TWENTY-TWO LIVES ARE REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN LOST IN THE STORM WHICH RAGED WITH UNPARALLELED FURY ALONG THE NORTHWEST COAST

GRIM DEATH RULES OVER WRECKAGE

Numerous Disasters the Result of the Violent Gale.

Many Japanese Supposed to Have Perished in the Flood.

Indian Village Is Swept Out Into . the Shipwrecking Sea and Another Vessel Has Disappeared Suddenly.

Special Dispatch to The Call.

VANCOUVER, B. C, Dec. 29, 1901 — Twenty Japanese were drowned or burled inextricably under a mass of debris, one man was killed in the logging woods up the coast, while a Lulu Island farmer died from exposure. These are additional fatalities recorded to-day as the result of one of the greatest storms in the history of the coast. A reckoning of the Japanese residents of Steveston was taken to-day to estimate the number who must have perished in the wreck of a large boarding-house at the mouth of the Fraser River near the Cleeve Company’s fishing station. It is certain that there were at least twenty men in the building and perhaps more and not one escaped. The boarding-house In which the men were was built on high piles a mile and a half from shore. One by one the supports were knocked from under it and at S o’clock Thursday morning the building went down., and entirely collapsed. The waves were runnlng very high over the flats at that time and the house, when It dropped, was engulfed. . . Japanese Surely Lost. – ‘

The falling of the house was observed from Point Roberts, to which place telephonic communication, was established to-day. Nothing but kindling wood is left of the main building and there is not a possible chance of one of the score or more of inmates reaching shore. The only fatality up the coast was the killing of George Clark, a logger. He was in a small cabin in the woods with two men named Crockford and Cooper. The fury of the gale at 2 o’clock in the morning caused Cooper to leave the shack for higher ground, out of the reach of the trees, but the others stayed behind. After he had gone Clark arose and commenced to lay a fire in the stove. At the time Crockford still remained in bed. While Clark was on his knees before the fire there was a tremendous crash and without a moment’s warning the roof of the cabin fell in.

Others In the camp heard the noise, and when they reached the scene they found the cabin smashed to kindling wood and Clark dead, while Crockford was pinned down in his bed by a limb of a tree which had fallen on the hut. The tree was a monster and it had two forks. One- of these had crushed Glark to death and the other had pinned Crockford down, but, luckily for him, he was uninjured. It took some time to extricate Crackford, and those who rescued him state that it is a miracle that he, too, was not killed. Had the fork of the tree gone another three inches lower his body would have been crushed to a pulp.

Caught by the Tide.

This morning the body of a farmer named Theodore Hewitt of Lulu Island was found in a pool of water half a mile away from the river. He had evidently been going home when he found that tho incoming tide which broke over the dykes had surrounded him with water. He probably laid down, and becoming benumbed went to sleep and Captain Moosy, master of the steamer Cassiar, stated to-day that a great deal of damage was caused up the coast by the gale. The float and standing boom at Bear River belonging to the Hastings Mill camp were carried away and have not been found yet. There are many reports at different places that booms of logs were smashed, and many logs are tbe seen floating in the waters of the gulf. It Is likely that several will elapse before it will be possible to form an estimate of the total damage at up coast lumber camps. Since yesterday word has come from Victoria that the vessel ashore on Trial Island is certainly the ship Santa Clara, and not the bark Bankburn, as at first reported. On the other hand, the Bankburn has disappeared completely, and not a word has been received by Captain Wylie, her master, as to her whereabouts. Captain Wylio is in Victoria. A report reached Victoria Thursday that the Bankburn had found an anchorage close to San Juan Island, but when a tug had been dispatched to investigate it was found that there was no vessel in the vicinity of San Juan Island, and it i3 considered unlikely that the Bankburn ever brought up there. Captain Wylle is placed in the most peculiar position of having lost his vessel while he was ashore, and she disappeared at a time when he thought she lay safely at anchor in the Royal Roads. It is thought in Victoria that the Bankburn may have been navigated down to the Sound, but reports from there Indicate that she is not to be found in that direction. There is no change in the condition of the wreck of the” Minnie E. Caine. She piled up on Smiths Island, immediately opposite the end of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, early in the storm, at about the time the steamer Mainlander nearly, foundered in the trough of the sea. The crew of the Caine, which is a new fourmasted schooner, had no trouble in climbing off the ship on the rocks, and catchIng hold of trees they pulled themselves up the bank. The ship herself will be a total wreck. The Santa Clara, which went on Trial Island, near Victoria, Is no nearer being floated than when the first attempt was made Thursday night. Several large holes were knocked in her bow. Reports from cannery headquarters and other Bources to-day, tend rather to increase the amount of the loss by the storm than to diminish it.

* Noteworthy

1778 – American Revolutionary War: Three thousand British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.

1812 – The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three-hour battle.

1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.

1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.