Century stories

5.24.99
Wind, water and woe

By GERRY GOLDSTEIN
Journal Staff Writer

Morning unfolded bright in Jamestown, but soon, gusts whistled in. By the time Clarke Elementary School ended its day in midafternoon, sullen breakers clawed at the edges of the island.

With Wednesday's classes over, eight of the school's pupils boarded their bus for the routine trip home. All but one would never get there; in a matter of minutes -- except for 12-year-old Clayton Chellis -- they were dead.

On Sept. 21, 1938, a killer wave -- spawned by a savage hurricane -- battered the bus off a causeway and into roiling surf at Mackerel Cove.

Four of the victims were siblings. Their father, Joseph Matoes, had heard radio reports of an advancing storm, and headed for the schoolhouse to collect his kids. But because the bus had already left, Matoes reversed direction.

At the Mackerel Cove causeway, already being pounded by heavy swells, his car swamped. He jumped out just in time to see the school bus approaching.

Soaked, he waved at driver Norman Caswell to go back -- and then watched in horror as the bus was swept into the water.

The young occupants became casualties of a fearful storm that sent a tidal wave smashing into Rhode Island, killing 262 people -- drowning them in their cars, burying them in rubble, trapping them on the flotsam of what had been their homes.

Circumstance was merciful that day to Clayton Chellis, the only youngster to survive the bus run. But later, destiny would stalk him -- and find him.

Jane Clarke Chesebrough, now 72 and still living on the island, well remembers her schoolmates, the Matoes kids: Joe Jr.; 13, Teresa, 12; Dorothy, 11, and Eunice, 7.

Jane, a sixth grader then, wasn't a bus rider because she lived just a few streets from the North Road school, which stood where the library is today. Her mother drove her home that afternoon, and she remembers spending the night listening to the wind shriek and the trees splinter.

She also recalls one of the most terrible moments of her life: joining others the next morning at the cove to gaze at the doomed school bus.

The tragedy later became a poignant chapter in a book written by a newspaperman, the late Everett S. Allen of the New Bedford Standard-Times.

It's no wonder that Allen cultivated an interest in the hurricane: as a young man just hired by the Standard-Times, he started work there on a memorable day: Sept. 21, 1938.

His book, A Wind to Shake the World, published by Little, Brown and Co. in 1976 and now out of print, is a compelling collection of memories gleaned from storm survivors throughout the Northeast.

Among all those recollections, one of the cruelest was the Jamestown story: in addition to the four Matoes children, others who died were the sister of Clayton Chellis, 7-year-old Marion; and Constantine and John Gianitis, ages 5 and 4.

Bus driver Caswell, the only survivor other than Chellis, related afterward how he opened the vehicle's doors so the kids could get out, figuring they might otherwise be trapped inside by rising water.

But the plan failed.

At Caswell's direction, the youngsters formed a line in the surf and held hands to stay together. Clayton Chellis, the biggest among them, anchored one end, and Caswell the other.

When a great wave barreled into the group, the smaller children couldn't hold on -- the human chain broke in the middle, and the youngsters were at the mercy of an indifferent sea.

Allen's book indicates that Caswell was devasted by the deaths, to the point where -- lying in the surf half-drowned -- he implored the senior Matoes, who had witnessed everything: ''Please don't move me. Let me die.'' But Matoes lugged him to safety.

The fury of the elements produced many a wrenching experience on the island, both during and after the storm.

The elder Matoes, who lost four of his children, later recounted for Allen that three of their bodies were recovered -- but not little Dorothy's.

Matoes said that a few days after the storm, as the Chellises mourned the loss of their own daughter, ''Mrs. Chellis called to her husband and she said, 'Carl, what's that going down the bay there, half white and half red?'''

Perhaps it was a lobster buoy, she thought.

Matoes learned otherwise when someone later asked his wife, '''What kind of clothes was Dotty wearing?' and my wife told her, a white blouse and a red skirt.''

So it was that the sea took Dorothy Matoes and never gave her back.

As for the lone survivor among the school kids, Jane Chesebrough vividly remembers young Clayton Chellis, because the two dated as teenagers. One winter day as they skated together on a pond, Chellis again confronted disaster; he fell through the ice -- but bystanders saved him.

According to Allen's book, Clayton Chellis joined the Navy when he came of age, and was sent to the West Coast. One day, he went swimming in a pool out there. And in that pool, he drowned.