WHEN THE CALLIOPE ESCAPED

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 192, 15 August 1925, Page 14

WHEN THE CALLIOPE ESCAPED

ADMIRAL WILEY IN APIA STORM. Thirty-six years ago occurred the terrible storm at Apia, where, of all the warships anchored in the harbour, only the British boat H.M.s. Calliope, escaped. On board the Yandalia. one of the American ships, was a cadet named H. A. Wiley, who is to-day in Auckland, commander of the Fifth Battleship Division, his ship boinf* the West Virginia.

The evening of March 15, 18S9, was calm at Apia —the harbour as smooth as glass. Within twelve hours a furious cyclone was raging. Before daybreak the German ship Eber was swamped by the mountainous waves, and went to the bottom with 71 men.

The Adler was lifted like a straw, and flung on nMatafele reef, 25 of her crew perishing. The third German ship, the Olga, was beached later.

The fate of the Eber and the Adler determined Captain Kane, of the Calliope, to take a chance, and getting up steam, he made for the open sea, despite the risk of being blown on to the reefs. The sailors of the U.S.s. Trenton stood and cheered the British ship as she forged her way out against the hurricane.

The American ships, the Trenton, Vandalia and Nipsic. could not have followed her example had they wished. With anchors down and full steam ahead, they were not able to hold their own. The Nipsic was the first to go ashore on the afternoon of March 17, and later the Vandalia grounded. Though only fifty yards from the shore, it was impossible to get a line to her, and the seas swept her decks with such fury that the crew had to take to the rigging. One by one they were washed from their hold, or fell through fatigue, more than 100 perishing thus.

"I remember it all right," said Admiral Wiley, when the famous hurricane was mentioned. "Both the Nipsic and the Trenton went aground, and most of us transferred to the Trenton. Then I swam to the Nipsic with the idea of getting a line ashore, but there was not a soul on board. It was a question of mv own life then.

"The waves were breaking over my head, but once when I got above water. I spied a companion ladder that had been washed from one of the ships. I got to it and clung on but every now and again it would be turned right over. How I got ashore I don't know."