Reprinted
from the book "Midst Volcanic Fires" , Chapter 1 The Forge of Vulcan.
The story takes up from page 10......Notes in
italics
are observations or paraphrases not in the original text.
"...The
medical mission station on the island of Ambrym was situated in one
of the beauty spots of the New Hebrides
(pre-Independance
name of Vanuatu)....the
hospital had become a centre of busy life and activity. But little
did the staff and patients imagine that underneath the calm and
luxuriance of external nature the forge of Vulcan was being set up
and they were really living over a slumbering volcano. On the day
when the eruptions took place, the wards of the hospital were filled
with patients.
In the centre
of the island...stood the active volcano, Mt Benbow, named after one
of the British men-of-war (ships)
which visited the islands....The H.M.S "Benbow" concluded that the
(Ash Plain) is
the basal wreck of a much loftier volcano which was shattered by an
eruption in bygone days and that Ambrym Island...now remains as a
memorial to the destroyed volcano.
..But all
unknown to the natives, and to the British and French settlers who
had their homes in Ambrym, there stretched from east to west a belt
of volcanic fracture, which was studded with extinct craters
(maars),
occasional puffs of steam being the only indication of the pent up
fire beneath.
In December
1913, the age long sleep...was broken and the imprisoned giants
awoke.
From numerous
thunder-throated vents the island was rent and torn by convulsive
explosions. The outburst was heralded by a series of
earthquake(s)...increasing
in frequency and severity until the solid earth reeled and tottered.
The hospital buildings rocked like ships at sea. The natives
said...that Ambrym danced. Then, from the newly formed vents was seen
to rise as the blackest London fog, a dense cloud which shot up like
a pillar and spread out in all directions like a mushroom. In a short
time ash and cinders began to fall, making a noise like hailstones
and smothering Ambrym and the adjacent islands in a thick layer of
volcanic ash.
...During the
day dense volumes of smoke could be seen hanging over the
island...but the natives of Paama (Island,where
the missionary was stationed)
thought that a bush fire was raging....But ...the approach of
darkness removed all doubts, revealing one of the most awful and...
magnificent sights that it is possible for they eye of man to behold.
Over an area of ten miles the earth seemed to have opened up and out
of this huge fissure tongues of living flame were shooting up into
the sky. In one place...six volcanoes had burst out within a short
distance of each other and out of these six furnaces, pillars of fire
were leaping....Rivers of molten lava were flowing from the newly
formed craters, and so great was the flood of this liquid that no
single channel could carry it...In the darkness, winding among the
hills, the track of red hot lava was like the trail of a
serpent....When the enormous mass of... lava mingled with the waters
of the ocean...An Aurora Borealis of shooting stars - really masses
of lava at white heat - could be seen leaping and jumping
continuously; and to such a height was the column of steam shot up
that it seemed as if a new volcano had burst out at the sea
shore.
Outbursts
continued during the entire night...masses of molten lava, red, white
and glistening were hurled to a great height...forming a display of
fireworks such as is given to few mortals to behold....As night wore
on it seemed as if the ground of Paama (20
miles away)
was about to open.....As soon as our motor boat could be launched we
set off to the rescue....We could see crowds of natives
assembled...near Pansileo...waving branches to signal us. The people
were terror stricken. They had come from the fire zone around Port
Vato..their houses and belongings had been buried deep in ash and
scoria. Every green leaf was stripped or scorched from the
trees...the land was a very desolation to behold. With the promise of
return we set off with all possible speed for the hospital
district.
The journey
down the Ambrym coast was fearsome in the extreme...Ash and cinders
were falling all around and the sea was covered with floating debris
and pumice stone. Several volcanoes were belching out near the sites
of villages. At intervals tremendous explosions occurred, when all
nature seemed to reel. The scene resembled pictures... of Judgment
Day - heaven and earth in ashes burning. But what a shock of surprise
and horror we sustained when on rounding Craig Cove Point we saw a
volcano belching out from the hospital grounds!
....(From
the survivors some time later)
we got the story of their marvelous deliverance.
Unaware of the fracture line across the island)
the worst that could happen, the doctor imagined, would be a flow of
lava down the valley behind the mission station; but, as the
(hospital)
was encircled with a high ridge of hills, it seemed impossible for
such an event to occur..Some of the staff...went over to have a look
(at the lava flows)..Like
an incandescent avalanche, (the lava)
swept everything before it...tossing huge trees into the air. Falling
back into the incandescent lava the (trees)
bounced like india-rubber balls. This lava stream was 10 miles long,
200 yards broad and was travelling at the rate of 4 miles per hour. A
fearful cauldron was formed when the lava reached the sea...it
shivered like melted glass, into millions of particles: gigantic
blisters were formed, exploding like miniature volcanoes. The sky was
darkened and for miles around the sea was covered in dead fish and
debris of all sorts.
...After
daybreak...terrified natives from the inland village arrived with
news that the earth had opened up some distance up the valley and the
molten lava had formed a lake of fire...Large numbers of cripples and
old people had been left behind to perish...
