North Carolina Newspapers

$L00 a Year, hi Advance. "FOR GOD, FOR COUNTRY AND FOR TRUTH." Sins! Copy, C CsaCA VOL. XXIV. PLYMOUTH, N.'C, FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1914. NO. 49. 934 PERISHED OH BIG OCEAN LINER; 433 ARE SAVED Empress of Ireland Sunk" in Col lision in the St. Lawrence River. mit 20 WOMEN ARE SAVED Craft Goes Through Center of. Vessel and Ripe It Open From Midships to Stern Men, Women and Children Struggle for Life While Waiting to Be Rescued. ' Quebeei May SO. A train with 396 survivors of the lost Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of Ireland arrived bere from Rlmouski shortly before etght o'clock last Thursday night. Thirty-seven wounded were left at Rlmouski. These are all that live of the 1,376 who sailed from here Thursday after soon bound for Liverpool on the queen -vessel, of a famous fleet. The ship ailed out of a sunlit harbor into the tog off . Father Point, where the rip ping prow of the collier Storstad struck the death blow In the dark. The lost number 934. 237 of Crew Are Saved. Of the living 237 are members of the crew. Of the living only 20 are women" two are children. Thus the story of the most, terrible disaster In the history of Canadian navigation la written more grimly, nsore vividly in hard figures than it could ever be in words. How the hundreds of strong men of "the crew were saved while the hun tfeds of weak -women and children perished only the Imagination can athom now. - : Not even the survivors can fully pfoture the 19-mlnute death throe of ie riven ship the passengers wak ened in the dead of night either to be crashed by the invading prow of the SttorBtad, drowned in the rush of wa fers or to drag themselves to the 11st j&jg deck, where panic reigned, where Krfeks of terror and of pain made an Jnferno under the shrouding mist. The tattle that surged about the life Jsoate that had not been shattered in Cie crash, the cruel triumph of the strong, over the weak let thehard fig nrestell it. They alone can. One of the matters on which' the ipscued agree is that Captain Ander son of the Storstad backed his vessel put?? the hole she had dug into the Empress' side, nursing her own bent prow despite the shouted pleas of Captain Kendall that he hold fast to She wreck. Water Rushes In. ) As the collier backed away the wa ter 'rush listed the Empress so that all' her lifeboats on the portside were useless. I The Storstad, moreover, having no mortal damage and lying in a river Hat was ruffled only by the strewn ftjrms of the drowning, the wounded and the dead, picked up but a few of those who were taken to the hospital Bt;RimouskL , it was the government mail steam err Evelyn and the pilot boat Eureka, which had to run all the way from Fa ther Point, that did the big work of rescue. - a strict investigation is to be imme diately begun. . ' There was no time. ; That is the phrase used, by every survivor in trying to-tell something of "drat,'4iappened. "There was no time to rouse the people; no time to fry: W"omen and ch'ildren first. " k'Nlnenteen minutes was the time be tween the crash and the sinking. In that time there were lifeboats to launch, a panic to contend with. In that time the wireless must flash its tails tor help. The "S. O. S." picked up by many ships near and far brought response loo late to save even a third of the hu man cargo. 'Captain Kendall, one of the most iable'and trusted skippers of the line a man who had captured Doctor Crfppen, the murderer, and had served for many years without a "mishap at aea stood on the bridge during those 13 minutes. Gathered "piecemeal'. from survivor-, the horrorB of this wreck grows with the telling. The doomed ones had little time even to pray., They .were engulfed by the onrush ing waters that swallowed the big .ship. The wireless operators "onHhe Em press, sticking to their posts to the last, bad . time, only to' send a few "S. O. S."' calls for-help when the rising "waters silenced their Instruments That silence told the rescders 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's"God Be With You Tell We Meet 'Again," played by the Salvation Army band on board. ' Last Call for Aid. That last "S. O. S wireless cry for aid from the crippled and sinking liner was a trumpet call to those ashore. It was heard by J. McWill iams, the wireless operator at Father Point, who repeated it along the coast to point after point after he had tried in vain to get another message from the Empress. ' When he failed he knew that the wireless was ' wrecked and the ship probably sinking: He repeated his fears to other wire less stations and urged the need of haste to save the passengers and crew of the vessel. On board the steamers Lady Evelyn and Eureka that cry for aid was heard, and getting the position of the Em press of Ireland from Operator Will iams, they put -on extra stokers, called their full crews to quarters and began a race to save .life. That this race ended Just too late to t-ave the majority of those on1 the hapless liner is no fault of the offi cers and crews of these two rescuing vessels. s . 