NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1933, Page 11

NIGHTMARE EXPERIENCE

CALIFORNIAN EARTHQUAKE SHIP TOSSED ABOUT AT WHARF. EXPERIENCE OF THE MONTEREY. PASSENGERS RELATE INCIDENTS. Graphic first-hand accounts of the disastrous earthquake which shook Southern California on the evening of March 10 were brought to Auckland on Monday by passengers and members of the crew of the liner Monterey, which was lying at a wharf at Wilmington, Los Angeles, when the earthquake occurred. No damage was done to the ship, although she was tossed from side to side, “Ship, wharf and everything else suddenly reeled over to one side and then came back again,” said an officer of the Monterey. “We rushed_on deck and saw that the wharf had cracked open in two places and that the' part, between the cracks had dropped about six inches. The tremors continued, and the ship shook violently. Things were thrown oS the tables. The straining of the buildings on the wharf as they were tossed to and fro made a terrible din. Luckily, there was no tidal wave.”

SMTP DELAYED 12 HOURS. . The Monterey was to have sailed at 10 o’clock that night, but a number of passengers travelling to the ship were held up when the earthquake occurred and sailing was postponed until 10 o’clock the next morning. It was also considered dangerous to attempt to leave before daylight in case the bed of the harbour had been raised by the shocks. Tremors continued throughout the night and newlyarrived passengers made their way at once to the ship, as being the safest place of refuge. „ “Electric power was cut off on shore, said an officer, “and the trains stopped running. I had just got out of a train at the wharf when the big shock came. Other people coming to the ship in motor-cars from the direction of Long Beach saw the walls tumbling out of buildings, although in Los Angeles itself the damage was mainly confined to falling cornices and broken plate-glass windows. \ “Every school in Compton was shaken down. Panic occurred in most of the picture theatres in the area, and people rushed for the streets. Traffic ,was delayed by fallen masonry, and ope of the trains that was held up was a baggage car bringing passengers’ luggage to the Monterey. The car was thrown right off the rails, and the luggage had to be brought the rest of the way by road. A watchman who remained on the wharf all night with creaking timber and concrete all about him was almost a i r^ ex '“ vous wreck in the morning. The latest news we had was that they were about 130 deaths. There were many deaths from shock not counted in the casualties. When we got to Honolulu all the Los Angeles newspapers on the ship were snapped up by people on shore who wanted news.”

HOLES GAPING AT FEET. Sir John Vicars, a prominent Sydney business man, said that, with a number of other people, he was standing m toe Oceanic Company’s wharf shed when toe. main shock came. It threw them all over the place. He looked up, expecting to heavy beams falling on them. When he looked down again great crack had opened m toe floor less than six feet from where he was standing. Those passengers who were not already on the steamer rushed out to the open ground, where the train was standing. The shed on the wharf looked as if it was going to collapse, and one of the cracks in the wharf was several hundred feet long. The cracks seemed to open and close. It was not possible to get the mails on the vessel until one o’clock next morning. “Long Beach after the earthquake was in a worse plight than Napier,” said Mr. Harold Haines, who returned to Auckland by the Monterey. At the time of be earthquake he was in the basement of the 17-storey Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, telephoning to a friend. The hotel was a brick building but its modem methods of construction saved it from any structural damage, although hang' ing lamps were set swinging so violently that in many cases they were shattered against doorways or other fixtures.

MARINES maintain order. Mr. Haines said he did not at tost realise that the swaying motion he ielt while in the telephone booth was an earthquake, and it was not until, the lights went out a moment later that ne felt a sensation of danger. In the square adjoining the hotel a great crowd of people had gathered. In spite of the difficulties, good order was maintained, the marines and special militia being called promptly to the scene. , Captain A. G. Townsend, master of the Monterey, said he was sitting m his room on the ship when the first shock ramp. He went on deck and noticed the wharf vibrating crazily and then realised an earthquake was taking place. The vessel was delayed in sailing, because many of the passengers were unable to reach Wilmington from Los Angeles owing to toe suspension of railway traffic, the power house for the electric trains having gone out of commission. He kept his ship tied to the wharf throughout toe disturbance. The wharf was cracked and sunken in one place, where the ground beneath it had broken.

“ROAD LEAPED FROM UNDER US.”

Mr. O; O. Britton, purser on the liner, was in Los Angeles at the time of- the first shock. “I had just got into a motorcar with some friends preparatory to driving to Wilmington when the earth seemed to rise -up in front of us, he said. “We finally got under way but were stopped every few blocks all along the road by police and others. It took up several hours to reach the liner. Mr. Arthur Remington, a steward on the Monterey, said he was on his way to the ship from his home in Compton, one of the towns seriously damaged by the disaster. “I was driving with my wife, he said, “when suddenly the road seemed to leap from under us and I nearly wrecked the car. Fronts of buildmgs along the way began to topple and I must have speeded up to at least 50 miles an hour. We finally reached the ship and I bid my wife good-bye.and she started back home. I do not know yet whether I have a home or not I have not heard from my wife since we sailed.”