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 De
John Stuart Mill · en
When the storm began to get so ferocious he became frightened. In the
evening, just after dark, securing a boat, he started out with his
parents to a Mr. Cleveland’s, a neighbor’s house, it being large and the
most substantial in the neighborhood. At that time the water was rising
rapidly and was being lashed into a perfect fury by the terrific wind.
It was a terrible thing to start out in the water under such conditions,
but he saw that their house would not stand long, so he took the awful
risk. The boat was a small affair, and with three people in it, it was
overloaded; nevertheless, with great daring he succeeded in getting his
mother and father into it, the former being 62 years of age and the
latter 66. It was a terrific risk, but he had to take it. After getting
his parents into the boat he started out to his neighbor’s house.
The waters were rushing like mad down the street and whipped the boat
around as if it were but a straw. Added to the terrible force of the
waters was the terrific wind. They were getting along all right,
notwithstanding this, and were making for the house below them, when,
just ahead, he saw a man and woman and several children making for the
boat. When it came near enough they grasped its sides and begged to be
taken in.
It was indeed a trying situation. There he was, with his aged parents
with him in a boat already overloaded, with the wind blowing almost a
hundred miles an hour and carrying all before it, with the waves dashing
everything to pieces and hurling the timbers of the houses against
whatever might be in the way, with a force that only the most vivid
imagination can picture. It was a terrible ordeal, but like the man that
he is, he could not leave those begging parents and crying children
without making at least an effort to save them. So, after great
difficulty, the woman and children got aboard, and the perilous journey
to what they hoped would be a haven of refuge was again begun, or rather
it had been going on all the time, as the boat was being carried down on
the crest of the waves with frightful velocity.
THE BOAT CAPSIZED.
When almost abreast of the house the boat capsized. Then again Brophey
showed his bravery and that he was through and through a hero. Instead
of striking out alone for the house he thought of his parents and the
drowning family. After much difficulty, after having gone under time and
time again in his frantic efforts to save his loved ones and the
destitute family, he at last succeeded in getting them into the house.