SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH EARTHQUAKES 



63 



by letting go the anchor. Knowing it 

 could not be that, we ran on deck. Look- 

 ing shoreward, our attention was instantly 

 arrested by a great cloud of dust rapidly 

 approaching from the southeast, while a 

 terrible rumbling grew in intensity, and 

 before our astonished eyes the hills 

 seemed to nod, and the ground swayed 

 like the short, choppy waves of a troubled 

 sea. 



The cloud enveloped Arica. Instantly 

 through its impenetrable veil arose cries 

 for help, the crash of falling houses, and 

 the thousand commingled noises of a 

 great calamity, while the ship was shaken 

 as if grasped by a giant hand ; then the 

 cloud passed on. 



As the dust slowly settled we rubbed 

 our eyes and looked again and again, be- 

 lieving they must be playing us a trick ; 

 for where but a few short moments be- 

 fore was a happy, prosperous city, busy 

 with life and activity, we beheld but a 

 mass of shattered ruins, hardly a house 

 left standing; not one perfect; the streets 

 blocked with debris, through which strug- 

 gled frantically the least wounded of the 

 unhappy wretches imprisoned in the ruins 

 of their once happy homes ; while groans, 

 cries, and shrieks for help rent the air. 

 Over all this horror the sun shone piti- 

 lessly from an unclouded sky ; the sea 

 rolled shoreward as steadily as before. 

 Flow long did it last? No one took any 

 note of time. It seemed a nightmare, 

 from which we would presently awake ; 

 but the agony and suffering before us 

 were too real and apparent to be the ef- 

 fects of imagination. The shock may 

 have been four or five minutes in reach- 

 ing us and passing. 



With the fresh recollection in our 

 minds of the tidal wave that followed the 

 earthquake at Santa Cruz and stranded 

 one of our proudest sloops-of-war, the 

 "Monongahela," in the streets, we anx- 

 iously scanned the sea for any unusual 

 appearance betokening the coming of 

 that dreaded accompaniment ; but all was 

 as calm and serene as before. 



pre;paring for the worst 



Our prudent commander, however, gave 

 the necessary orders to prepare for the 

 worst. Additional anchors were let go, 



hatches battened down, guns secured, life 

 lines rove fore and aft, and for a few 

 moments all was the orderly confusion 

 of a well-disciplined man-of-war prepar- 

 ing for action. Many hands make short 

 work, and in a few moments we were 

 prepared for any emergency. 



Looking shoreward again, we saw the 

 uninjured thronging the beach and crowd- 

 ing the little pier, crying to the vessels to 

 aid them in digging their loved ones, from 

 the ruins and to transport them to the 

 apparent safety of the vessels riding so 

 quietly at anchor. This was more than 

 we could witness unmoved, and orders 

 were given to prepare a landing party of 

 40 men, duly equipped with shovels, etc. 

 The gig, a large, double-banked whale- 

 boat, with a crew of 13 men, shoved off 

 at once. She reached the shore and 

 landed her crew, leaving only the cus- 

 tomary boat-keeper in charge. 



WAVING A brave; FAREWELL 



Our attention was now distracted from 

 the formation of our working party by 

 a hoarse murmur. Looking shoreward, 

 to our horror we saw vacancy where but 

 a moment before the pier had been black 

 with a mass of humanity — all swallowed 

 up in a moment. Amid the wreckage we 

 saw the gig, bearing a single boat-keeper, 

 borne by an irresistible tide toward the 

 battlemented front of the Morro, with 

 the gallant seaman struggling to stem the 

 current. Finding his efforts vain and 

 certain death awaiting him, he laid in his 

 useless oar, and, running aft to the cock- 

 swain's seat, grasped the boat flag and 

 waved a last farewell to his shipmates as 

 the boat disappeared forever in the froth 

 of the cruel rock at the foot of the Andes. 

 Thus the "Wateree" lost the only one of 

 her crew of 235 souls on that fateful day. 



OTHER TROUBFFS CAME UPON US 



But our troubles then commenced. We 

 were startled by a terrible noise on shore, 

 as of a tremendous roar of ifiusketry, last- 

 ing several minutes. Again the trembling 

 earth waved to and fro, and this time 

 the sea receded until the shipping was 

 left stranded, while as far to seaward as 

 our vision could reach, we saw the rocky 

 bottom of the sea, never before exposed 



