The Great Galveston Disaster / Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

BOYS RESCUE FORTY PEOPLE.

During the storm Saturday night, the Boddinker boys, with the aid of a hunting skiff, rescued over forty people and took them to the University building, where they found shelter from the wind and waves. The little skiff was pushed by hand, the boys not being able to use oars or sticks in propelling it, and is to be set aside in the University as a relic of the flood.

Many stories of heroism are coming out. People tell of getting out of their houses just before the roof fell in on them. They tell of seeing people struck by flying timbers and crushed to death before their eyes. One man was cut off from his family just as he had them rescued, and saw them sink beneath the water, just on the other side of the barrier. He turned in and helped to rescue others who were about gone. One woman carried her five month’s old baby in her arms from her house only to have a beam strike the child on the head, killing it instantly. She suffered a broken leg and bruised body.

The lightship, which was moored between the jetties at the point where the harbor bar was located before it was removed, was carried to Half Moon Shoal and grounded. There was nobody aboard except Mate Emil C. Lundwall, the cook and two men. She broke her moorings and with a 1500 pound anchor and 600 fathoms of 2–inch cable chain, drifted to the point where she grounded, a distance of about four miles.

The damage to the lightship was slight, consisting principally of broken windows. The mate showed himself to be a skillful seaman and managed to save the vessel by his skill as such.

Along the whole East Sealy avenue the oak trees have been partly dragged up by the roots and brittle chinaberry trees are practically all gone. All the tender plants have been washed out or broken down by debris or blown away literally. Not a tree is standing in its natural attitude. Not a building in the East end escaped injury. One or two, like that of Capt. Charles Clark, suffered but the loss of a few slat shingles while others were torn from their foundations.