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LOST OCEAN LINER EMPRESS OF IRELAND - f v 3 -i ft wmmmmmmmmmmm I X ..-:.:.::::::.' -v. - . CvXv.:-':- . . - V" . -Xi.:--v",V " - - JiiiSC ' i ok'"-:-. .. i-. ""''' Ki ! ' ' n - sis i ' v-ywvVM vwr.. si ' . . i fowwntfn'JVp'rfw1Wvv)rf i 964 II st,y i Great Liner Goes to Bottom at Mouth of St. Law rence River Following a Collision With a Collier. Rimouskl, Que., May 31. Nine hun dredand sixty-four persons lost their liyes Friday morning when the great Canadian Pacific twin screw liner Em press of Ireland was rammed amid ships in a thick fog oft Father Point In the St. Lawrence-and sunk by the Norwegian collier Storstad. 3 Four hundred and three survivors were picked up from floating wreck age and two lifeboats. And only 12 of the saved are women. Gathered piecemeal from survivors the horror of this wreck grows with the telling. , Waters Quickly Engulf Ship. The doomed ones had little time even, to pray. They were engulfed by the onrushing waters that swallowed the big ship inside of nineteen min utes from the time she was struck. The wireless operators on the Em press, sticking to their posts to the last, had time only to send a few "S. O. S." calls for help when the rising waters silenced their instruments. That silence told the rescuers miles away more potently than a bugle that doom had overtaken the ship. Only six hours before this fateful collision the passengers sang as a good-night hymn "God Be With You Till -We Meet Again," played by the Salvation Army band on board. The members of that band and most of the 165 Salvationists were among the lost. ' Survivors Tell of Fog. It was foggy, according to survivors, when the Empress of Ireland, a stele hulled, steel-bulkheaded ship of more than eight thousand tons, left - Mon treal at 4 : 30 Thursday afternoon in command of H. G. Kendall of the Royal Naval Reserve, one of the most skilled of transatlanitc navigators. Forest fires also obscured the at mosphere and the big ship, in charge of a pilot, , proceeded slowly on her way to sea. At midnight the pilot aide left near Father Point, shouting a merry "Eon Voyage" as he went down their ladder to his waiting boat. The darkness at this time was in tense and the ship under the slowest speed possible with steerageway held her course. Her decks were deserted. The passengers had all sought' their" berths with no thought of impending death. ' Out - of the darkness, on the port side, soon after 2:30 in the morning there loomed the little Norwegian col lier, not half the size of the Empress, but fated to be her destroyer. . Not until the collier was almost abeam of the big liner was the danger known on either ship. The fog had blotted outthe lights as well as the port and starboard lights of both ships. Quick orders "trumpted on both ves sels were heard too late. 1 Strikes Sfyip Amidship. The -steel-pointed prow of the Stor stad struck the , liner amidships and then forged aft, ripping and tearing its way through the Empress of Ireland. Clear to the stern of the Empress of Irtland , was . Ihis great steel shaving cut from her side, from the top of .the hull far below the water line. Into that rent the water poured with the force of a Niagara. .. The bow of the Storstad smashed its way through berths on that side of the ship, killing passengers, sleeping in their berths and grinding bodies to pieces. Reaching the stern of the big liner, the Storstad staggered off in the dark ness, her bow crumpled by the impact. Her commander was ready a few min utes later, when he found his ship would float, to aid the crippled ' and sinking Empress, but he was too late to save the majority of those on board. . - Carried to Bottom. The Empress of Ireland recoiled al most on her starboard beam ends from the blow of the collier and passengers were, flung from their berths against the walls of their staterooms. Many were stunned, and before they had time to recover were carried ' to the bottom with the ship. " The vast torrents pouring Into the great gash on the port side, aft, filled the corridors and flooded evefy state-, room abaft the midship section. in side of four minutes. . " There was never a chance for the helpless ones in the after cabins and staterooms of the liner. With her port side laid open for half its length from the midship section to the stern, a seive had more chance to float thf.n the Empress of Ireland, and tne trapped passengers in that after sec tion were doomed' from the moment the Storstad struck. -" Reeling from the blow the ship be gan to settle almost immediately as the water rushed into the big rent. ; From, the forward cabins, however, men and women in night attire stum bled along the corridors and up the companion way to the promenade deck the deck below, 'the: one on , which the boats rested. Swarm to Deck. Up they swarraed on deck in, their night clothing Uj find the, ship heeling away to port aud.the deck slanting at a degree that made it almost impos sible to stand, even clinging to railings Men and vomen, shrieking, praying, crying for tid that was fated to arrive too late, f jll over one another in that last