'Relief vessels and trains equipped with doctors and nurses and every medical and surgical supply were rushed to Rlmouski to care for the sur-: vivors. Survivors Tell of Fog. , It was foggy, according to survivors, when the Empress of Ireland, a steel hulled, steel-bulkheaded ship of more than eight thousand tons left Quebec at 4 : 30 Thursday, afternoon in com mand of H. G. JKendall of the Royal Naval Reserve, one of the most skilled of transatlantic navigators. Forest fires also obscured the at mosphere and the big ship, in charge of a pilot, proceeded Blowly on her way to sea. At midnight the pilot left near Father Point, shouting a merry "bon voyage" as he went down a lad der to his waiting boat. The darkness at this time was in tense and the ship under the slowest speed possible with Bteerageway 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 out the "steaming" lights as well as the port and starboard lights of both, ships. Quick orders trumpeted on both vessels were heard. But they came all too late. The steel-pointed prow of the Stors tad struck the liner amidships and then forged aft, ripping and tearing its way through the Empress of Ire land. Clear to the stern of the Empress of Ireland was this great steel shaving cut from her side, from the top of the hull to 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 sleep ing in their berths and grinding bodies td 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. 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 every state room abaft the midship section Inside 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 sieve had more" chance to float than the ; Empress of Ireland, and the trapped passengers in . that section were doomed from the moment the Storstad struck. Reeling from, the blow the ship be gan to 'settle almost immediately as the water rusned into the big rent. From the forward cabins, however, men and women In night attire stum bled along- the -orrldors and up the conipanionway to the promenade deck the deck below the one on which the!"boats rested. Swarm to Deck. 4 Up they, swarmed on deck id their night clothing, to find the ship heeling away to port and the deck slanting at a degree that made it almost impos sible to stand even clinging to rail ings. Men and women, shrieking, praying, crying for aid that was fated to arrive too late, fell over one another In that last struggle for life on board the doomed Empress of Ireland. Frenzied mothers leaped overboard with their babies in their arms.' Oth ers kneU on deck and tried to pray in the few moments left to them. Some were flung overboard by the heeling of the sinking ship and some brake their legs or arms In trying to reach the lifeboats. Abovo the din of the struggle on the great' promenade deck could be heard Captain Kendall shouting com mands for the launching of the life boats. Several 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 boats scrambled to places in them. But even as they were being launched, while the wireless still was calling "S. O. S." there came a terrific explosion that almost rent the ship In twain. It was the explosion of the boilers struck by the cold water. A geyser of water shot upward from the mid ship 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 suc cor could arrive, for the shock had smashed the forward steel bulkhead walls that had up to then shut out tor rents invading the after paft. . The water rushed forward and the Em press of Ireland went Bwiftly to her doom, carrying down with her hun dreds of passengers who stood on her slanting decks, their arms stretched upward and their cries choked In the engulfing waters. , Blames the Collier. Doctor Johnston, chief medical of ficer on the Empress, said that had not the Storstad backed out so soon from the Empress, a large number of the passengers ml$lV. have - been saved. .He said that when the collier pulled Itself free the sea surged into the hole it had torn in the side of the Empress and the liner quickly sank. Chief Operator Hayes of the Em press told of the sinking of the ves sel. . "As soon as I . felt the shock of the collision," he said, "I was ordered to sound the danger signal, and the flash of my S. O. S. was immediately picked up by the operator at Father Point and answered. But I could not talk with him for five minutes after the impact my dynamos failed me and 17 minutes after the collision our boat sank." The noise of the water rushing Into his cabin awoke W. Davis