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Made a Brave Fight Before He
Succumbed |
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Capt. T. Lawrence, a Yukon river steamboat captain, who is
employed during the summer season by the White Pass and Yukon route, left the steamship in the
first boat launched at the request of Capt. Roberts, and wad thrown adrift by the capsizing of
the boat before it got away from the 'Clallam's' side. Capt. Lawrence was observed by some of
the surviving members of the crew to strike out for the steamer and call for a rope to be
thrown him from the vessel. In response to the cries of Lawrence and others of the boat's crew,
ropes were thrown out and one of these was seized upon by Capt. Lawrence.
But two men were holding to the rope on the steamer's deck, and one of them was called away by other matters and the other was unable to haul in the rope. He succeeded in making the rope fast and called to Capt. Lawrence to hold on until he could secure assistance. Thus Capt. Lawrence would have been able to do but for the fact that another of the men struggling in the water seized upon him and unable to sustain the weight of both, Capt. Lawrence lost his hold on the rope. Another witness of this said that when the boat capsized Capt. Lawrence, a powerful swimmer, swam back toward the 'Clallam'. In some manner he managed to reach a rope hanging over the vessels side, holding on in an exhausted and half-hearted manner. For a moment he clung there, almost safe from the storm, then releasing his grasp, sank back into the sea. Few of those on board were witnesses to this tragic features of the lifeboat's loss, and before they could help him Capt. Lawrence had perished. |