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

IN DANGER OF STARVATION.

This is just the plain story of what happened on that fateful night, but the sufferings of the next few days were even greater to the keeper and his wife. There were no provisions in the house and the supply of vegetables, fuel and fresh water in the “basement” had been washed away. The water around the house even after the tide went out was over ten feet deep. The life boat had been stolen by the storm, and not even a plank to serve as a raft was to be found on the premises. Having weathered the terrible storm they were apparently left to starve to death. The shipping in the harbor had suffered and no boats were to be seen in the channel. The flag of distress hoisted on the gallery was not responded to, and no small boat could enter through the breach in the jetty; it was too dangerous. Alone and forgotten. Who thought of the lighthouse and the two mortals imprisoned there by the storm and isolated by fate?

Three days passed and the scant supply of three or four cans of soup and fruit had long since been exhausted. On the third day a voice was heard calling from below and Mrs. Anderson recognized her son, C. D. Anderson, Jr., a boy of 16 years, swimming in the water from the jetty to the lighthouse. He had for three days been trying to get to his father and mother, having been up the bay with a surveying party when the storm struck the island. Dr. Mayfield, the quarantine officer, had brought him in his boat from town.

Young Anderson was fearful of the fate of his parents and he made his way to them as soon as possible. In a small bundle which he managed to save while he swam the stream, he carried some nourishment, but he had not contemplated that he would find his mother and father suffering for food and water. The boy returned to town and notified the authorities to send food and fresh water to the water-bound keeper and his wife, but the request was not complied with. The city was weighted with sorrow and every man was burdened with grave responsibilities. No boats were running out in that direction.

Ten days wore away and the situation had become critical with the noble keeper and his wife when the Arbutus, the lighthouse tender, came into port, and passing the light house saw the signal of distress flying from the prison-home. That day a supply of food and two small casks of tainted water were delivered at the light house. It was not the food that the family was accustomed to—it was simply hard tack and salt meat, which is supplied as rations to the crews of vessels. The government does not furnish supplies to its light house keepers, and Colonel Anderson’s home always boasted of the goodies served at meal time at his own expense.