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National Geographic : 1915 Jan
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE Meantime the heavy guns, that had been cast adrift in a vain attempt to throw them overboard to lighten the ship when she grounded, were running riot. With every "send" of the sea the guns rushed madly from side to side, crushing every thing, animate or inanimate, in their path, and strewing the deck with bloody victims. There is nothing more to be dreaded than a gun on an old-time mount adrift in a seaway; it seems possessed of a demon, and baffles ordinary means of control. Some of the "America's" spars had been carried away and still further lumbered her deck, and, worse than all, fire had broken out near the engine-room and threatened the after powder maga zine. A HEROIC MIDSHIPMAN Finding the Peruvians so panic-stricken as to be of no use, our gallant young mid shipman, only a lad of 18, quickly took command, with his crew of 13 men. Mak ing a line fast around his waist, he was lowered into the burning hold and flooded the powder magazine; then by choking the rampant guns with masses of ham mocks piled on them he soon had them secured, extinguished the fire, and, after quieting the natives, calmly awaited events. No one born under our glorious flag could help feeling proud of the courage, discipline, and self-reliance displayed by our officers and men at this awful test of bravery and fidelity to duty. While the crew of the Peruvian ship was simply an ungovernable mob, whose cries pierced the air, our men stood in battle array, grouped around the guns, every man at his station, ready to obey any order given by the keen-eyed first lieutenant; not a word spoken or a movement made, except when a sharp command called for instant obedience! When men are taught self-discipline and control, as were our sailors during the four years of battle and storm which we had just passed through in our Civil War, not even nature's greatest convul sions can shake their nerve, and in this awful test of courage they determined if they could not live they would at least emulate the example of the heroes of the "Fredonia" and show how American sailors could die. THE GRAVES GIVE UP THEIR DEAD As the last rays of the setting sun fell on the heights of the Andes, we saw to our horror that the graves, where the ancients had entombed their dead, on the sloping side of the mountain, had opened, and in concentric rows, like chairs in an amphitheater, the mummies of the long buried and forgotten aborigines rose to the surface. They had been buried in a sitting posture, facing the sea. The soil, impregnated with niter, had thoroughly preserved them, *and the violent shocks disintegrating the dry earth was now ex posing this long-buried, frightful city of the dead. Words cannot paint the ghast liness of the scene. In addition to what we had already experienced, to our ex cited imagination it seemed as if the day of judgment had come, the earth was passing away, and the bitterness of a death so full of terrors as no imagination can conceive was now to befall us. It had now been dark for some time and we knew not where we were, the absence of the usual beacon and shore lights adding to our confusion. About 8.30 p. m. the lookout hailed the deck and reported a breaker approaching. Looking seaward, we saw, first, a thin line of phosphorescent light, which loomed higher and higher until it seemed to touch the sky; its crest, crowned with the death light of phosphorescent glow, showing the sullen masses of water below. Heralded ,by the thundering roar of a thousand breakers combined, the dreaded tidal wave was upon us at last. Of all the horrors of this dreadful time, this seemed the worst. Chained to the spot, helpless to escape, with all the preparations made which human skill could suggest, we could but watch the monster wave approach without the sustaining help of action. That the ship could ride through the masses of water about to overwhelm us seemed impossible. We could only grip the life-line and wait the coming catas trophe. AT LAST THE TIDAL WAVE With a crash our gallant ship was over whelmed and buried deep beneath a semi-
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