A mountain of water shooting skyward,
mingled with fragments of the steamer and bodies of men. As the spars
and timbers dropped back into the sea, there floated on the surface but
splinters where a few seconds before the proud steamer had stood. The
Loa and her crew had been swept into eternity. It was then a cheer rang
out from the little gig far in under the shore. A bold, dangerous game
had been played and won.
The most emphatic orders were issued after the destruction of the Loa,
by the Chilean officers to their crews, to pick up nothing without the
utmost care and the most rigid examination. On an afternoon several days
after the above order had been issued, the Covodonga steamed slowly
along in bright, calm weather, on a cruise to the southward of Callao.
One of the crew sighted a pleasure row boat. The man reported it and the
Captain was about ordering the guns turned on it, when an officer
approached him and said:
"Let us examine it. We may learn something."
The Captain consented to the officer going off to the little boat; but
with repeated instructions to examine carefully before touching it. It
proved to be a beautifully built lady's pleasure boat that had broken
from its moorings and drifted seaward, a piece of frayed line still
hanging from her bow.
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