We sailed for
Aden, believing we should have the calm and pleasant weather of the
north-east monsoon.
"Yesterday we encountered the gale from the south-west, which was very
unusual. But the Travancore was an able seaboat, and we went along very
well until we were run into by a steamer in the darkness and mist early
this morning. The side of the little steamer was stove in, and she began to
fill. We put on our life-preservers, and prepared for the worst. We
stretched a life-line fore and aft, and listened to the gurgling waters
below deck. Suddenly, when she was partly filled with water, she capsized.
We clung to the life-line, which unhitched forward.
"Of course we expected she would go down; but she did not for several
hours. We had our life-preservers on, and we made fast the lines forward,
which saved us from being washed off the bottom of the vessel. I had a
revolver in my pocket, and when I saw the port light of your steamer, I
fired it, and we all shouted at the top of our lungs.
"We could hear the air and the water bubbling and hissing under us at
times, and it was understood that the confined air above the water in the
hull had kept her afloat. But this air had all escaped as the
Guardian-mother approached us, and with no warning she went to the bottom.
We were floated by our life-preservers till your boats picked us up, though
we were fearfully shaken and tossed about by the waves.
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