The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-15
CIT IN TWO BY THE UMBR1A.
,he steamship iberia Drifts Off in Two
Sectors.

=, account Of the COLLISION LetWeen the
'4asmar Uunhria and the steamer Iberia.
Tha following is a fuller account from the
yav York Sun of Monday;
A. 1o.45 o'clock on Saturday morning.
uitb the rain pouring down to drench the
.brong of passengers on her decks, as well
- +bsir friends wno stood on the end of the
-. to wave a farewell. he feet Cunarder
FTrabria backed out from her pier at the
fnot of Clarkson street, swung around,
dinned her flag in salute to the spectators
III then ploughed her way down through
he haze on her way to Queenstown. AT
aiolocl, Yesterday afternoon she was back
~ her nier again, with a hole through her
~ and on her deck the crew of a steam
sin she had cut i'll two out at sea.
With Capt. William McMickan Oh the
bridge the Umbria passed Sandy Hook at
1918 O'Clock, and eighteen minutes later
the discharged her pilot. The weather,
wbicb had all along been hazy, had grown
.hic.er as she headed away on her course.
at for this Capt. McMickan might have
,one down to the saloon as the passengers
Gid when the dinner bell rang, instead of
rsmaining on the bridge in the rain. The
fog thlckened rapidly after the Iightship
| bad been passed. There was a stiff wind
Having from the south, and big sea was
Cling At 11:10 Capt. McMickan rang
| ~. he'll to reduce speed. That was fort
mate order for the captain and the pas
sanpers and the crew and the company.
The engines had been slowed but five
r,inutes when Capt. McMckan heard in
the intervals between the blasts of his own
fo0 horn a steamers whistle, apparently on
he ITmbrias starboard bow. His first
thought he says, was of the French liner
Ia Noruandie which had gone down the
bay ahead of him, but the second blast of
the horn showed that the stranger was
drawing nearer, and he rang for his engines
m drop to dead slow speed, aud then the
rext moment to stop. Hardly had the
wheel ceased to revolve, when the black
bull of freight steamer doomed up out of
the fog dead ahead. The stranger
was heading nearly northwest and
was almost square across the Umbria's
bow and not over two lengths away.
With his hand already on the electric sig
nal. Capt. Mc3lickan instantly ordered the
engines reversed at full speed, but 1t was
too late to prevent a collision. Her mo-
meutum was carrying her ahead at the rate
nj nearly fifteen knots an hour, and before
the lookouts on the Umbrias bow had time
10 dodge out of the way of possible danger
she had struck the stranger on the port
quarter and cut almost square across the
ouarter-deck, cleaving the stern Of the ship
entirely off from the rest of the hull. The
severed stern foated away, and was seen
bv several of the passengers and by the
pnrser of the Umbria as, with the flagstaff
at the taft rail upright $50 do the witnesses
evouch), it settled down into the water out
of sight on the starboard side of the big
Cunarder. 70 port, the bob-tailed steamer
continued on her course with the interior
on her captains cabin on the upper deck ex-
posed TO view and cargo which had been
stacked up in the after cargo compartment
tumbling over into TIE sea as the after part
of the ship settled A man in the captains
-. L. 70 rxvNNy - h
bunk in bis shirt, make barelegged for the
companionway, and disappear.
The Umbria's fog horn was blowing as
the two ships came together, and so was
the horn on the stranger, but not a soul on
either ship stirred until the iron PROV of
the Umbria was blowing its way through
the other ship. The shock TO the Umbria
was slight, but it was heavy enough to
drive quite a number of her passengers
upon deck to see what was going on. 1t
was they who got d vision of the man in his
shirt leaping from bunk in the cabin of
the stranger, and after one horrid look out
over the sea, fleeing up the companionway.
They saw the men on deck fleeing to the
lows. Several of them, including MIR. M.
Quinn, a Toronto shirt manufacturer, ran
over to the starboard side, where, with the
Umbrias purser, they saw the strangers
stern sinking out of sight. When they got
back to the port side again the stranger had
disappeared in the fog, and without ex-
cepton they gave her up as lost supposing
she mad sunk, of course.
In the meantime Capt McMickan had
ordered the first lifeboat lowered by one
officer, and had sent another officer to ex-
anime the Umbria's bows. Some of the
passengers we're curious to see how long it
would take to lower lifeboat. Mr.. Quinn
with others timed her, aud they made it IA
minutes from the captains order to the Or
IL -
after ne was clear Of the davit tackles. The
Umbria was still forging ahead although
her wheel was reversed, and the lifeboat
was soon lost in the fog. A monster ship
like the UInbria, weighing perhaps
10000 or 1000 tons, FORCES a long
way ahead even if she was running
no more than fifteen knots when her
wheel was reversed, and it was thirty min
utes before the big ship had got back to the
scsne of the collision. Then to the aston
tshment of everybody the bobtailed freight
steamship was found afioat, with her quar-
ter deck several feet above water and her
bow just as high as ever. The crew were
clustered on the forecastle, and her fog
horn was going as disnally as ever. Her
steam lungs were sill in good working
order, and evidently she had bulkhead or
two aboard The crew had cut loose the
anchors, and she rode with her bow to the
wind. She had lowered boat, and several
men were in it pulling away to meet the
tmbria's lifeboat.
The two boats met at ships length from
The stranger, and two men climbed into the
Umbrla's boat from the other, and then the
umbria's boat returned. Once alongside,
the two strangers came on deck, and we're
taken to Capt. McMickan on the bridge.
fhe spokesman OF the two said in English,
with French accent:
Il am Second Mate Valery of the iberia,
Capt. Sagols. of Marseilles. l am come to
ask If you will help u.s."
Capt. McMickan said he would certainly
capt. Sagols wanted the Umbria to tow him
into port. Capt. McMickan said he would
u he could, and he ordered Chief Engineer
Miller to 60 over to the Iberia to see what
sort OF condition she was in. Mr.. Valery
sad that when he left there was no water in
Inc engine room, the bulkhead having kept
the water out
>, 30 Mr. Miller and the two men from the
1neria rowed over to her. Capt. McMickan
sent word inviting Capt. Sagols and his
crew TO come over to the Umbria, aod go
INTO port with her, for although an exam
nation OF the Umbrla had sho wn that she
nao sustained little injury, yet, as a matter
VI precaution, she was going back to her
pier for repairs.
Mr.. Miller went down into the engine
room, and Chief Engineer Pages and his
Two assistants LetPage and Durebegue, went
along. Thew found as Mr. Miller sIlhse-