of Toronto and his wife. They fled upon deck, but In the rush of passengers became separated. Mr. Davis was saved. It -is feared his wife sank with the boat. A full equipment of ambulances sup plied by the city of Quebec, the town of Levis, on the opposite side of the river, and the army medical service corps was awaiting at Levis when the special survivors' train arrived. The passengers were immediately disem barked and transferred to the ferry steamer, which had been waiting at the special wharf to facilitate the transfer to the Quebec. Many Survivors Injured. It was a pitiful sight when the ferry steamer Polaris docked on the Quebec side at 8:30 o'clock and the 396 men and women saved, from the Ill-fated Empress of Ireland trooped falteringly down the gangway. The faces of all plainly registered the frightful experi ence they had gone through. . Few ofth"esurvlvors possessed a complete outfit of clothes, the ma jority wearing only shirts, trousers and boots. Heads were bared in the throng a the injured were brought ashore, sup ported by friends and officials of the company, i The second and third class passen gers and the crew were Immediately made comfortable on the Allan liner Alsatian, which was lying In an ad joining berth at the breakwater. The first class and injured passen gers were transferred in automobiles and other vehicles to the Chatau Fton tenac. : A staff of doctors and nursel took charge of the Injured. Among the 50 passengers left la Rlmouski were several who were so in or so severely Injured that they had to be taken to a hospital. Well Known In London. London, May 29, Among the pas sengers on the Empress of Ireland, A B. Anderson was chairman of the Brit Ish Electrical Manufacturers' associa tion and managing director of Fer. rantL Limited, of London. He-was a resident of Marrow. A. J. Burrows, a Canadian well known In the lace trade, was a traveler for T. I. Birkia & Co. of Nottingham. TALES OF HEROISM TOLD BY SURVIVORS Passengers Saved From Em press of Ireland Relate Thrill ing Stories of Rescue Work. DEATH CAUSED BY BLAST Little Girl, One of Two Children to Escape, Says She Helped Her ' self Ship's Surgeon Telle Ex- ' perlence Crew Is Praised. Quebec Thrilling tales of heroism, stories of futile fights for life, narra tives that tell of the horrors of that fateful few moments after the Em press of Ireland was rammed by the Storstad poured from the lips of the rescued when the special train bearing them reached this city. There was little voiced criticism for the terrible loss of life; rather those who had been snatched from the jaws of death seemed anxious to' tell of men who had proven themselves heroes in the supreme moments of their lives. Special praise was given to the work of Dr. James F. Grant of Victoria, B. C, ship eurgeon on the Empress. To his coolness was credited the saving of a large number of persons taken out of the water who probably would have perished had they not received prompt medical attention. Surgeon's Own Narrow Escape. , A graphic description of th' scene on the Empress of Ireland after the collision was given by Doctor Grant "I was in my cabin," said the ship's surgeon, "and knew nothing of the ac cident until the boat listed so that I tumbled ont of my berth and then rollei under it. I tried to turn on the light, but there was no power. 1 reached the . bolted door, but the list was so strong that it took me consid erable time to open It. "When finally I got out and reached the passageway It was so steep, due to the way the ship was canted, that my efforts to climb were rendered impos sible by the carpet which I was cling ing to breaking away. "I then scrambled up and managed to get' my head through a porthole, but I was unable to get my shoulders through. At that time the ship was lying almost flat In the water on its starboard side. 'A passenger finally managed to pull me through the porthole. Sank With One Hundred Others. "About "a hundred passengers were gathered on the elde of the ship at the time, but a moment after I joined them the vessel took another list and plunged to the bottom. "I next found myself in the water and swam toward the lights of the steamer Storstad, and when nearly ex hausted from the struggle and the ex posure I was picked up by a lifeboat. "This boat went on to the scene of the disaster and p.cked up a load of survivors from the water and then took them on board the Storstad. There we were wrapped in blankets and I was provided with clothes. "When able I did what I could to help the survivors. Some of them, however, were in such exhausted con dition that they died." Child Says She Saved Herself. Only two children are known to have been saved from the wreck. A wonderful rescue was one of these little eight-year-old Grade Hanagan, daughter