New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-01-20
PRICE THREE CENTS.
THE WRECK IN THE SOUND.
CAUSE OF THE CALAMITY UNEXPLAINED.
SEARCHING FOR THE BODIES or THE DEAD-THosn
KNOWN TO BE LOST.
tDY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRmUNE. /


on Friday morning about thirty miles from these
shores. Knots of men gather at the railway station.
! on the wharves. at the hotels, TO discuss the sad
| event, and those who lived through that terrible
night and safely reached the shore regarded in
the light of heroes. The saddest incidents of to-day
have been the meetings with those who are seeking
! for some clew, if ever so faint Of loved ones
| whose fate is not known to certainty,
or with those who arrive here from distant points
and hurriedly ask for transportation TO the Shore
where they expect that or later the bodies Of
friends relatives may be driven up by the waves.
! L. w. Spauldimg is here from South Boston, seek
ing to learn the fate of his son. who purser on
the City of Columbus At this distance from the
wreck nothing is known as to whether the yOung
man alive dead. Mr.. Spaulding irst learned OF
the disaster arriving at his place of business and
hurried of to New Bedford. Purser Spauldlng and
six others were the first to leave the wreck. IL vas
| about ten on Friday morning when couple of Gay
| Head Indians pulled out to the wreck and took of
! Spaudng and six others, who were the first res
cued. They landed safely with one excep-
! tion. and that exception is not yet known.
| Mr.. Richardson of Boston, whose father and
mother drowned, is searching for their bodies.
His father with one exception the last to leave
! the rigging. Mr. Richardson, whose wife had
hours before been swept away, clung to the cross
trees until his limbs frozen stiff and ut
terly useless lie could talk to a poor
fellow in similar plight, but
could not move n muscle TO aid himself, and when
Lieutenant Rhodes at the risk of his life threw
line about him and dragged from his perch tho
! poor man begged of him for Gods sake 10 let him
| die. He dragged aboard the reyenuc cutter,
| but was dead before his body reached the deck.
Another poor fellow clung TO the frozen rigging for
| eleven long hours. swaying back and forth in tho
gale. as if pinned to a clothes line. He could not
drop His hands were frozen 10 the rope and there
he died.
THE SCENE PICTURED by A SURVIVOR.
The chief steward, 4. F. Ptman, whose life was
saved is an intelligent man and gives straight
forward narrative Of his experience. When asked
TO express his opinion to the responsibility for the
disaster he quietly says:
Il was not on deck at the time and Of course ths
nature of my duties was such that il would be inn
possible for me to say how 1t happened. was
asleep when the crash came. and il was some mo-
ments before realized the situation. When I
came out into the cabin the captain had induced
| nearly every one except two or three ladies to put
on ifepreservers. But tell yOn SIR it would have
made your heart bleed o have been there on deck
and TO have those helpless people swept like
straws into the great cold waves You see they
came out on deck, when the ship settled down at
the stern to find dry place to stand; and just as
they reached dry footing along came a tremendous
wave and Just swept that deck of every human be-
ing. you might sweep the dust off a smooth floor.
| Well, hope III never such a thing again. For
there was and the captain and lot of Others just
where we couldn't raise fingers to help those
poor women, and then, you know, some never fair
| y got deck. think that a number died In their
staterOoms. | think very likely that Mr.. Morton,
one of the editors of The Globe died in his room for
| did not see him after supper that night"
u-1ll nroIgI,lv ho kuOUU inst how this
disaster was caused. There is reason to suspecs
the faithfulncss efficiency OF the under officers
Of the steamer. who perished. Captain Wright
| is regarded aud has always been considered
an efficient and careful officer He has been on tho
line for fifteen years and knows the coast perfectly.
| 1t probably may be shown on investigation that
those whose duty it was to guide the vessel were
for the moment confused and lost their bearings,
for they, according TO the captains statement, had
disobeyed his commands although not inten-
tionally.
OPINIONS AS TO THE CAUSE.
One old waterman says that they had taken a
short cut and got into difficulty, while another er-
presses the belief that the buoy had shifted. But
the officers who made the mistake have gone before
another tribunal and will not answer here to tho
imputatons on their watchfulness and their
knowledge of the coast. One reason assigned by
gentleman who is IN a position TO know
much as anybody is that when Captain
Wright hurriedly turned in TO warm himself
after being for hours exposed TO the gale his las,
command as he left the man at wheel, may have
been Southwest by SOUTH" and the man may
have misunderstood the order, and supposed it to
be southwest, which would have turned the steamer
from her proper course apparently, and caused the
disaster A heavy southeaSterly snow storm has
prevailed since a. m, and, but little Is visible on
IA. u, 1,ar.. Tho ma
and her living freight of more than hundred hui
man beings went to their death, save the multi
tude of boxes and barrels baskets and boards, which
ere tossed about, the sport of the waves glimpse
is obtained now and then of the tall masts, which
are intact fore and MAN, and Of the prov OF the
steamer, as the waves rise and recede. But there Ia
little left to mark where she went down. The scene
from the deck of the revenue cutter Samuel Dexter
to-day was a desolate and sad one, indeed as We
cruised about as the dangerous shores as pos
sible in search of bodies of the drowned.
LOOKING FOR THE BODIES OF THE DEAD.
The greatest interest this afternoon centred in
the results Of the search expeditions which went
out from this port this morning. Two vessels Wis
tied the scene of the wreck, but in spite of tho
earnestuess OF the search their labors yielded but
little to the knowledge of the extent of the catss-
trophe. Other expeditions of smaller character
went out from other places on the coast. The dead
found by one of the expeditions were all two and q
half miles away from the scene of the wreck. and
there is no doubt that for days the shore Of thc
Sound will be streWn with bodies
Some of the old sailors, of whom there are
multitudes heredbouts, are of the opinion that
most of the dead that will be found washed ashore
will be found IN Menemsha Blight, cove halfway
between Vineyard Haven and Woods Holl, into
which the tide sweeps with strong swirl. Parties
of tituted searchers patroled the coast at
various times OF the day we'll a binding snow
storm would permit one
The need of such Il search being conducted with
vigor was suggested by an old whaler, to whom all