The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-08
How the Disaster Occurred.

QUEBEC, May THE following is the official
report of the third officer Of the State of
Florida;
1--WE left New York on the 18th of April, with
| about 167 passengers and crew, and full gen
eral cargo. All went well until the night of the
| 18th. when, at 1l:30, we came in collision with
the bark P Ponemia, Captain Hetburn. Both
ships went down almost instantly, and out
of the steamers passengers and crew
only forty-four, including the stewardess, man
aged to escape in the boats and out of the bark's
crew Of fifteen. only the captain and two seamen
were saved Next morning the bark was OBJ
served bottom up. The survivors, after being
thirty five hours in the boats, without food or
water, were rescued by the Norweigen bark
Theresa of Christiana from that port,
bound to Quebec. On the 22nd
twenty-four of them were transferred on board
the ship Louisa of and from Cardiff for Quebec,
where they remained until the 9th of May,
| when they were taken on board the Tltania. 1t
is believed that 135 lives were lost.
This third officer or James Allen, being in
terviewed added that the night on which the
disaster occurred was clear, though moonless, and
the sea smooth as glass. He retired to his bunk
at o'clock, leaving Chief-off Thompson in
charge of the deck. About 10 O'Clock he heard
the signal suddenly given to stop the steamers
engines, followed by a fearful crash
! He rushed Immediately on deck and the
first thing he noticed was a red light pretty close
on their starboard bow. AT the same moment
he heard the chief officers voice and the cry,
| "Collisionp He saw the bark which had run into
them go down. This bark he afterwards
learned from its captain and two of its crew,
who were picked up and saved, was the Pone-
mia, of Chatham n B. Running to the side of
his own vessel, ne endeavored to ascertain the
| nd
gaping hole into which the sea was
fast pouring, and feeling, as he said
| to himself, that the steamer was a
| goner he at once hurried to the captain, who
Immediately gave orders to get out the boats,
four of which were down in fifteen minutes, when
the State of Florida just keeled over to port and
went down stern foremost. So far as he could
calculate the disaster occurred in
latitude 49o north, longitude Sc l-29 west or
about 120 miles off the Irish coast as, when
| their last bearings were taken that day, they
were about 47o 3, north and 3So 36' west AS
vthe vessel went down, all on board including
| the captain, were washed. off by the sea.
| Allan further stated that the captain was ex-
| ceedingly cool, to cool, in fact, he did not
seem to look upon the danger as serious or press
| ing and this together with the fact that he ap-
peared in no hurry to himself, was possibly
| the cause why more of the passengers
were mot saved. They would not
take to the boats, as they supposed,
when they saw him so cool, the danger
was not so great and moreover the sea
| was so calm that of the eight boats carried four
| were safely launched, while two were smashed
| by the collision OF the other two he knew
| nothing, but believed they were washed away
| when the steamer went down. He did not think
| anyone had escaped in them; however, if they
| had, he did not want to raise any false hopes
his opinion being that they would never be
heard from again. When No boat
| was being lowered, the tackle was cut too
| quickly, and its occupants, all passengers, were
| upset into the sea- A number of them, includ-
| ing Mr.. Bennett of London, Ont, clung to the
boats bottom during the remainder of the night,
| and were picked up in the morning by the other
| boats. On Sunday, after drifting thirty five
| hours they were picked up by the Theresa, and
on the following Tuesday the party now on
| board the Tltana were transferred to the bark
| Louisa, of Cardiff.
| Allan declined to give his opinion of the cause
! of the accident
The members of the rescued party on board
the Titania presented pitiable appearances So
| sudden was the calamity that many of them
who were in their hunks at the time, had TO
hurry on deck and into the boats in their night
| clothes. Most of them had but very confused
idea of what really took place, but oil could dis
tinctly remember, however, the crash and rush for
the deck. The survivors also remember with a
shudder the dash for the borts as the ship went
down amid the shrieks and lamentations of the
passengers. Those on duty at the time remem-
ber seeing red light flash for an instant fol
lowed by crash, after which nothing but con-
fusion followed, the steamer beginning to
sink and hurried preparations being made
to launch the boats. The bark went down in
stantly. The frightened passengers rushed on
deck in their night-clothes and scene of in
describable confusion ensued. Women went
into Mysteries and men refused to move. The
women, especially, objected to leaving the doomed
vessel. Some of the women could have been
easily saved, but they absolutely refused to
bulge an inch. Those who clung to the bottom
of the capszed boat all night suffered terribly
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