The St. Lucia correspondent of the New York Journal sends a graphic interview with the captain of the steamship Roddam, which was the only vessel saved when the awful visitation fell upon St. Pierre.
He states that they had only recently arrived, and that they still had steam up though the vessel was anchored. Then he describes the catastrophe :
“A burning mass thrown up by the volcano struck my steamer broadside. The shock was so terrible that it nearly capsized the vessel, big as she is. On hearing the awful explosion that had preceded the shock to ourselves, and seeing what looked like a great wall of flame rapidly approaching us from the volcano, all of us on board sought shelter wherever it was possible to get away from the terrible hail which then began to fall around us.
“I myself ran into the chart-room, but the burning embers were borne so swiftly upon us that they swept in through the door, almost nearly suffocating me and scorching me very badly. I managed to reach the deck, where I mustered a few of the survivors, and ordered them to slip the cables.
“Whilst this was being done I leaped upon the bridge, and instantly we were clear I rang to the engineer for full speed astern.
“The second and third engineers as well as the firemen had escaped injury. They bravely did their part at this awful time, but the part of the deck was so terrible that the men could not work there.
“The steering-gear became choked by a mass of debris that had fallen on the ship and clogged up every part of her. Accordingly, after running for some time astern, I rang again, and went ahead, and continued this until the gear was cleared from the ashes and dust that seemed to block everything; but in this running backwards and forwards it was two hours before we cleared the roadstead, and then it was completely dark. All that time a terrible shower had been falling upon us.
“When we finally made our course away from the doomed spot the only light we saw was the flames bursting out of the volcano.
“We passed out of the harbour we passed the steamship Roraima, which was then one mass of flame, with a cloud of steam rushing from the engine-room. The screams of the sufferers on the doomed ship were terrible to hear; but it was impossible for us to render any aid. When last seen the Roraima was settling down by the stern.
“On our arrival at St. Lucia we.found some of our crew dead in the saloon, where they had sought shelter in vain.
“The ship was covered with tons of powdered lava, which remained hot for hours.
“The escape of our vessel was nothing short of miraculous. Everything on deck was constantly igniting, and there was the greatest difficulty in keeping the flames down.”
The members of the crew of the Roddam who survive are loud in their praises of the heroism shown by the captain in steering the vessel out of danger with his own hands, which were badly burned by the rain of fire, and the spectacle presented by the vessel herself, as she crawled slowly into Castries Barbour (St. Lucia) on Thursday afternoon, was pitiable. She was absolutely unrecognisable, being grey with volcanic ashes from stem to stern, while the rigging was dismantled and all her sails hanging torn and charred.
The Westminster Gazette, London, England, May 12, 1902