of the leader of the Salvation Army band. Her father and mother were both drowned. Grade was not told of her loss and believed at night that her father and mother would come to Quebec on the next boat. When asked how she was saved Grade replied: "Oh, I Baved myself." The child was entirely unconcerned, apparently not realizing what she had been through. No lifeboat was near when she was thrown from the Em press. She sank at once, but rose to the surface in a moment, saw a piece of floating wood near her and seized it Later she was pulled into a lifeboat. She had been benumbed to the point of exhaustion by the' cold water, but kindly hands worked skilfully to re vive her and she soon was entirely re stored. Saves Self and Wife. Major Attwell of Toronto and his wife were among the saved. "I got a life belt for my wife," said Major Attwell, "and we both jumped Intd the water together when we saw that the vessel was doomed to go down. We both sank three times, be ing carried under by the suction of the foundering vessel. When we came up the third time I saw a lifeboat near, and to it I swam, pulling my wife after me. Then those In the boat pulled us in and we were saved. "The impact was just sufficient to waken us. It sounded as if our boat had struck a rock. It was very slight. and I was surprised when I afterward came to realize the awful conse quences of the crash. When we got on deck there were very few persons to be seen. In fact, the people on the deck were so few that they were hard ly noticeable. . "The reason for this Is that when the boat had listed to ono Bide the stairs from the sleeping apartments up to the boat decks were very diffi cult, almost impossible to mount I did not see the hole In the side of our ship as I rushed for the stairs, but I did see the water entering in such volume that it threatened to drown us before we could mount the stairs." Salvation Army Man's 8tory. A Mclntyre was in the second cabin with most of the other Salvation Army passengers. He told a vivid story of his own experiences and of what he saw as he swam to safety. "Virtually every leading officer of the Salvation Army in Canada is gone," he eaid. "Commissioner Rees and his wife and the children sank and only three of this family survive. Out of our Salvation party of 150 on board probaby less than twenty were res cued. "I was on the upper deck and there fore had a better chance to get to safety than those in the lower berths. The water came in through the port holes of the lower decks before the passengers there realized their danger or that there was danger at all. "l was aroused from my sleep by the impact and awoke the others in my cabin. I could then hear plainly the rush of water, and I felt sure that something Berious had happened. I also heard th machinery of the boat running. It did not stop Immediately after the crash, but continued until the explosion occurred. Gsve Woman His Life Belt - "I grabbed a life preserver and went out to the deck. On deck there were no life belts and quite a number ' of people were standing about apparently unable to determine what to do. I gave my belt to Mrs. Foord, one of our party. I tied the belt on her myself. "My three comrades went to the bot tom. I swam in the direction of the vessel that ran us down and was pulled into a lifeboat of the collier. I saw the collier standing not far from where the Empress foundered. It was all lighted up. "When I was taken on board I Baw many men rescued, practically un clothed. I was almost In a state of nakedness myself, and the rest of those on board were shivering and in a bad state from the icy water of the river and the chilly morning air. Soon, however, we were attended to by those on board the collier and made warm and comfortable. Heard Boilers Blow Up. "As I swam through the icy waters I heard the dull explosion caused by the water reaching the engines of the sinking ship. It was followed by a burst of Bteam that spread to all parts of the vessel. , Then came a quick listing of the liner and Bhe turned over. It looked to me as. if she turned turtle. "I don't think there were many first class passengers saved. I Baw only one of the first-class boats lowered. "TheT weather was virtually calm and there was plenty ot light on" the water when I came on deck. I saw no fog. "I thought at first we had hit a rock. Some officers of the vessel came along and Bald that the Bhip would not go any further, for bottom had been struck. Praise Liner's Crew. "The behavior of the crew was, on the whole, good, though it must be said that the men hardly had time to collect themselves or to effect rescues in any systematic way. "The boat was really sinking before the crew or anybody else realized it or could do anything. "Those of the crew who got to the