The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-21
A COLLISION AT SEA.


In Which More Than One Hundred Per-
Perish.
New YORK, August 16.--The steamship
Wieland, Captain Atbers, from Hamburg, with
merchandise and 113 cabin and 455 steerage
passengers, arrived today and reports: August
18th, thirty miles south of Sable Island, at
noon,saw the Danish steamer Thingvalla, from
Copenhagen for New'York, with signals of dis
tress. The Thinvalla had collided, on the
18th, at4 a. m. with the steamer Geyser Of the
same line from New York for Copenhagen.
The Geyser sank in about five minutes Four
teen passengers and seventeen of the crew,
among them Captain Moller, were saved.
Seventy-two passengers and thirty-three of the
crew were lost. The steamer Weland brought
d55 passengers from Thinvala and those
saved from the steamer Gieser to New York.
The Thinvalla will endeavor to reach Hall
fax, N. S.
TRANSFER OF PASSENGERS.
Captain A. Atbers OF the Wieand, tells the
following story:
CAT 10 o'clock on the morning of August
18th, we passed some wreckage floating in the
sea, and suspected that an accident had hap
pened somewhere near us. Little later we
sailed through a sea of oil and sighted broken
boat of the Geyser About II 80 we sighted n
steamer to the northward. about eight miles
off, and seeing she had flag of dis
tress up, we ran down to her. IL
proved to be Thingvalla and Captain
lauD, OF LnaG VESSEL came TO lis III small
boat and begged us to take his passengers and
those he had saved from the Geyser. He said
his own vessel was so badly injured that he
expected her 10 sink at any moment. His for
ward compartment had been completely car
+ rieG away from halfway from tls dec ito be-
low water line. We sent out three of our
boats, and the Thingvalla lowered two of hers
and in fivel hours we had transferred
the saved passengers and crew of the Gey-
Ser.and also 455 passengers of the Thinoyalla
81 at fima
work of transferring the passengers was very
difficult. An immense hole in the Thingvalla's
bow was then patched up as well as possible,
and she started for Halifax.
The chief officer of each vessel was on deck
at time of the collision.
A PASSENGERS STATEMENT.
Doctor Wern, OF Copenhagen. a young den
fist who is on his way to Philadelphia to COM
pete his studies, was among the Thingvallas
passengers In describing the disaster to an
associated press reporter, he said; "The life
boats were promptly launched from the Thing
valla, aud the work Of rescue began. Out of
100 passengers and crew on the Geyser only
thirty-seven were saved. Some of them had
reached their boats but most of them were
picked up from improvised RATS, chicken
coops, camp stools, and anything
else that would float. The sur
vyors had to hurry, rs the Geyser
went down stern first about eight minutes
after the crash. Among the saved passengers
there is only one woman. She is Mrs. Hilda
Lind of Cincinnati. Her two little children,
who were going to Sweden with her, were lost.
Mr.. Lind was not with his family. There
were fourteen cabin and six steerage passen-
gers, and seventeen o. the GeYSer's crew saved.
The Thingyalla's crew did all they could to
rescue the unfortunates, and obeyed orders
promptly. The Thingvalla's upper deck was
not injured, but her bows were broken in from
point ten feet below the deck, the rent was
about twenty-sevon feet in length and ran
back, above and below the water line, to the
collision bulkhead. Had it not been for that
bulkhead the Thingvalla would have gone
down like shot Captain Laub, after the
Geyser had gone down and it was known that
there were no passengers in any OF the lost
steamers boats, had boats Of his own vessel
protected as far as possible the bows with
straw mattresses and other materials to prevent
the water from entering. Distress signals were
sounded and the ship laid to for daylight The
fog lifted about 40 O'Clock, and between 10
and II o'clock the steamship Wieland was
sighted"
The Geyser was one of the four vessels owned
by the ThinRvala line, and was considered
their crack ship. Most Of her passengers were
western people, who were booked at Chicago.
The names of the rescued are almost without
exception Danish and Scandinavian.
HE LOST HIS WIFE.
CHICAGO, August H. Marlin Sachuas, a
Scandinavian, whose wife was lost on the
Geyser, was found by reporter this morning
at his home. On announcement OF the sad
news the bereaved man burst into tears and
anxiously inquired for particulars.
"We were married five years ago." ne said,
brushing aside tears, sat Christiana, Norway,
her home. Her father is a Lutheran minister
of that city. Eight days after the wedding we
started for Chicago. She was going to visit
her homo for the first time since then. She
had premonition that she would not reach
home, and talked of waiting until
the next steamer. / insisted she
should 20 on this TO avoid fall storms. / wish
] had not. / dreamed last night that the yes
sci she was on had sank. She was the best
swimmer in the Chrstana natatorium, but i
can't CLEAN much hope from that, for woman
she may be saved She wrote me letter from
New York full Of happy thoughts. Miss Soul
berg, Of this city. was on theIGeyser with her.
She, too, | suppose, is lost"