Show earthquake PLAYED PING PONG WITH MAN OF WAR earthquakes play queer pranks recent seismic disturbances in italy have attracted renewed attention to this phenomenon and recall an amazing incident in the annals of the file american navy in which a united states man of war was carried on the crest of a tidal wave three miles up the coast two miles inland and set down entirely unharmed within a hundred feet of the andes this thrilling incident is recounted in a communication to the national geographic society by one of the participants rear admiral L G billings U S N retired as follows in 1868 1 I was attached to the U S S Wit wateree teree then on duty in the south pacific one of a class of boats built at the close of the civil to ascend the narrow tortuous rivers of the south she was termed a double ender having a rudder at each end and was vias quite flat bottomed a conformation which while it did riot not add to her seagoing sea going worthiness enabled cpr to carry a large battery and crew and eventually saved our lives in the catastrophe which was soon to come upon us august found us quietly at anchor oft off the pretty peruvian town of arica whither we had bad towed the old united states fredonia to escape the hie ravages of yellow fever then desolating callao ind and lima it was wag august 8 that the awful calamity came upon us like it storm from a cloudless sky overwhelming us all in one common ruin 1 I was sitting in III the cabin with nith our commanding officer about 4 p in when we ue were startled by a violent violeet trembling of the ship similar to the effect produced by letting go the anchor knowing it could not he that we ran on deck looking shoreward our attention wits was instantly arrested by a great cloud of dust durt rapidly approaching pro aching from the southeast while a terrible rumbling grow in intensity antens alty and before our astonished eyes the hills seemed to nod and the ground I 1 swayed like the short choppy waves wave of a troubled sea the clouds enveloped arica instantly through throng ii its impenetrable veil arose the cries for help the arah crash of 0 falling ll houses and the thousand commingled noises of a great calamity while the file ship was shaken as it 11 grasped by a giant hand then the loud passed on dut cut our troubles then commenced we nacre cre startled by a temble noise on oil shore as of a tremendous roar of musketry etry lasting several minutes again tho file trembling earth waved 1 and fro and id this time tle sea receded until the shipping vms its left stranded odille vi hilo as tar far to seaward as our vision could reach ne v e saw the rocky bottom of the sea never before ekpo expo exposed ed to human gaze with struggling fish and InO monsters usterS of the deep left high ghigli and dry the round bottomed ships keeled over ever on their beam ends while the wateree rested easily on her noor floor like bottom and when the returning son sea not like a wave annave but rather an enormous tide came sweeping linck back rolling our unfortunate companion ships over and over leaving some bottom up and others masses of wreckage the llie rose easily over the tossing waters unharmed from tills this moment the sea seemed to defy the laws lains of nature currents ran in III contrary directions and we tt A ere borne here and there with a speed vie could not have equaled had we been steaming for our lives at irregular intervals the earthquake shocks recurred but none cone of them so violent or long continued as the first about 81 8 aso 1 0 p in m the alie lookout hailed the deck and reported a breaker approaching pro aching looking seaward we saw first a thin line of phosphorescent light which loomed higher and lillier until it seemed to touch the sky its crests crest crowned with the death light of phosphorescent glow showing the file sullen len masses of below with a crash our gallant ship was overwhelmed and buried deep beneath a semisolid semi solid mass of sand and water for a breathless eternity we were wera submerged groaning in every timber the stanch old wateree struggled again to the surface with tier her gasping crew still clinging to the life lines some few seriously wounded bruised and battered none killed riot not one even missing A miracle it seemed to us then and is as I 1 look back through the years it seems doubly miraculous now the morning sun broke on n scene of desolation seldom witnessed we found ourselves high and dry in a little cove or rather indentation in the coast qt line we had been carried some onie three miles up the coast and nearly two miles inland the wave had carried us its oer ciner the sand duties dunes bordering the ocean across a valley and over the railroad track leaving us at the file foot of the seacoast range of the andes on the lie nearly perpendicular front of the file mountain our navigator discovered the marks of the tidal wave and by measurements ure ments f found aund it to have been 47 feet high not including the comb alad the wa wap carried us its feet farther we would inevitably have been dashed to pieces against the mountainside |