deck tried to launch a boat on the up turned side of the vessel, but this was impossible, because the list was such that the boat could not be put into the water and landed on the side of the vessel. "The decks were almost perpendicu lar, so that many passengers In order to escape had to slide down from the higher Bide to the lower or water side." ; Another1 Tells of Explosion. A story that there was a tremendous explosion on the Empress of Ireland after it was hit by the Storstad was told by Philip Lawler, a steerage pas senger from Brantford, Ont He was on the way to England with his wife and son Herbert, aged fifteen. When the collision came the Em press listed under the severe shock and water "rushed into the steerage quarters. A few seconds later ther came an explosion that shook the ves sel. This probably was when the wa ter reached the .boilers, Mr. Lawle sald. - - People were simply shot out of the ship into the sea by the explosion," Mr. Lawler added. "I was pushed over board with my wife and boy. The boy could swim, so I tried to take care of my wife, but somehow she slipped from my grasp and eank.' BLAMES COLLIER FOR THE DISASTEI CAPTAIN OF LOST SHIP TELUQ STORY OF THE RIVER WRECK. STRUCK WHILE LYING TO Capt. Kendall Gives Account of Sinf Ing Which Cost 957 Lives Others Describe Last Moments. FIGURES OF DISASTER. Lost 957. Saved 403 Passengers lost 746. Crew lost 211. Crew saved 201. First cabin passengers lost 31 men, 26 women, no children. Second cabin passengers lost 52 men, 63 women, 10 children. First cabin passengers saved 21 men, 8 women, 1 child. Second cabin passengers sav ed 15 men, 5 women, 1 child. Second class passengers lost 564 men, women and children. Third class passengers saved, 146. men, four women, no chil dren. Total on board, 1,360. Rlmouski, Que. Final tabulations of caaulties in the sinking of the steamer Empress of Ireland made showed that 403 of her passengers and crew had! been rescued and 964 had perished; Capt. Henry George Kendall of the liner was telling his story ot the dis aster at an inquiry conducted by Coroner Pinault here. Capt. Kendall in substance declared, he had taken all possible precautions against a collision. His ship had been, stopped and he gave the requisite sig nal when the Danish colllier Storstad. which sank the Empress, was two miles away, but the collier kept oa through the fog that settled down soon after the two vessels sighted each other and had rammed the Em press while the latter vessel was mo tionless. Then the End. Then, despite his plea to the mas ter of the collier that he run his e glnes full speed ahead to keep tha hole in the liners side plugged witli the Storstad's bow, said Capt. Ken dall, the Danish vessel backed away, the water rushed In and the Empress sank. v ' Capt. Kendall took up hl3 story of the disaster from the point at which, the Empress of Ireland, bound from Quebec for Liverpool, had dropped her pilot at Father Point. .. "We then proceeded full speed, continued Capt. Kendall. "After pass ing Rock Point gas buoy I sighted, the steamer Sfccrstad, it then 1 being clear. "The Storstad was about one point 12 degrees, on my starboard bow. I saw a slight fog bank coming grad ually from the land and knew it would pass between the Storstad and myself. The Storstad was about two miles away. Then the fog came and the Storstad's lights disappeared. I stopped my ship. "At the same time I blew three short blasts on the steamer's whistle, meaning T am going full speed as tern.' The Stornstad answered. "I then blew two' long blasts, mean ing 'My ship was under way but stopped and has now way upon her.' He answered me again. It was still foggy. About two minutes afterward I saw red and green lights. He would then be about one ship's length away from me. I shouted to him through the mega phone to go full speed astern. At tha same time I had my engine full speed ahead with my helm hard aport with the object of avoiding, if possible, tha shock. Almost at the same time sha came right In and cut me down in a line between the funnels. "I shouted to the Storstad to keep full speed ahead to fill the hole ha had made. He backed away. Tho ship began to fill and listed over rap idly. When he struck me I had stop ped my engines. I then rang full speed ahead again, with the object of running her on shore. Almost im mediately the engines stopped, the ship filled and going over all the time. Ordered Out Boats. "I had, in the meantime, given or ders to get the lifeobats launched. I told the chief officer to tell the wire less operator to send out distress sig nals. He told me this had been done. I said: 'Get the boats out as quick as possible. That was the last I mw of the officer, .In about three to five minutes after ' that the ship tnrne-1 over and foundered.