Morris tribune., 1884-05-14
IN OLD OCEANS EMBRACE.
A Collision In Nid.Ocean Carries
Down Two Good ships.


MONTREAL, May 7.-The steamship Titania,
which has arrived off Father point, has sent
the following statement ashore: "Have on
board thirty four persons, thirty-three from
the steamship State of Florida, and two from
the bark which the Florida ran down in mid
ocean. The latter two are the captain and
sailor of the bark. All the others, both on
the steamship and bark, were drowned"
NEW YORK, May 1T is now believed
that fifty-two of the passengers and crew OF
the State Of Florida have been saved-thirty-
two ON board the Htania, and the twenty
reported to have been picked up by a passing
ship, probably the one which signaled the
City of Rome One hundred and fifteen
souls went down with the steamer Florida
and twelve with the bark, making total
of 1877.
MONTREAL, May 9-Further talks with
the survivors of the disaster to the State Of
Florida show that all agree that fifteen min
utes did not elapse from the time the col
lision took place until the steamer went
down, but even after the collision, with the
life-saving appliances at the command of the
steamer there was still good chance OF saw
ing all the passengers and crew. However,
the chief engineer of the steamer was guilty
of an error of Judgment which cost him his
life and proved fatal to e-fourths of those
on board Instead of stopping the engines he
set them going at full speed in the hope of
keeping the vessel atloat by pumping. The
water however, rushed in so fast that he was
driven from the engine-room and could not
get back into it to stop the engines, which
were driving the ship through the water at
so terrific a rate of speed that it was
almost impossible to lower a boat, and
only the boldest would venture to get into a
boat that was being dragged though the wa
ter so fast. This accounts for the reluctance
of the passengers to enter the boats,
especially the women, for even the sailors
were daunted by the difficulty Of getting into
them in safety
Allen, the third officer, has been careful to
keep a memorandum of the signals for assist
ance he displayed, and which he says were
ignored by the City of Rome. Each signal,
he says was made in separate hoist, and
was kept flying until the answering code
pennant was displayed by the City of Rome.
She never, however, slackened speed, and by
the time Allen had given the last signal she
was out of sight. Some of the shipwrecked
crew got up in the rigging. There they dis
tinctly saw the answering pennant run up by
the Rome each time the signals used by
Allen were first hoisted. The first was
"Want to communicate close" second
"Will you take?" third "Shipwrecked crew."
and fourth "Of steamer" This last hoist
was never completed, as by this time the
Rome had gone beyond signaling distance.
In an interview Allen blames the first Off
cer Thompson-first Tor the collision and
second for being unable to organize any
kind of order after the boats We're launched
Locomotive Boiler Explosion.
PARSONS, Kan, May 10.-About 2 o'clock
in the afternoon terrific explosion occurred
at the Missouri Pacific Railroad shops, at
this place. Engine No. As had just been
brought from one of the shops,
where it had been thoroughly over
hauled, to the round house, where it was filed
with water and fired up preparatory
to being sent out on the road Two men
Michael Slattery and Lafayette Lamonte-
were regulating the safety valves when,
without warning, the boiler exploded with
terrific force, completely wrecking the
engine and also one standing next to it, tear
ing away and scattering for many
rods about fully one-third of the
large round-house. Sattery and La
monte were torn and mangled be-
yond recognition. Mike Mckinney, round
house machinist, had one limb broken and
otherwise cut. A. Snow, an engineer on
the engine standing next to the one which
exploded, was cut about the head and
otherwise severely bruised. George Tiff,
a sewing-machine agent from Geneva, Ohio,
was severely cut about the head and consider
ably bruised. James Blye, a farmer near
Waterloo, who was viewing the shops, was
badly bruised and severely shocked. The
damage will amount to about $1,000 to the
round-house, and probably the damage to
engines will aggregate upw ard of $4,000.
Anti-MOnopOly Convention.
CHICAGO, May 9-Mr. B. F. Shiveley, the