THE FLORIDA-REPUBLIC COLLISION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 9 March 1909, Page 2

THE FLORIDA-REPUBLIC COLLISION.

NEWS BY THE MAIL. PASSENGERS' THRILLING EXPERIENCES. MAGNIFICENT RESCUE WORK. THE "ARRIVAL" OF BINNS. The disaster to the White Star liner enublic, 100 miles off the American last on the morning of Saturday, Jajn. i, supplies a wonderful story of the The Republic, with 231 passengers in le first cabin, 11 in the steerage, and bout 300 officers and crew, was chris■nod the "millionaires' ship" before he cleared New York, because of the umber of conspicuous and enormously •ealthy Americans who were on board, v quest of pleasure in the Mediterraean. IOW THE DISASTER. OCCURRED. At 4 o-'clock in the morning, when eeling her way through a dense fog, he was rammed hard amidships by the Italian immigrant ship Florida. The ves:els did not sight each other until only i few yards apart. The crash was tar•ific. The Florida instantly rebounded, md was gone into the darkness as mddenly as she had come. So quick was t, that' the officers on the Republic were maware o£ the identity of the vessel nhich had dea]t the great liner her leath-blow. Within a few seconds of the shock hundreds of men, women, and children, in various stages of undress, were rushing from below to the decks of the liepublic. Every light was extinguished Torrents of water roared through the creat cavity in the vessel's side, extinguished the fires, and stopped the engines. A panic appeared inevitab c. But it did not occur. The Sepubhr has, in her commander, Captain Sealby, an officer of strong personality and prompt action, and he rose superior to the occasion. As the saloon P« ssen S c " scrambled together on deck^he gathered them about hiir, and in a brief, force ful speech, assured them that the vessel was in no danger of sinking, and advised them to dress themselves in their warmest clothes. By nearly all the advice was at once accepted. Meanwhile, the crew were called to quarters, the bulkheads closed, and the lifeboats made v-aclv for launching. Despite Laptain Sealby's assurance, the immediate abandonment of the steamer appeared imperative. A TRIUMPH FOR MARCONI. In the midst of all this tumult, another mind was working as coolly and as effectively as the captain's. Jack Binns, the young Marconi operator on board, went direct from his berth to the instrument He found the room a mass of wreckage, but the wireless apparatus was intact, and, perched among the ruins, he clicked out the magic letters, "COD," the Marconi signal for a vessel'in distress. ' Again "and again went the message, broadcast through the atmosphere, to be picked up by any receiving instrument on land or wa within a radfus of beween 200 and 300 miles. For something like two hours Bmns appealed vainly. Then ont of the fog .and darkness came the respond, (■• , which, in the international code, ropiest, "I am coming." And, immediatev a terwards, Binns had the ™« «*«<*!»" of knowing that he was .nto.ri.wrt half a dozen instruments. His a PP ea had been heard on the «*ter \\ h.te ««. shin Baltic, and French mail liner i.a TmVSFEHRINn THE P «■ SENGERS. mmsm considered precarious, transhipment was at once commenced. lne tog £•'■ till very dense, but the sea was fort,, atelv. calm. In the words of one "port "The laconic wireless sentences Jptke of the woes of the m.l .onagy. from the luxurious cabins ol the K«™b?ic after the collision, to the sticky, £ die 'smeHing lower deoU of the cmi; °rai.t vessel, where, perforce, the) mixed with the least fascinating iepr^ontativM ot Italy-some from the nricken di.tri.ts of the south where the earthquake took place. Ihe removal of -yen personal baggage was not permitted. Some left guat valuable* Wiind, and few had more clothing than the garments they had donned on the first alarm." RELIEF STEAMERS TO TliE BESCUE. Ml this time the heroin wireless nperater was busy, leading a number of relief steamer to the rifcue. Ihe hunt in the fog was a sort <d "blind man s buff"— on'J of the strangest and weirdest scenes recorded in the annals of modern seafaring Bound for the same spot, unable to get their bearings, almost feeling their way, unseen au<l unheard, yst constantly, t«i one aiitither. as though fi.l» by .-ide, were nv* h:ige greyhounds of the Atlanti.' i-iJ four revenue cutters. Collision llireaten. Ed them, and the fate that had overtaken the Republic lurked for them in i.he fog, but still they kept on. "Have you found her? Are you talking with her: The Star liner P.allic luul the \vt\i\\< c,i lii-.-i f!i>hlii.'» ill.' 'li-:.bli'd sti'iniiai^ ami the density of the f. >if is iv.nveye i liy Ihe fad that nlthuuch sla- was ncai by al 2 nMock in tho afterninu. nol until C> o'clock cnultl she definitely m cate her sister f-hip. A few home lal"i th? wind and sou rose, and as the Florida was taking more \vaier it- was m solved shortly before midnight U again tranship" the Republic's passeng ers to the Baltic— a difficult undert-ik ing, which occupied some six hoirrs The Florida's passengers, convince that the decision to leave the vesse meant that she was sinking, were con trolled with great difficulty. They mad< a number of rushes for the lifeboat" but were kept off by the frt-e usj o fists and handpikes,' and the officers revolvers; but, despite this- panic au> the darkness and rising ooa, .'I! hand: were taken off without a. single mishap From beginning to end the wh< le chs aster was attended by Jjeaertl presence of nvnd and individual acts oi heroism, which will make i'- ever famous. The Bai'i- then ste.tmol for New York, when she had a •Jenon^tritive welcnme. But, naturally, the Americans' great welcome and the plaudit? on both sides of the Atlantic were chiefly for Captain Sealby and Jack Binns. Sealby and his crew refused to leave the ship with Ihe passengers, in the vain hope that she might be towed into port. She went down at 9 on Monday night, still some distance from the shore. The ;rcw had left some time before, but the commander and >he mate, Wiliams, remained on board until the huge rasel sank under them. Their chances if being saved were 6lende"r. ' THE REPUBLIC'S LAST HOURS. THE CAPTAIN'S STOBY. The dramatic story is vividly told ly Captain Sealby.—---"It was dark. The vessel commenced to crumble and crack, and her torn commenced to go down very apidly. I directed Williams to burn lue lights, and I fired five charges rom my revolver to warn tho cutprs to ca?t off, as wo wore sinking.

