APPALLING MARINE DISASTER

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 97, 30 May 1914, Page 9

APPALLING MARINE DISASTER

A THOUSAND LIVES LOST EMPRESS OF IRELAND GOES DOWN MANY BW ZEALANDERS and AUSTRALIANS ABOARD COLUDK IN SI UMENCE WITH NORWEGIAN COUM PITEOUS SCENES.AROUND THE SINKING SHIP ■■.■■■ ; • One of the most appalling marine disasters of modern times is re- , ported. The mammoth liner Empress of Ireland, a vessel of over 14,000 tons, has been run into and sunk by a Norwegian collier in the river St. Lawrence. Over a thousand lives 1 have been lost.

By Cable. — Press Association. — Copyright. :■■' (Received May 30, 9 .. .^ : . , .-'"■- OTTAWA, May 29C. , A?; thousand lives'are believed td'have been; lost when the Canadian-Pacific steamer' Empress, of j Ireland collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad, off Father Point, near Rimouski. • The collision took place during a dense fog, the vessel sinking in ten minutes after the collision. Four hundred and twenty of a total of 1400 of the crew and passengers were taken from the lifeboats to Rimouski, by the Government steamers, whic-h were standing by. The actual casualty list is not known, but the passengers included Laurence Irving, the. actor, and a number of New Zealanders. Nothing is known of the fate of the Storstad. AN URGENT CALL. VESSEL CUT IN TW.Q. Immediately on receipt of the ;S;O.S. signals the .Canadian Government steamers' Eureka; and Lady Evelyax, from Father Point, hurried to the jreseue. Early news was foarelymore than the S.O.S. call, naming the ship, and -stating that she was in fear .of immediate sink' ing.

many Canadian members of the Salvation Army, going to attend a conference in London. The number included most of the head officials. ■ The passenger, list.•'.includedmany kalians and. New Zealanders,; including the following:— Colonel W. R. Bloomfield, of , Auckland. Mrs Bloomfield. Miss Bloomfield. Miss C. Townsend (Brisbane), E. Byrne and G. Byrne (Brisbane). The steamer left Quebec yesterday with 990 passengers for Liverpool. AFTER THE COLLISION. SCENE BAFFLES DESCRIPTION. The scene immediately after the collision baffles description. The shrieks' of the passengers, who were rudely awakened from their slumbers; the hoars,e cries Of. the captain and officers.; and the wailing of women were mingled with the rushing of water in the gulf opened up in the boat. There- was little time to launch] the boats. FULL SPEED TO THE RESCUE. THE LINER DISAPPEARS. The Empress of Ireland was reached by the Government steamers Lady Evelyn and Eureka, whieh immediately steamed full speed to the scene ■ of the disaster at-Father Point, the Government a message, reading:--^—. "No sign of the Empress of Ireland. Lifeboats visible In tiie distance circling round the Government steamer Eureka. The steamer Lady Evelyn is also on the scene now." The Empress of Ireland had hove-to iu a fog when the collier struck her amidships.

The absence of a further call was explained by the fact that the vessel sank almost at once. There must have been a terrible shock. The vessel i»'believed to have been cut in two; IN THE BABES DAWN. THE PASSENGER LIST. At the earliest dawn boats were seen hovering over the spot, but there were no signs of either of the steamers. The Empress of Ireland carried

"TILL WE MEET AGAIN.''* COLLIER BADLY DAMAGED. When she steamed away from Quebec the brass band of the Salvatiou Army played "God be with you till wo meet again." , The Empress of Ireland was commanded by Captain Kendall, R."N.R., who commanded the Montrose when the murderer Crippen was captured. He is among the saved. Latest reports show that the Storstod was badly damaged about the bows, but is proceeding to Quebec under her own steam. She has on board the survivors and dead bodies from the wreck of the Empress of Ireland. She is reported to have rescued 200 passengers. . • .'.■.-.' DISTRESSING SCENES. ANXIOUS ENQUIRIES AT OFFICE. PRAYERS TOR SALVATIONISTS' SAFETY. (Received May 30, 9 a.m.) ' LONDON, May 29. The majority it the, Empress of Ireland 's officers and crew belonged to Liverpool. • There were distressing scenes when the shipping office was besieged all day long. Prayers have been offered up at the Salvation Army headquarters for the safety of the missing Salvationists.

