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Show 1ft "Santa Rosa," Carrying Passengers Between H f San Francisco and Los Angeles, Beaten ml to Pieces on the Socks Near Surf i Probably Eight lives Lost-JHany gl People Are Seen in the ' Rig II ging When the Ship Parts m W . $j& K San Francisco, Cal., July 8 Capt. ;y i: J. 0 Faria, commander of the wreck- A i ed steamer Santa Rosa, made a state- 9 ment today as he stood on the beach 9 n looking at the fragment of his ves- faing B sel which remains above water. He s S placed the blame for the stranding II of the steamer and the known loss of I four lives upon the shoulders of Offi- 1 cer Thomas, who Was officer of deck n when the steamer plunged upon the ! rocks before dawn yesterday. af Thomas, In defense, stated that he , ,c.. ' yU "over-read the ship's log and thought I lie was off Point Conception, miles H south of the point where the steamer if grounded. I Capt. Farla said the current sets I hard ashore near Saddle Rock, where I the steamer struck, and that Thomas r neglected to call him, as is customary, L when soundings were taken. j Whether or not there was loss of I life among the passengers is still in doubt Some of the ship's compnnv I E3y positively that from three to 1 eight perished, but as yet no effort has been made to check the passen- ger list against the survivors. As f the passengers have left here on var- ;T ious trains, a complete check hardly if win ue possmie. Si Superintendent Allison of the Pacl- W& fie Coast Steamship company, who m arrived today, said that the vessel jQJ was a total loss and that Capt. Pills- jUttr bury, surveyor ,for the marine under- 3jT writerar' had -given- pe'rmfss'ldn ' to 55. abandon the wreck after the passen- 01 Scrs had been taken ashore. Hit The officers and crew of the Santa 1W Rosa were quartered last night at a wt ranch house, near the scene of the K wreck, 3 jjS Santa Barbara, Cal., July 8- In &m spite of assertions from company of- i ficials and ship officers to the con- Jf trary, the passengers of the wrecked Ky Santa Rosa, who arrived here early ml toda after a thrilling battle with the R breakers that smashed the stanch II ship, declared that more than four tJjw sailors were drowned. M One hundred and ninety-two passen- P3 gers are all that have been accounted II for so far, say the survivors. There Si "were 200 on the steamer and many of ''' the rescued today declared that the missing ones went down to death when the surf-battered life rafts went 4 to pieces. Few of the shipwrecked voyagers (j have recovered from the nerve-rack- i Ing strain of the battle with the break-fjlft break-fjlft ers in the dark last night. Many of I the rescued women are still hysterical hysteri-cal under the care of physicians, who were called when the special trains bearing the survivors arrived Tiere r this morning Those that were able to continue the journey south boarded board-ed regular trains this morning and the first was due to arrive at Los Angeles at 8:45 o'clock. Others will take later trains, but a large number, especially of the women, will not be able to travel for a day or more. Many of the passengers were vehement ve-hement In denunciation of the ship's fl officers, who they declared refused i to land the passengers soon after the Santa Rosa grounded near Point Aril Ar-il gulllo. , r Captain Farla, who was making his J first trip an commander, declined to ; land the passengers, who desired to i! : ! be put ashore before the gale arose j i , "esterday evening and brought them I face to face with death. 1 He replied to their entreaties. It Is I said, with a statement that he had re- V celved Instructions from the Pacific fl Coast Steamship company offices to If permit no one to go ashore until it n became absolutely necessary. i MP Saw People In ftlgglng. 1 Surf, Cal., July 8. On the rocks. IS 300 feet off the sand dunes surround- Ei ing Uic mouth of Kona Creek, the IE Pacific Coast Stenmshlp company's fw steamer Santa Rosa, which stranded wM yestprday. lies todny, a wave-battered K wreck. Somewhere near the broken W and submerged hulk are the bodies of M Fecond Officer E. Heusen and three S3ilors, Fred Johnson, E W. Hensson V snd Jos. Pfelffer, who were drowned 1-ist night, while rigging the life buoy If lines by which the passengers and II crew w$re transferred to land All If,- of the 200 passengers were saved, ac-WL ac-WL cording to the chief steward, but con-M con-M trarv reports have It that manv per-fcl per-fcl i?hcd. fit The wreck of the Santa Rosa oc- m curred shortly after 4 o'clock in the Ijl afternoon. Prior to that time she W vas lying easily, with tow lines run K out to the steam schooners CentraHa I ?nd Helen P Drew ready to be Kg drawn off at high tide laat night. But B at that hour a rising wind stirred an 1 angry sea and the vessel soon began vi "pounding to pieces. 15 At first an effort was made to -run. la a buoy line to the Centralia, but the i-y high seas provented this and It was 9 decided to try to pass the life line 1 across the 300 feet of breakers to the ' shore. 1 Heuson the second officer, was de- f l tailed by Captain J. O. Farla to take i the 'line ashore. 