(Evacuating the hospital)
an inferno burst out between the (volcano)
they were watching and the sea, within 500 yards of the
station....They could see one side of the hill belching fire, not a
quarter mile away. Setting their teeth the
(doctor and assistant)
made their way for the hospital to ascertain the place was clear,
they raced back to the boat...while the ground heaved and swayed
beneath them. At the boat landing...the sea was boiling and the boat
lay a little off the beach. ...Throwing
(a box) into
the water between them and the boat Mr. Bailey and he sprang from it
into the boat. They had gone just a short distance when the earth
reeled with a great thunder, and looking back, the doctor saw the
fragments of his house and hospital hurled into the air. A volcano
had burst out in the middle of the hospital grounds...a column of
compressed steam was shot up with such prodigious velocity that in
less than a minute it had reached 20,000 ft above the level of the
crater, filling the atmosphere with dust and ash and cinders. At this
elevation the particles of finely powdered rock were caught by the
prevailing winds...A mail steamer, running between Australia and
Fiji, several hundred miles away, had her decks covered with volcanic
ash....The compressed steam rushing at lightening velocity from the
newly formed vent turned the volcano into a gigantic hydro-electrical
machine, and generated great quantities of electricity. The
atmosphere was charged with it, and every few seconds there issued
from the murky clouds flashes of vivid lightening.....it seemed as if
they were going to be smothered in the burning cinders...So hopeless
did their position seem that they actually discussed whether it would
not be preferable to meet death by drowning than to be burned alive
by falling cinders.
....Out at
sea they met a schooner which had come from the island of Malekula to
the rescue. Transferring their refugees
(from the launch)
into the schooner, those lion hearted fellows went back with the
launch into the mouth of hell, in the hope of rescuing some more of
the helpless natives. At the Craig Cove boat landing they found a
crowd of refugees awaiting a chance rescue. As they were making their
way into the boat passage, the eruption, still following the line of
volcanic weakness, made a further leap, and reached it's last stage.
Out to sea, about a mile from where the hospital stood, a submarine
volcano burst and formed an island 330 ft high. The upheaval caused a
tidal wave and made the sea so rough that the launch could not
approach the boat landing. Signals were made to the natives to go
over the hill to a boat landing on the other side. There they crammed
the boat full of refugees.....
....I
confined our rescue operations to the districts of Ambrym contiguous
to Paama...the mission launch was an open boat and great care had to
be taken lest it might be rushed and swamped...A heathen man with a
naked and painted body, would clamber with his gun in one hand and a
screaming child in the other...There was no distinction made between
heathen and Christian. All were bundled together in a great
tribulation and in the general eagerness to get away, no-one thought
of the other but as companions in suffering.
Mid way
across the channel, a strange and wondrous sight was seen. From under
the clouds a bright streamer suddenly appeared, winding down the
mountain side, glowing crimson. It was a lava stream from a fissure
eruption on the edge of the ash plain. This fiery stream like a red
ribbon, so beautiful withal, continued to glitter and shine far into
the night. It lit up the clouds above. and shed a strange, unearthly
brilliance over its tortuous path.
...One of the
volcanoes threw out great quantities of a material resembling spun
glass, called Pele's hair. Heavy showers of those glass filings fell
upon the villagers. As the natives have a superstitious dread of this
particular kind of discharge the sacred men declared that the spirit
of the volcano was angry with them. To appease the wrath of the
offended demon a number of young fellows were told...to climb the
volcano with bunches of coconuts and throw them into the crater as a
peace offering....In spite of the terrible danger..they actually
reached the top and looked down into its awful depth....There was
sadness in their voices when they reported the state of matters up
above..The fire was unquenchable, and they recognized they would have
a stiff fight with the coconuts to stop it. When
this method proved ineffectual, the heathen natives accused each
other of causing the eruption* and began fighting. So that the
extraordinary thing happened, that while rivers of molten lava were
destroying life and property the heathens were killing each
other...!
...An old
chief of Paama...who showed great kindness to the refugees told me
that when he was a boy he could remember a big volcanic outburst on
the (nearby)
island of Lopevi when large crowds of natives...sought refuge on
Paama. I asked the old man if he was as kind then...with a smile he
said, "We ate them."
...(Some days after the eruptions had ceased)
Over the place where the hospital stood was a depth of 12 fathoms of
water. When the soundings were taken by the H.M.S. "Sealark", the
lagoon formed a safe, land locked hurricane harbour for ships of
shallow draft (the
entrance has since been completely blocked with over 1 km of mud and
subsequent lava flows - all that remains is a
lake).
The first time an attempt was made to enter the lagoon a submarine
explosion startled the occupants of the boat, and quenched the desire
for further exploration....So complete was the destruction of the
hospital and mission buildings that not even a match was left...and
large numbers of lives were lost (Officially
21, but the total number could only be guessed at).
*One local
account states the eruption was caused by the Doctor and staff of the
Mission Station. Told not to eat certain taboo coconuts and fruit,
lest the offense incur the wrath if the volcano Gods, the European
doctor ignored the warning as superstitious heathenism. Only a few
weeks were to pass before the hospital and station were swallowed by
the bowels of the earth.