the collision but escaped in the lifeboats and died fcef ore landing. Wreckage strews th.e St. Lawrence. The funnels of the Empress of Ireland became visible at low tide. The Lady Evelyn saved three hundred and ninety people, and the Eureka saved sixty. Most of the members of the crew escaped. Many passengers leaped into the water and clung to the wreckage, thus escaping. GRIM BUEDEN. SCORES OF ARMY PEOPLE DEAD. The collier Stbrstad is expected to reach Quebec shortly wrth a number of survivors and dead bodies aboard. Scores of prominent Salvation Army officers, including Mr Eees, the South African Commissioner, have been lost. Twenty-two are also reported to have died as a result of their injuries.. NEW ZEALAND OFFICERS. .NONE BELIEVED TO BE ONBOARD. Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 30. So far as is known, the following were the only members of the Salvation Army in New Zealand who went Home via America: —; Brigadier Annette Paule. Envoy Mrs Underwood.

As they intended visiting the United States en route, it is considered unlikely that they were on the ill-fated Empress of Ireland. .News was received here last Monday of the safe .arrival in London of Commissioner Richards and the New Zealand delegates. They went by the Orient liner Orsova.

.[Eatlier Point is on the south bank of - the St. Lawrence, afout ISO miles from Quebec, and the river there is about 30 miles wide. Some 10 miles further'up on the same side is Rimouski, where Customs' officers board incoming steamers.]

ONLY 337 SAVED. TOTAL PASSENGERS 1367. REMAINDER DROWNED OR KILLED (Received May 30, 10.20 a.m.) '■-.'. v OTT\WAfMay 29. The CanadiaurPacifie* Company admit that only 337 wiere.saved. ■\ The total nuriiber of passengers was 1367, leaving the remainder either drow«e'd or. killed'; by the impact. SURVIVORS' PITIFUL PLIGHT. CORPSES STREWN ALL ROUND. (Received May 30, 10.45 a.m.) QUEBEC, May 29. The Mr, Mrs and Miss Byrne, of Brisbane. Captain Kendall also escaped. The fate of Lawrence Irving's party is unknown.' ? <'•'' Many of the survivors had arms And legs broken. . ; . Twelve bodies lie on the wharf at Rimouski. - They were fatally hurt by

I THE BLOOMFIELD FAMILY. 1 A TWELVE MONTHS' TOUR. Lieut.-Colonel W. R. Bloomfield. is a well-known, figure in Auckland, and was recently given command of the 3rd (Auckland) Mounted Rifles. He is an enthusiastic volunteer, and when the . Territorial scheme came in he just!as enthusiastically applied himself to I what was his chief hobby*-"" Born in 11561, at Motawhero, Poverty Bay, he went to Auckland, and was educated at Ithe Auckland Grammar School. He 'was subsequently articled to Messrs Hesketh and Richmoh'd*. and later admitted to the bar. by Mr Justice Gillies. He has been for years interested in station properties in Poverty Bay, and has large interests in several mining concerns. He is a,. prominent man in sporting circles, and is well known on the polo and hunting field- He has been for some years in partnership In the , firm _of .Parr and Bloomfield, the senior member of .which is .the Mayor of Auckland. Miss Bloomfield was also well known and most popular. She was a goad golfer and a keen sportswoman. She has for some time been engaged to Mr J. Sharland, of Auckland: Colonel. Bloomfield, with his wife and daughter, left Auckland on April 12 on a twelve months' tour. LAURENCE IRVING.

Laurence Sydney Bradribb the younger son of Sir Henry Irving,

and brother to H. B. Irving, who recently appeared here, was 43 years of age, and was intended for the diplomatic profession, but had the same bent for the stage as his father and brother, and after a strenuous contest, by Jimmy bassy at St. Petersburg, he joined F. K. Benson's Shakespearian Company, and later played with J. L. Toole's Company. In 1904 he joined his father's company, and next year .went on tour with his own company. He has played several sketches of his own authorship on the Music Hall stage in England and America, and in 1909 he made his first essay in London management, producing ' ' The Unwritten Law'' at the Garriek Theatre. Besides many sketches he has written two plays, "Peter the Great," and BounieDundee," and has made translations of many more by French and Russian authors. He was London's greatest success as an actor last year, when he. played a principal part in '' Typhoon."

