The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-01-27 00:00:00

COLLISION AT SEA.

SINKING OF A MAIL STEAMER

On Friday morning in last week the Hamburg-
American Company's steAner Cimbria, while on her
voyage to New York, came into collibion during a fog
with the steamer Sultan, and sank soon afterwards.—
The Berlin Correspondent of The Times
_,hag given the
following particulars :
A terrible piece of news comes from Hamburg. On
Friday morning the mail steamer Cimbria, with a
crew of 110 hands and 380 passengers from Hamburg
to New York, was run into by the English steamer
Sultan, and almost immediately sunk. The disaster
occurred near the island of Borkum, which lies
off the coast of East Friesland, opposite the
frontier between Holland and Germany. The
Sultan, which was likewise seriously damaged by
the collision, has arrived in the Elbe, and a boat
belonging to the lost ship, with a rescued freight,
of 39 persons, has also reached Cuxhaven. What
was the fate of the other passengers and crew on
board the Cimbria has not yet been ascertained;
they may have all gone down with the vessel, or
they may still be beating about in her other boats.
Six tugs have left Hamburg to search for them.
The Cimbria, like most of the Hamburg• American
steamers, was built at Glasgow by Messrs. Caird and
Co., and has ever since been almost always in constant
use. She was 3501 t. long, 42ft. broad, and 351 t. deep,
and had a registered burden of 3,000 tons, and 2,000.
horse power. Her passengers and crew together
numbered nearly 500 souls, of whom, it seems, the
greater portion were emigrants, with steerage passages
for America.

It is also known that there were on board half-a-
dozen Chippeway Indians from the State of Michigan,
who were returning home after having been exhibited
here as ethnologic curiosities for the last month or
two. The Indians were to have left by an earlier
steamer, but the illness of one of their number de-
layed their embarcation.

A Reuter a telegram says that the Cimbria left
Hamburg, with 380 passengers and 110 crew, last
Thursday afternoon, Before leaving the Elbe she ran
aground, but succeeded in getting off at high tide with
the assistance of the North-German Lloyd steamer
Hansa without sustaining any damage. The Cimbria
put to sea at half-past two the same afternoon, and on
Friday morning, during a thick fog off Borkum, came
into collision with the steamer Sultan and received
such damage as to cause her to sink shortly afterwards,

After the collision the officers of the Cirnbria, per-
ceiving that she must -sink almost immediately, lost
not a moment in taking every possible measure to save
the lives of those on board. Life-belts were distri-
buted among the passengers, and the order was given
to lower the boats, which, however, owing to the
vessel heeling over, was found to be very difficult
of execution on one side of the vessel and absolutely
impossible on the other. The second officer was still
engaged in cutting spars loose in order that there
should be as much drift wood about as possible for
people to cling to when the ship went down under
him. He was, however, able to seize a spar, but as
several other persons also clung to it he let go and
swam to a boat subsequently picked up by the Theta,
which vessel he steered to Cuxhaven. Seventeen other
persons who succeeded in reaching the Weser light-
house were taken off by the steamer Diamant. The
total number known to be saved up to Sunday was 56,
including Herr Spruth, second officer; Herr Heyden,
third officer; Herr Voss, fourth officer; Herr Kop-
mann, second engineer; two assistant engineers, the
chief steward, three quartermasters, two between-deck
stewards, and ten seamen.

One of the persons saved from the Cimbria makes
the following statement :
"The weather was clear up to 1.15 a.m., but then
a fog set in which continued to increase in density.
The engines of the Cimbria were kept at full speed
till 1.30, then at half-speed till 2 o'cloc'k after
which they were kept at 'slow.' About 10
minutes past 2 the whistle of another steamer was
heard, and the engines of the Cimbria were stopped
instantly. The Sultan's green light was, owing to
the thick fog, not observed till she was about 150 ft,
off the Cimbria. The latter vessel was struck abaft
the first collision-bulkhead on the port side, and im-
mediately heeled over to starboard and sank. The
Theta picked up one of the Cimbria's boats at two
o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and arrived at Cux-
haven about six o'clock.

The Sultan has a large hole in her bow, 7ft. above
the water line.

