which began at about 3 o'clock this morning and which broke the long draught was most acceptable. It fills a much needed want. Every crop needed rain, grass was drying up and the roads were decidedly dirty. The whole face of nature is changed by the rain.
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