THE EMPRESS TYPE. DETAILS OF ILL-FATED VESSEL. The Canadian-Pacific Railway Company's "Empress" steamships, ,to which type the Empress of Ireland belonged, comprise some of the finest and fastest vessels plying' between Canada and Liverpool. Everything' in their-.equipment is of the most modern type, advantage having been taken of the latest improvements on steamships throughout the globe. They are larger and faster than any passenger steamship hitherto run on this route, their tonnage being 14,500, length 570 ft, breadth 65ft. They make the passage from Liverpool to Quebec in a fraction over six days, the record passage of the Empress of Ireland being 6 days 2krs 30min, and of her sister ship,-the Empress of> Britain, * 6 days . 3hrs Smin. They accommodate comfortably 350 first-class passengers, 350 secondclass, and over 1000 third-class.

The cost of construction of each'of these vessels ran to over £400,000. They are fitted with wireless telegraphy, sub-" marine telephones, and new thermo ventilating. Every attention has been paid in fitting the vessels to the comfort and requirements of passengers. The promenade deck is spacious and extensive, either in the open or under cover, and containing specially-constructed shelter-, ed recesses. The dining room, with a length of 7oft, and extending the full width of the ship, is elaborately furnished, and has seating accommodation for over 300 persons. The music room, smote rooms, and library are all sumptuously- appointed. Each vessel contains ten watertight compartments, .and is constructed with a "V "-shaped bilge keel, to promote steadiness at sea. The two-day trip to the sea oil the River and Gulf of St. Lawrence so shortens the actual ocean voyage as to enable travellers to figure'on about four days from land to land.

During the winter season, when the ports of Montreal and Quebec are closed io navigation, steamships run between St. John, and Liverpool.

TITANIC CATASTROPHE. t GRAPHIC DETAILS RECALLED. The other wreck of appalling inagni-' tude in its loss of .life and wealth was, of course, the wreck of the Titanic, a disaster so great that its details will remain in the minds of all who read them, •to their end of their days. The. Titanic, one of the largest and the most luxurious vessels in the world, crashed into an iceberg off the coast of Nova Scotia while on her maiden voyage from England, and when within a few hours' steam of Her destination, New ; ,! Yqrk, early ; on Sunday morning, April 15, 1912. The great liner earried 1680 passengers, many of them, being amongst, the most prominent'in literary and, financial 1 circles in England and America; 'there were women who were •leaders •of fashion, grcJat bankers, millionaires and literary men amongst them, all going upon a pleasant, trip in the world-s finest boat, which everyone believed, to be uiisinkable, because it hadvjSQ often been reiterated that the ample provision of watertight compartments made her so.

"5.0.5." But though Harland and Wolff were great designers, they did not provide against the exceptional, and their very efforts to minimise the danger of sinking was largely the cause of the huge death-roll, since not until the last moment did the passengers realise that the vessel was doomed. The first news appeared in New Zealand in a brief cable message announcing that wireless messages had been received, saying that the Titanic was sinking and needed help. Then, day after day, the news was amplified, bringing .graphic tales of horror, heroism, and despair. FAITH. Besides her passengers the Titanic carried crew and officers to the number of 903 —in all the population of a small town, and all these people were stirred into activity at an early hour, by a grinding crash. But the passengers thought little of it, except that possibly a propellor had been lost—they were so full of the assurance that the vessel was unsihkable. Steaming at something near, her full speed of 21 knots, she had struck an iceberg, and had been ripped open down her length. WOMEN FIRST. The officers realised the danger, and the order was given out, "All passengers on deck with lifebelts on," but even then they believed the order to be merely a precautionary measure, and there was no panic. Then the boats were swung out, and the order given, "All men stand from boats, women retire to deck below." Then it was that the seriousness of the position began to be realised, women had to be forcibly dragged from their husbands and pushed into the boats. Then the mei> were allowed to follow, but so great was the confidence displayed that even then many preferred to remain aboard, and so, while many boats went away crowded, others contained only a few. TALES OF SURVIVORS. The tales" of the survivors show that as they rowed away in the darkness the liner lay there with all her lights gleaming, and then, suddenly, she seemed to break in two and disappear, and only then did a clamour arise from her decks, the shrieks and cries of those who at last realised that their doom was sealed. Much heroism was displayed by the crew, as the story of the Titanic band playing as the vessel sank shows. CARPATHIA ARRIVES. The Carpathia, one "of the first vessels to arrive in response to the Titanic's wireless appeals, found only wreckage when she arrived, but later she picked up 16 boats, besides other survivors'

clinging to ; wreckage and floating their belts, and altogether of the great' crowd on board only 755 people were' - ■ saved. LIKE MEN. Conflicting stories of the tragedykept coming in each day, the tales of .'-. different survivors, and since each one would be impressed by some different occurrence in the confusion towards the end, it is reasonable to believe that some men did attempt to rush the boats and were shot by the first officer, who, along with the captain and many other officers, were drowned at their posts. There were bound to be some paniestricken ones amongst so many, yet the; - tales of all survivors generally agreeaT . that one of the orders, "Women and children first,'' was implicitly and heroically obeyed by practically every man on board, and it is a fact that the majority'of those saved'were women and children. • ' " \