'He and his men j launched a life boat and prepared for the dangerous passage. In the meantime a throng of ranchers ranch-ers from the hills and railroad men gathered on the beach These saw the life boat mount the crest of a breaker line for an Instant and then plunge out of sight The foaming waters covered the doomed sailors and they were never seen aagln. The breeches buoy lingj, "however, was washed ashore. It was picked up and made fast, and j from 6 o'clock until 9 30 the danger-j danger-j ous work of transporting men and women wo-men passengers ashore via the slender slen-der thread suspended over the raging surf continued. Before 10 o'clock the surviving members of the crew were also safely ashore and, with The i drenched, weary and more or less hys- -terical passengers, were placed on two special trains going north and south to Santa Barbara. Shortly after the gale arose tho Santa Rosa began going to pieces The combined pulling power of the two steam schooners, reinforced by the oil steamer Argyll, which arrived ' later on the scene, could not prevent ' her swinging broadside to the break- ! ers. Then she began pounding on the rocks and "her hull parted amid-shlp. amid-shlp. ePople were seen clinging to the rigging, gesticulating frantically. The vessels that had made a vain, effort ef-fort to draw the doomed steame" off, Into deep water during tha afternoon stood by .iustrotit of the- fatal breakers" break-ers" line., tielrcrews lining -theiiecks,-powerless to aid. The tug Redondo, sent from Los Angeles, came up, but dared not venture close to shore. SURVIVORS TELL OF WRECK. Santa Barbara, CaL, July 8. The relief train, bearing the rescued passengers pas-sengers of the wrecked Santa Rosa, arrived at Santa Barbara early today, and discharged a pitiful freight of hysterical women and half clad, shivering shiv-ering men. Suffering and privation were written plainly on the faces of all and It will be weeks, and in some cases months, before some of the victims vic-tims recover. All had been drenched to the skin in coming ashore in tho breeches buoy through the high surf and none had "had anything to eat since the noon meal yesterday on board the ship, except a hasty lunch and a cup of coffee, provided by the sympathetic farmers, who throngeU to the beach from the nearby homes when the vessel began, to break up. Many were too weak to loave the cars unassisted and half a dozen had to be carried from the train on stretchers. Hardly one of tho passengers pas-sengers was fully clothed. The greater great-er part of them were wrapped In blankets. The rescued passengers were for the most part too wrought up to talk connectedly of their nerve-racking experience. ex-perience. A few of the cooler spirits, however, were able to give a brief word picture of tho wreck, the long suspense on the crumbling ship as It crunched to pieces beneath them on the rocks, and the terrifying passage through the boiling surf to safety on tho beach. That no one will be ablo to tell accurately, for some time, how-many how-many lives were lost was the opinion voiced this morning by three surviv. ors who Insist that they saw one woman swept from a life raft and drowned. They say that many more must havo perished in the "numerous upsets up-sets that marked the journeys of tho life rafts to the shore. B. K. Ross, with his wife and son of San Francisco, were among tho roscued. That Mrs. Ross renched shoro alive is due to the heroism of some unknown passenger who grasped grasp-ed her as she was' sinking the third time after she had been swept from an overturned life raft, and swam with her through the breakers to safe-ty. safe-ty. "I sank three times." s"ald Mrs. Ross. "It was the life preserver which brought me to the surface, each time, but T was unable to battle with the immense breakers that swept over my head. Once, its I came to i the top, I saw my little bov just as he was going down I grabbed him by the hair and Just then a big strong man caught me and helped me to get ashore." Mr. Ross said that the passengers from the first ngked to bo put ashore. They even called to a passencer train passing on the cliff, he said. The' train stopped, "he said, but the captain' would not allow the passengers to go ashoro. - . -, "It was quiet as a mill, pond then,H Mr. Ross went op. "and it would have been an easy task to put us ashore" But Captain Farla said he had orders by wireless fromhis, company to keep -the people aboar1., 'The 'life saving "vcrew appeared oarly In the dav and offered lasslst-ance lasslst-ance but. after keeplne: them by two hours, the captain told them thcy wnuld not be' needed. When actual debarkation from the ship did com- mence, however, they returned and did heroic work. "There were probably eight lost In" all. It will be some time before the exact number will be known. Two boats left the Santa Rosa under Second Sec-ond Mate Heuson and another from the steamer Helen P. Drew, which stood by all day waiting for a chance to help us get ashore " (Continued on Page Eight.) co n i oo 1 ' STEAMEER WRECKED H AND MANY DROWNED H (Continued from Page One.) H Known as Cupid's Ship. H j IOs Angeles, July S Tho wrecked Hl I steamer Santa Rosa wa6 one of tho Hf first ships regularly to carry passen- Hf gers between Son Francisco and H southern California ports and was H f known both as "Cupid's Ship" and tho 1 ''Good Luck Ship." H It is said fully 100 persons are now H living in Los Angeles who were mar- H rled aboard the old craft and that H thousands have gone with her on their H honeymoon trips. H ' Superstition that the ship was a H lucky one and would scatter good luck H and prosperity upon the sea of mat- H rimony of those who sailed with her H ' was a strong Inducement to young Hf couples. Many a runaway match wag H macje on the old ship and marriages B aboard at one time were a comon H occurrence. |
