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

GRAND WORK OF RESCUE.

When Captain Plummer went home to dinner on that day the Gulf was rising very rapidly and the storm gave indications of greater severity. Having spent many years at sea, Captain Plummer called his two sons, who are sailors, and the three men launched the boat and started rescuing families in the neighborhood, taking them to St. Mary’s Infirmary. From noon until late that night the good boat and its faithful crew braved the terrific storm and are credited with having saved two hundred lives. On the last trip that night, with Captain Plummer almost helpless from exhaustion and his sons fast succumbing to the terrible battle of the day, the boat suffered a slight mishap. She was struck by a piece of wreckage driven with great force into her side. But the boat held the water and landed her crew safely at the Infirmary.

Once, during the height of the storm, the boat, with seven on board, was capsized, but the experienced seamen soon had her righted and bailed, and all on board were saved. Captain Plummer lost his home and everything but the scant clothes on his back, but he says he wouldn’t part with the “Cyclone Rescue” for its weight in gold.

Some who were out in the water from the time the houses first began to go down drifted but a few hundred feet, while others were carried miles by the water. So it was with Miss Anna Delz, a 16–year old girl, who lived out in the west end near the beach. She drifted a distance of over eighteen miles, landing not far from Texas City. She passed the bay bridge and hung for some time on one of the piling, then catching a piece of driftwood, continued her perilous journey, landing not far from her aunt’s house on the mainland.