TOO LATE. The steamer Virginia heard the -Titanic''s call 170. miles away,- and rushed to the rescue, but was too late- 1 -' - the great liner had disappeared' beneath waters two miles deep when she • arrived." It was th? same with .the Car.pathia,, the... Olympic, and the" Baltic/ they could do nothing but cruise round, '" picking ujp the boats, aud a few almost lifeless bodies drifting in the waves. '. The Carpathia rescued oyer 600 vivors. WIDOWED AND. FATHERLESS. Several died as they were, transferred . -from the boats to the Carpathia, and ' of all those survivors, it is. said, not , one showed any real consciousness of the disaster* that had befallen — : they were all dazed with its magnitude, da,zed with shock and suffering. They were > lifted on to the decks, husbandl 4l women, bereft of , all' they possesseti, children and motherless in one brief hour of agony—tiny whose very names were unknown to the "others in the boats. " HIMSELF HE WOULD NOT SAVE.

Many were the hqroie deeds of selfsacrifice, * but none ' showed' "greater heroism" than that wireless" operator, who continued to work at Bis-' machine, - sending-out- the S.Q.S-. signal, the latitude and - longitude, incessantly, his ' : business being to bring heip and not to *' help himself. He tapped the key while the assistant operator buckled a lifebelt round him, and he continued sending * messages until the waves swept into 'his!. - cabin." The ships that received the' calls report that the messages .ceased at 2 o'clock on Sunday moriiing, a few moments before the liner sank.

THE MONEY VALUE. The total loss, in wealth merely, was estimated at over £5,000,000," and the - wealth on board in jewels, personal belongings and cargo at £2,000,000. Over twenty of the passengers on board were millionaires. It is well-remembered that when the news of the disaster oc-*~ curred Parliaments adjourned, and in ports all over the world shipping flew flags at hal'f : mast. The offices of the' White ,Star Company in London and New York were besieged by. crowds ,of anxious relatives of . passengers and crew, and the officials of, the company had no news •to give, until the Carpatliia reached New York, and then, to the most, the news was the woTst. DARKNESS AND SILENCE. In the number of lives lost, and in its dramatic suddenness, the sinking of the Titanic is only paralleled by the disaster to the Empress of Ireland", "but the Titanie \vreck was made more through the very confidence 'in her safety that inspired her passengers until the ;end. The sinking of the Empress of Ireland was more dramatically sudden—■ few of those on board could have had time to realise the horror of their situation 'before the waves closed over them, button the Titanic the, insufficient boats had ! in "many cases left the ship halffilled, leaving hundreds on board to suddenly/, understand the hopelessness of their position. In the memory of every-one-wlio-knows -the story of the Titanic th#>gigantie liner goes down with that heroic -band inspiring >' courage with an immortal Hymn, a hymn of faijth, ending in- a terribls clamour of despair, a sudden darkness, and-_ silence. ■ ' """-

FURTHER DETAILS. A TERRIFIC IMPACT. NO HOPE FOR BLOOMFIELDS.._ (Received-May 30, 1.40 p.mJ). "'/"*"? ; QUEBEC, May! 29. -' ?r There is no hope of Colonel Bloom*. , ■"^ field being saved. ■ - ,- ' ?'-. The Storstad landed only a ha£dfus,-:- l> s of Survivors, and-several bodies. "'•[ Passengers who were unable to {dress . * were flung overboard in their might ' J clothes into the icy waters. ' -' v ', \": The crew hurled themselves over the - ' vessel ? sside when the terrific impact shook them from their bunks. Much wreckage was torn off the vessel's side, to which they were enabled to cling until rescued. Laurence Irving y s death is practically certain. 4 . " In the Canadian House the Premier expressed sympathy at the terrible disaster, explaining that it was impossible to avert it, even by anything the country could have done to reiider "~ the river more safe. / Sir Wilfrid Laurier joined in expressing sympathy for relatives.