We ran from tlio bridge to the forecas.tlo. Tin; docks -tro:c all awash, aud we were sinking quiekiy. Williams caught hoJd of the port rail and 1 pot up the rigging' as far as the forward rnnuing light, about 100 feet tin the mast. 1 iv-'t •:! iheip, and fired my last fhot from my revolver. Then the water caught up with me. The sweep of the waves spread out ray heavy coat, and made the air inside of it a sort of life-preserver. "It was dark all round me, and I was swept by a rolling mas? of water. I was caught in this in a sort of, whirlpool, and churned round. "When I came to the surface T tried to pull my coat off, but it stuck. A considerable amount of debris, pieces' of broken plank, lengths of steps, and odd articles from the ship littered the sen around me, and I managed to get hold of some spars and finally captured a. hatch. After that, in ppite of the heavy soa which. was running. £ managed to pull myself on to this hatch and make a life-raft of it, lying across it in ppreadeagle fashion. In this way I floated about for some time. Searchlights were playing all over the water, but it seemed to mo that they could never find me. The searchlights from two revenue cutters and a tug ■were concentrated on the spot where the Republic had gone down, but somehow they missed me. I managed to load the chambers of my revolver again, and fired several times in the attempt to attract attention. Then I got hold of a towel floating among the wreckage, and waved that when the light flnshea on me. Then out of the darkness sprang a boat, and I was hauled aboard her. I was weak and exhausted, and was glad to find mvsolf afe in her, with my mate Wil- '; «m. who had stuck to me to ihc last He was pretty well finished, like n>•olf. niul bntli of us «u(TerP(t acutely "mm the cold," " ~ TTIE ITEHO OF THE WTRELESS. Binns, whose name will always be associated with the history of wireless, is a young Englishman, only 22 years of ago. He comes from Peterborough, Northamptonshire, and has crowded a lot into a short life. When 13 he became a telegraph messenger at the Great Eastern station there, and nearly had his career cut short by being run over by a train, both legs being injured. Afterwards he learned every instrument, and then went to learn the Marconi system at Liverpool, mastered it in three weeks, and was carried shouder high to the station on leaving. ,lle was in the, Mediterranean at the time of the earthquake at Messina, and tried for three days to raise the wireless station in the fouth of Italy. The triumph of Marconi is complete. Had the Florida been equipped with a wireless instrument the vessel would not have collided, six lives would have been wived, and the Republic, whose value is placed at £300,000, would not at this moment be itt the bottom of the Atlantic. In connection with the legal pro ceedinga following upon the collisiot between the White Star liner He public and the Italian immigrant shir. Florida, off the American coast, oe January 23, it appears that, undei limited liability proceedings, the owners of the Republic will be unable to recover much beyond the 220,50 f dollars (about £44,500), which th( Florida realised at auction. — "Sydnej Daily Telegraph."