from B. Tudor 



jvidence, R. I. 



ONLY SURVIVOR OF ST. PIERRE; 



It is estimated that 30,000 people lost their lives when Mt. Pelee, on the island of 

 Martinique, broke forth with a whirlwind of gas or steam that overwhelmed the city of 

 St. Pierre, May 8, 1902. Only one ship, the "Roddam" escaped from the harbor, and the 

 only person in the city to come through the ordeal alive was the Martinique negro in this 

 picture, who was imprisoned in a dungeon. 



had celebrated our National holiday, the 

 4th, and theirs, the loth, of July with 

 zeal and an abundant burning of gun- 

 powder. We were not alone in the road- 

 stead — our store-ship, the "Predonia" ; a 

 large Peruvian man-of-war, the "Amer- 

 ica" ; and several square riggers, together 

 with quite a fleet of smaller merchant- 

 men, being in our company. 



While the anchorage at Arica was an 

 -open roadstead of almost unlimited ex- 

 tent, it was partly protected from the 

 prevailing winds by Alacran Island, small 

 -and apparently a lump of rock broken 

 off from the Morro by some prior con- 

 vulsion. All the merchantmen were 

 -clustered rather closely under the lee of 

 this island, near the Morro, maybe a 

 •quarter of a mile from the usual man- 

 of-war anchorage, and about the same 



distance from the shore. The men-of- 

 war anchored more abreast of the town 

 and possibly half a mile distant. 



The vessels were about 200 or 300 

 yards apart and anchored in from 8 to 10 

 fathoms of water. The bottom was a 

 somewhat sandy plateau, shelving gradu- 

 ally from 2 fathoms to 40 or 50 for a 

 few miles, and then dropping off rather 

 abruptly to great depths. 



whe:n the; earth shuddered 



It was August 8, 1868. that the awful 

 calamity came upon us, like a storm from 

 a cloudless sky, overwhelming us all in 

 one common ruin. 



I was sitting in the cabin wuth our com- 

 manding officer, about 4 p. m., when we 

 were startled by a violent trembling of 

 the ship, similar to the effect produced 



61 