BERLIN, Monday Night.
The following account of the collision has been pub.
lished at Berlin :

The Cimbria, Captain Hansen, sailed on Thursday
from Hamburg for New York with 512 souls on
board, there being 110 officers and crew and 402
passengers, of whom 24 were cabin and the rest
emigrants from Eastern Prussia, Hungary, and Russia.
On Friday morning at two o'clock, when off Borkum
Reef, the engines were put at half-speed on
account of a dense fog. Ten minutes later the whistle
of another steamer was heard. The Cimbria stopped
at once, but a few minutes later was struck on the
port side by the vessel, which turned out to be the
British steamer Sultan, from Hull, Captain Cuttill.
The shock was so violent and the damage BO
great that the Cimbria sank within fifteen minutes
after the collision. Mats were at once lowered,
and life - belts distributed to the passengers,
who thronged the decks in their night clothes.
The officers and crew behaved admirably. The
women and children were placed first in the boats.
No. 1 and No. 7 got off clear; but No. 5 being over-
crowded, capsized at once. The work was extremely
difficult, because the ship soon heeled over to star-
board. The first officer held burning torches, and
went down with the ship. The second officer was cut-
ting spars loose from the deck until the water
reached him. He was picked up by one of the
boats. The third and fourth officers and the second
engineer were also saved, but the captain and the
North Sea pilot went down with the ship, standing on
the bridge. The survivors describe the moment of the
ship's sinking as terrible. The air was filled with the
cries of the drowning. Hundreds remained floating
for a short tinoe till benumbed by the icy water. In a
few minutes all was over,

A telegram from Hamburg, dated Monday, says
that the sixteen passengers and the fireman rescued
from the Cimbria by the Diamant arrived there on
Monday afternoon. They state that after leaving the
sinking vessel in a boat they were capsized, and sought
refuge in such of the rigging of the Cimbria as
still remained above the waves. In this position
they remained for ten hours, freezing with
cold, and expecting every moment to be their
last, until they were at length rescued by
a boat from the Diamant. Many of thcse who were
in the boat when it originally left the Cimbria were
drowned on its capsizing, and many more of their
number after reaching the rigging were obliged, one by
one, to release their hold, and were drowned before
the eycs of the survivors, who describe the scenes
which occurred as of the most horrible and heartrend-
ing character.

About five o'clock on Monday afternoon the steamer
•rprile, Captain Harrison, arrived at Hull from Ham-
burg. Captain Harrison states that the Sultan arrived
at Hamburg ow Saturday afternoon, and that Captain
Cuttill requested him to examine the damages and re-
port to his owners, 'Messrs. Bailey and Leetbam, Hull.
Captain Cuttill also made a statement to the following
effect regarding the collision :

He left Hull at midnight on Wednesday, and, with
strong, fair wind, made good way across the North
Sea. Between one and two on Friday morning he
sighted Borkum Lightship, and, being well to south.
ward, steered an easterly course for the Elbe. Soon
afterwards, on their coming into dense fog, the engines
were eased to dead slow and the steam whistle blown
every few seconds. A steamer was passed which
was supposed to be bound for London, and shortly
after the masthead and port lights of another vessel
were seen on the Sultan's starboard bow, about two
points away. Captain Cuttill expected the steamer
would keep her course, as she was not, and had
not been, sounding her steam whistle. The next
minute the steamer was seen coming rapidly round
on the port helm, but they were so close that all
Captain Cuttill could do was to stop and go full
speed astern, which was done. Next minute another
steamer, which proved to be the Cimbria, caught
the Sultan's bowsprit in her pert fererigging, crashirg
away her figurehead, and cutting her down nearly to
the water's edge. So great was the force of the blow
that the Sultan's figurehead and hawse-pipes were
driven through the collision bulkhead into the fore-
castle, the crew, who had been sleeping there,
having very narrowly escaped. It was fesred by
the crew of the Sultan that she was sinking and the
other steamer was hailed to stand by, but no reply
was received. She parsed away into the darkness
and, it was thought, had proceeded on her voyage.
Next moment the chief officer saw her coming on the
other si3e of the Sultan, and he called out to the
captain, "For God's sake go aatern ; she will be into
us again." The engines were put full speed astern,
and the Ctmlnia once more was lost to view, Captain
Cuttill in his own mind reflected on the German cap-
tain for not stopping to aFcertain the Sultan's damage.
He remained on the spot five hours clearing away
wreckage and shoring up the bulkhead laetore pro-
ceeding, up the Elbe, and for several hours after
he arrived at Hamburg he had no idea that the
ambria had foundered. During the whole five hours
in which the Sultan lay to before proceeding on her
voyage the crew never heard a cry for help nor any
other sound. All her boats were launched after the
collision, and, had any sound been heard, they were
available to render assistance. The Sultan could not,
of course, anchor, as her hawsepipes had been carried
aws.y. She would therefore drift with the tide.

n Tuesday afternoon, while a number of Tyne
Commissioners' men were employed in blasting rocks
at Tron Rocks, South Shields. a premature explosion
occurred, William Bancroft, foreman, was struck by
pieces of the stone and killed, and Bryan Kilcullan,
labourer, was so badly injured that he died shortly
afterwards. Another labourer named Edward Gray,
was struck and out about the head.