The Press., 1888-08-23


 lieion brought the Thingvalla to stand and reused every one on board. Her pas sengers came pouring frightened sad half dressed to her decks as her engines were reversed, and with some difficulty she drew back from the Geiser, while the water poured through the gap that she had made in the Geiser's side.
 The boats of the Thingvalla pulled until after daylight over the place where the Geiser went down, picking up all whom they could see. Among these were Cap tain Moller, who was nearly exhausted, and Mrs. Hilda Lind, cabin passenger, who was the only woman who escaped from the wreck. t 4a
 While the search was being made for the survivors of the Geiser, Captain Laub of the Thingvalla was busy attending to the injuries that his own steamer had sustain ed. It.was found that they were more se- rious than had been thought at first. The bow of the vessel had been caved in by the severe blow that she had dealt the Geiser, and although the ships carpenters had succeeded in bracing up the walls of the bulkhead, the pressure against them was so great when the ship was moving as to make it exceedingly doubtful whether she could continue her voyage to New York, and in event of a severe storm her condition would be too critical to take any risk. Captain Laub decided to put in at once to Halifax, which was about 180 miles distant, when the Wieland, of the Ham burg line, was sighted, and signals of dis tress were given. The Wieland bore down upon them, and Captain Albers, her com mander, offered 10 take aboard all the pas sengers of the Geiser and the Thingvalla. They were transferred with some difficult ty, the sea being rough, and the Thing vafia then steamed on to Halifax, while the Wieland proceeded to New York. ~
 The awful sucking down of the living swarm on the Geiser's deck was calculated to be fatal to nearly all who had never had experience under the water. Some idea of it can be got from the captains report of his experience. He says: "I went down and down. There seemed a thous- and tons pressure upon me. Then shot up to the surface. The only thing had on when the vessel sank was my night shirt, and this was stripped from me by me cursing, swearing and praying" The only woman who was saved, very deli cate and feeble person, tells the same story of the awful descent into the waters, and the sudden shooting up to the surface and grasping fragment of wreckage to hold on by until rescue came But for the great mass who went down and rose again, there was but moment of wild agony, of helpless throwing their arms about and then aloft in the air as they sank to rise no more. It waS raining furiously, more or less fog rolled over the sea, now lifting or parting for an instant, and then closing in again like shroud. If the sea was not wild, the roll and unrest of great waves was hardly less dreadful to the drowning, who within two minutes had sunk from sight and from hope, while the more fortu- nate few awaited rescue. The ship which escaped wreck had six water-tight com- partments, only one of which suffered in the collision, and that not so much as to give way until the pressure of driving thro' the sea made it do so. The others were intact. But the nose of the ship was so broadly smashed of that the sea could have swept in over the lower deck, easily swamping the ship if it had had to plunge through great waves in bad weather. Hence the danger of proceeding on her way, and even of slowly struggling to make the port of Halifax, as was, however, safely done the last night of the sal be- ing made stern foremost, with a schooner behind to serve as rudder. The; charsc- ter of the collision has singnlarly dra- matic, marvellous and thrilling illustration in the incident of the escape out of the crushed ship, to the safe deck of the otherr, of Jorgensen, second officer of the Geiser. Awakened out of sleep by the crashing in of the wall of his stateroom, and barely not crushed to death by the nose of the Thingvalla, he saw the latter's anchor chain within reach of his hand, and with the sudden thought that it was his one chance of deliverance from death in ship doomed perhaps to sink instantly, he erasped the chain, was drawn out through the breach in the side of the Geiser, and had in a moment climbed out of danger, precisely as if the Thingvalla had smashed through the Geiser's side to take him out in that astonishing and almost miraculous fashion,