A TIDAL WAVE

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20988, 17 October 1933, Page 14

A TIDAL WAVE

NIGHT OF TERROR CHATHAMS EXPERIENCES IN THE 'SIXTIES The recent tidal wave at the Chatham Islands has recalled to Mrs A. W. Palmer, of Christchurch, who lived in the Chathams for many years, an experience on August 14, 18S8, when a huge tidal wave, caused by an earthquake in Peru, swept the coast and caused a great deal of damage. In a letter to her daughter, written many years afterwards. Mrs Palmer recalled the terrifying sensations of the night when the phenomenon occurred. "Before you were born, and soon lifter my marriage," says, "I lived on a little beach very near the sea, in fact a very high tide would sometimes reach the short breakwater we had m front of the house, more to keep the sand bank from falling away than to keep the water out of the bit of garden we had in front of our onestoreyed house. There was a little hill at the back some two chains or so from the house. On top there was a large flat where rny mother lived. The hill was only about 50 or W ieet high, but being clay it was very slippery to climb. ~ "One night we walked along the beach and admired the moon on the j water, which was as smooth as glass, not a ripple, only tiny waves lapping the shore lazily.' It was a perfect.ru ght —light as day and the air was so still, not a breath of wind. Then we went to bed. Your father and I were both sound sleepers, the blind was up, and the window open, when suddenly we were both sitting up in bed wide awake, with a sense of something happening, but not a sound or sight to disturb us. We could see the bright light from the moon through the window. Presently the dog Tipo began to howl such a weird sound at 1 o'clock in the morning. 'What is it?' I said. Your .father said he would go out and let Tipo loose. This he did and came running in looking very serious and said, "There must have been an extra high tide as there is a little water in the vard and that is what made Tipo howl I expect.' I felt so alarmed and yet at What, I did not know. There was an ■Uncanny stillness, the air seemed full of a boreboding of disaster, I think we were paralysed. Of course all this took but a very short time, although it seemed ages then.

A Strange Spectacle. "Strangely we did not speak to each Other much, just looked out of the Window, and then I heard water gently running from under the house. Presently the tide seemed lower and lower, still with only the slight sucking sound as if something were drawing it out of the bay, which was what happened. Before our eyes in a very short space of time the whole bay was empty, quite bare of water, only seaweed, great and beautiful heaps of it, and rocks which we never knew n were there. We could even see the sand at the bottom. "We might have fled up the hill had we gone then, but we seemed fascinated at the wonderful sight before us and did not move. Then we saw a huge wall of water rushing up the bay many feet high, coming like a regiment of soldiers towards us. We thought to run then, but it was too late. In an instant the huge mass of water was on our doomed little home, tearing up the trees in front and swirling all the cords of firewood about and against our house making a most awful din. The water seemed like a demon venting its fury on everything it reached and trying to get at us. It was as well there were trees and a ponga close to the fence, for these saved the house a little, although it was wrenched from the chimneys which were built to the outside wall and left them standing. It also wrenched off the piles. Your father picked me up and sat me on a high chest of drawers when he saw the water in the house. I could not move nor speak. I seemed frozen. Everything in the house was floating about and knocking against the walls. "By this time the wave, having spent its fury against the hill at the back, receded with a terribly swift and sucking sound back to the bay. I shall never forget the strength of ihe drawback as it sucked everything away into the bay and left the beach bare. Then we, who had been frozen with horror, seemed to thaw. We rushed to get out and found the door fast, but your father managed to break a way through and we scrambled up the hill with Tipo at our heels. I think she had been on high ground when the big wave came. She seemed thankful to see us safe. This thought came to me afterwards, as I was too frightened at the time to notice it. "The people on the hill were asleep and did not know anything unusual had happened. My mother was rather surprised to see us at a few minutes past one o'clock in the morning. It was a surprise party. We sat by the fire and drank the best cup of tea I have ever had in my life; at least it was the most welcome.

Awful Minutes. "The horror of those awful minutes stayed with me for years, although 1 Jived on that same beach for some 10 years afterwards, but I was never happy when the sea was rough, and at length we left it and went inland to live. "While the water was rushing right to the foot of the hill the din was awful. All sorts of things seemed to be dashed against the house. We could hear the dogs howling and the poor fowls squawking just before the wave reached us. No doubt the poor things knew of their danger. The fowls we never saw again, nor the firewood. "We had several cords carted in the day before ready for stacking. Probably these things and the trees in front helped to break the force of the water, otherwise we might have been dragged out to sea. Our boat was washed away, and afterwards found across the bay, bottom upwards, on the sand, and except for the loss of the oars and rudder, very little the Worse, strange to say. "We heard afterwards that one man Jvas drowned—a native who saw his boat being washed out to sea, and tried to save it. All the next day the sea was heaving, ebbing, and flowing an a sullen, angry mood, as if it •wanted to do it again and had not sufficient force to go farther than the bank. The water was filled with all sorts of strange seaweeds and logs etc., and for days was muddy-looking. 'Your father (this was 7 Irs Palmer's first husband, Lieutenant W. H S Beamish), who had as you know been through the Indian Mutiny, said that the tidal wave was the most awful thing he had ever witnessed. Although Jt lasted but a short time it seemed a lifetime to us. Although such a terrible thing, it was grand too. The ■nigh curling wave, many feet high corning from about two miles without a break rolling on so swiftly and yet so evenly and with a mighty roar, the wnte foam on top of the walls of svater and the lovely sky and bright moonlight, made a grand although awe-inspiring scene. What made it all m ?^ SSive was the absolute silence ti^t'l 1 IneSS of i he ni « ht Then the S y i roar and tumult coming so suddenly overwhelmed us with awe &£*"&.>"*• I C ? n see yo" fatffi Zace, white and tense, and I expect Cwh! the S f I remember?tat ?th n fS?«,w POke „ du i; in ß the onrush ci that mighty wall of water reaching across the bay, which I have heard"! two and a half miles across stnu L ge things wete washed top for days after—star fish and shells, Beaweed of all kinds, some very beauwnu, but the beach was scoured out and looked very desolate and uneven rocks standing up where smooth sand Siad been."