Tragedy at Sea Claims Four Men
A rough night and a cross sea turn a routine Pacific crossing into a desperate, failed rescue mission.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The American bark Coloma, Captain Noyes, left Portland, Oregon, on the 23rd of October, bound for Hong Kong, with a cargo of lumber and 300 Chinese passengers. Ten days out, the second officer, Mr. F. J. Deshon, fell overboard from the lee fore rigging. The Captain hauled the ship to the wind, but a nasty cross sea was running. A boat manned by the chief officer, Mr. A. Seward, and two seamen went to search, but were soon signaled by the Captain to be in distress. A second boat went to assist, but both boats disappeared in the darkness and heavy rain squalls. After two hours of suspense, the second boat returned in an exhausted condition, but the chief officer and his men were lost.
“A light buoy was thrown to Mr. Deshon as he passed by the quarter, but he was never seen to get hold of it.”
This disaster highlights the immense perils faced by mariners in the 19th-century timber trade. While modern communication and GPS have revolutionized search-and-rescue, the Pacific remains a treacherous environment for those working the shipping lanes between Washington and Asia.
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