struggle for life on board the doomed impress of Ireland. - Frenzied mothers leaped overboard with iaeir, babies in their arms. Others knel', on deck and. tried to pray in the f e v moment left to them. Some were flUiig overboard by the lieeling of the sinking ship and some broke their legs ov arms in trying, to reach the life toats. J t t , , Above the din of the struggle on the great promenade deck could be heard But thev came nJl Captain Kendall . shouting commands lur lue launcmng oi me me Doats. sev eral were launched in the 19 minutes that the-ship floated. There was no time to observe the rule "Women first" in this disaster, for those nearest the hpats scrambled to places m them. But '. even as they were being launched, while the , wireless istill was calling "S. Q. S.' there came a terrific . o ' , . explosion that' almost rent the ship in twain. - . . H was the explosion of the boilers struck by the cold water. A geyser of water shot upward from the midship section, mingled with fragments of wreckage, that showered down upon the passengers still clinging to the 'rails forward and upon those strug gling in the water. , The explosion destroyed the last hope of the ship's floating until succor could arrive, for the shock , had smashed the forward steel bulkhead walls that had up to then shut out the torrents invading the after part: The water ruiihed forward and the Empress of Ireland went swiftly to -her doom, carrying down with her hundreds of passengers .who stood on her slanting deck, their arms stretched upward and their last cries choked in the engulfing waters. ' One of the survivors, relating that last tragic scene on the decks of the line'rsaid: "I was asleep like most of the pas sengers when - the collision came. There was a sickening crunching of wood t and steel and then a grinding, ripping sound as the Storstad smashed her way along the port side of our ship. - "I knew that we had been struck and I rushed to the staterooms of some friends and shouted to them to get' up, as the ship was sinking. Stateroom doors flew open all along the corridor and men and women began to rush for tho grand companion forward. Those aft must have been drowned in their berths. Darkness Is Intense. v 'On deck officers of the ship, par tially dressed, were rushing about urging passengers to be calm. Sailors under orders were trying to launch the lifeboats. - v "The darkness was intense and a few minutes after I reached the deck the electric lights went out. At that time there were still hundreds of pas sengers below trying to grope their way through the darkened corridors to the companion way and reach the deck. Most of them went down with the ship, for the corridors below filled right after the explosion of the boilers. "I leaped overboard in despair just before the ship went down and man1 aged to find a bit of wreckage to which I clung." ' -' r . , Intense darkness covered the waters when the Empress of Ireland made that final plunge, but the fog lifted a few minutes later and then came the first faint streaks of dawn. It lighted ""waters strewed with wreckage and struggling passengers, who strove to keep afloat.- v The crippled S tors ad,; which .had .wrought this tragedy of the waters, b.ad , lif eooats out picking up as many survivors as possible. ' The gray dawn revealed the govern ment steamers Lady Evelyn and Eu reka near the scene of the disaster and hastening to aid. - ; Some. of those In the water tried to swim to the Eureka as she neared the point where the Empress had gone down. One "woman, wearing only an undervest, swam to the Lady Evelyn, and was helped on Txard, but died of exhaustiqn soon afterwards. ' The work of rescue still waV going on when the siln arose in a cloudless sky. 'j , - Men and - women were clinging" to spars and bits of broken planks.-Many of the survivors were injured. Some had broken legs, others fractured arms and still others had been Jnjured inter nally in that last mad rush to get away from the sinking liner. . Women clinging with one hand to little ones, while"" with the other they tried to keep clutch on pieces of wreck- kie were picked up by the llfeboati aifcd carried on board the rescuing ye sels. ,; "' " " -. Captain . Kendall, dazed and unable to give any coherent account of the loss of his ship, was found clinging to a broken spar. ' J. W. Langley rancher, 'of Canf ord, B. Ci went down with the ship, but held his breath,, and, coming to the surface, found a piece of wreckage and clung to it until picked- up: ' One of the survivors, in explaining the auickness with which the Empress Vnf. Trelnnf? went down, said: "The collier, being only, something over 3,000 tons, did not. reach up even "to the 'upper ; or topmost deck of our hull. Her bow cut under the upper deck, and took a peeling oft the side of our ship that allowed the, water to rush into the lower decks. Then the liner heeled -over, and even those in the superstructure deck rooms had no chance to save themselves. Hundreds of them must have been dumped out of their berths and slammed against the-. walls' with stunning force." v Scenes on Shore. Father Point, Que., May .29. "The Empress of Ireland passed and landed her pilot here at 1:30. this morning," said an official of the Canadian Pa cific. "There was a haze at the" time. At 1:50 a. m. I was awakened by an "S. O. S." ring on my door bell and, rushing down, was Informed by a Mar coni operator that the Empress of Ire land was sinking, having been struck by some vessel. In undress Installed to help. No other signal could be got from the doomed vessel. She had no tlmeto give another, as. she sank ten minutes after being struck. "Mr. Whiteside, manager of the Mar coni station, rendered effective serv ice by notifying the government steamer Eureka, at Father Point wharf, and the Lady Evelyn at Ra mouski wharf. . Help Rushed to Scene. "Capt. J. B. Belanger of the Eureka immediately rushed to the scene and Captain Poullot, with the Lady Eve lyn, followed iater, his ship being three miles farther away. "Meanwhile d,aylight broke and scanning the horizon with a telescope I saw the two government steamers, nine lifeboats and a collier in the vi cinity, going here and there. Later the Eureka arrived at Father Point wharf with 32 survivors and several poor drowned bodies, also several of the survivors who had been wounded. Agent in Narrow Escape. "The scene on the Eureka was most distressing, the survivors walking around their dead shipmates, stretched out in their last sleep. The Eureka wassent to Remouski wharf with all on-board, and the Canadian Pacific agent, Mr. Webber, who was here, hav ing just got off the ill-fated vessel with the pilot, engaged all the cabs he could find and telephoned for all pos sible medical assistance. As the com pany's agent here, I advised all the survivors that their cables and tele grams to their families would be paid by the Canadian Pacific railroad! t "The Lady Evelyn passed Into Re mouski wharf about 4 a. m. with some more survivors and bodies. Among the survivors was Captain Kendall, commander of the ill-fated ship, who was picked up by a lifeboat from the wreckage after the ship had gone down. Survivors Almost Naked. "Most of the survivors were almost naked in the cold morning, with the temperature at 35 degrees and white frost on the ground. ' "At 6:10 the Norwegian collier Storstad, coal laden, from Sydney, N, S. for Montreal, came along slowly. When her bow had been smashed in it became known that she was the vessel that had struck the Empress of Ireland the fatal blow: The Stros tad was too much damaged to allow her to proceed to Quebec under her own steam, but before proceeding she landed a few survivors and some dead bodies, which were taken off by the steamer Eureka and Lady Evelyn and landed on thp Remouski wharf." Sing "God Be With You," on Ship Montreal; Que., May 30. When the liner Empress pt Ireland steamed away from here Thursday, she carried 165 members of the Salvation Army m from the United States and Canada, bound for the-world convention in London. To the accompaniment of the army band, they were singing,' "God Re With You Till We Meet Again." " v This prelude to the accident In the LSt. Lawrence made the disaster a near parallel to the sinking of the Titanic, whose passengers saner. "Nearer. My God. to Thee." as the White Star liner went down. , ' - - . Irving, Actor and Author. New York, May 31. Laurence S. B. Irving, drowned on oteamship Em press of Ireland, is an actor, author and manager. He received his edu cation at Marlborough college,, College Rollin, Paris, and spent three 'years in Russia' studying for foreign office. His plavs are" wiaely known. 11908 and 1909 he presented sketches of his own authorship in England and Amer ica. On Mar 3. 1910. Mr. Irving: ad dressed the Equal Suffrage leagu- a! New York. , ; , Scenes at Liverpool. - Liverpool; May CO. Pathetic scenei were enacted 'at .the office of the Can adiau Pacific railway in this city Fri day. Crowds of weeping men' an. ;women, begged fcr r.ews cf the officer and crew cf trs Empress of- Irelar. V the ..majority ' cf - horn were r;a there' here. When ccrf nia"io the di aster wss recc-fvul en fairtp.i.-' r-U-duplicate of r "X r:: 1 o Mh q wo r yr " ceres v.'ere time the .liMLic v enr '--"": We are the STYLEPLUS ST0RJ All new patterns. Styles that are correct. yq , , tht best suits, : you the price is the samealways you a.uo to ?s.uq and you are well dressed. 84 Notice the bt two page ad in the SatursLay Erenln There hi no better clothing proposition than this any town, large or small, and we guarantee every 8uit ' THE BALLENGER CO 1 For Everything .ryon . - ; - North Carol, FURNITURE v No matter what you need it will pay you to look us over. 2 Solid Cars of Furniture Just Received W. M. LAMBRIGHT & CO. NEAR DEPOT LANDRUK, $.(, cQ(3iiiO:rriipS TRYON, N. G. STAPLE and FANCY GR OCERI E Sunshine Biscuit, Bon Bons, Honeymoon Confections, Jelly, Nute, Gandy The Carolina State Bank SALUDA, N..C. 4 PER CENT PAID OH SAVINGS Strong; . Courteous Progressive. 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Polk County News and The Tryon Bee (Tryon, N.C.)
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June 5, 1914, edition 1
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