The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1880-06-22
A Sad Calamlty-Two Steamers Collide.

AT late hour on Friday night the 11th
inst, the steamboat Narragansett was run
into by the Stonington, another boat of the
same line, aud the former boat sunk in
few minutes. The night was very foggy,
which is the excuse for tho collision
Quite a number of lives were lost. The
following account told by Mr.. bennett, one
of the survivors, gives pretty fair idea OF
the horrors Of the occasion.
81 was on my way to South Attleboro,
Mass, and took passage on the Narragan-
sett. was sitting in a chair in the pas
sage way between staterooms Nos. 30 and
40 when the collision took place. The
other vessel must have struck our boat just
outside of stateroom No. 80, which is for.
ward of the wheels A man rushed out
from that room covered with blood, and
there were number of others in that and
the adjoining staterooms. The whole side
of the vessel at that point seemed to be
crushed IN, and many of the occupants of
the rooms must have been thrown into the
water and killed. ] ran tc the stern of the
vessel, and on looking over the rail saw
five women and several men struggling in
the water.
Men and women rushed out of their
rooms with nothing but their night clothes
on them shrieking wildly. Some of the
officers and few of the cooler passengers
tried to alay the excitement, and assured
the passengers that there was no danger
Some of them went to their staterooms
and put on their clothes, but the alarm and
excitement became wilder and wilder when
the cry that the steamer was on fire went
up. All the lights were put out by The
shock of the collision, and the darkn ess
made the confusion worse. l secured a
life -preserver, and as did not know how
TO put it on, asked a saloon passenger if
he knew how to work it. Yes" he re-
piled, "I will show you," and taking the
life e-preserver he ran off with it. l follow
ed him and we had tussle for the belt,
but he gave me blow in the face and
knocked me down. When got up he was
gons.
then went where the other life-preserv-
ers were kept and as they were high up
out of reach, l asked two passengers to
lift me up aud / would hand down the
belts. BY this time there were fifty per-
sons around us. threw the life-preserv-
ers one by one among them and kept the
last one for myself, but no sooner got on
my feet than several men rushed at me and
tore the preserver from me. came near
being trampled to death.
then ran off again, and just then
small raft was thrown into the water.
swung myself down by the side of the ves-
sci and got on board of it. The officers
and men tried to get the large raft over
board, but it was lashed down too tightly,
and the job was given up. In few min
utes there were about twenty-five persons
on the raft with me, and as the vessel was
pretty we'll on fire by this time we showed
off.
1t was almost providential that the
steamer took fire, because by the bright
light everything could be plainly seen, and
great numbers were picked up from the
water who but for the flames, would never
have been seen. AS our raft foated away
from the steamer we picked up IL women
whom we found struggling in the water
We came across young girl and her
brother struggling together for life, and
we were about taking the girl on board,
when she cried out, "Don't mind me take
up my brother first" She was brave girl
aud we saved them both. We were now
more than quarter of mile away from
the burning vessel, and the fierce flames lit
up the whole sea for miles around with a
bright red light.
Our raft was now too heavily loaded and
there was great danger of our being all
lost, four Of us jumped into the water and
held on by the edges of the raft until we
were almost numb. Then we were taken
up on the raft and four more took our
places 10 the water. We kept this up un-
til boat came alongside ard took off the
10 women we had on the raft. Then we
were all right and padded along to where
the Stonington lay. When about half a
mile from the burning vessel we picked up
a very old man, and in another minute he
would have gone down. At last, after be-
ing about an hour and a half on the raft,
we got alongside the Stonington and were
hauled up on deck. The only man who
saved anything from the wreck was a Jew
who scrambled on the raft with carpet
bag in his hand.
was rubbed down for half an hour ard
then put in bed. A man about thirty
eight years old was brought in soon after,
and he died in a short time. We remained