Wichita eagle., 1888-08-17

weather. and left without stating his des
| tination. The rescued crew of the Gelsel
were taken TO the Hotel denmark on tht
arrival of the Wieland. Twenty-fOur oil
the passengers and crew of the Gelser I'm.
der charge of Second Officer Forgensen
arrived at the Hotel Denmark. They were
brawny fellows, curiously attired, ana but
few bad either coats or stockings.
Second Officer Fergensen gave graphic
description Of the collision lie sad: =
shock and l Immediately went Oh
deck Taking in the situation, at
a glance, | ordered all hands on deck:
Then I swung myself OFT on the bow, OF
the Thingvaila and scrambled on her
deck The doomed craft sank gracefully.
stern first, with her bow in the air. MOST
| everybody was sound asleep and when size
began to fill could hear groans and heart
rending screams coming from below
| Those who reached the deck made frantic
efforts to cut down the boats out they
were toe excited to be successful. They
finally grabbed up different pieces OF
wood and jumped over the side Oh the
| vessel.
Annis Wiles, civil engineer OF Mime
! apolis, one of the passengers on the Gelser,
| said: about o'clock Tuesday morning,
/ was awakened by slight shock and
| thinking we had struck a wreck, went on
! deck just as some one shouted she is SINK
| ing.n | found we had been struck on the
starboard side about amidShIp. Inere
were at that time four or five men working
! at the boats / had a cork jacket and felt
| comparatively safe, so / called to the peo-
| pie down stair and then watched the boat
! sink from the bow. AS she went down |
| stuck to her and was carried down several
| hudred feet. believe, Soon felt myself
shooting up through the water impelied
by my cork jacket. | was on top OF the
] INnlf | n ~ hsn
on the keel of a small boat floating upside
down and was finally picked up.
DR.. A. J.. Wern, of Copenhagen, young
dentist who is on his way TO Philadelphia
to complete his studies, was among the
Thingvalla's passengers. lie made the
following statement 10 an Assoclateu
Press reporter: ''The Thingvalla
left Stettin on August with
fifty cabin and AGO Storage passengers.
Our VOYAGE was uneventfm until early Tues
day morning. had left my berth and
looking out saw that there was dense
fog prevailing. | could hear our steam
whistle blowing, but heard no other sig
nails. It was exactly $50 O'Clock when L
was hurled TO the floor of my state room
There was a terrific crash and knew IN
stinctiyely that a collision had occurred.
/ ran to tie deck and found that we had
run into the steamship Geiser. AS L
reached the deck the Thingvalia drew out
of the rent she had made in the Gelsers
side. Captain Lamb, OF the lining
villa, was in his berth when the accident
occurred. He was one of the first TO reacn
the deck. First Officer Peterson and Sec
ond Officer Fergensen were on the Ihlng.
valla's bridge at the time. afterward
learned that Captain Muller, of the Geiser,
had gone to bel and LETT First officer
Brown in command of the vessel. Brown
was lost. Life boats We're promptly
launched from the Thingvalla, and the
work of rescuing the unfOrtunates began.
Some of the Geiser's passengers and
crew had reached their boats, but
most of them were picked up from
imDrovised RATS, chickencOopS, camp
stools and ANYTHING else that would float.
The survivors had TO hurry as the Geiser
went down stern first about eight minutes
after the crash. Among the saved passen-
gers there is only one woman. She is Mrs.
Uilda Lind, of Cincinnati. Her two little
children who were going to Sweden with
her. were lost. Mr.. Lind was not with his
family One Of the most wonderful es-
capes was that of Assistant Engineer Boer-
thelsen, OF the Geiser. His arm was bro
ken about two weeks ago ana he
was in his berth. when the Ihlngvalla
crashed into the ROOM His trunk
was cut away within six inches OF his face.
He managed to climb aboard the Thing
valla as She drew back. He was not SO
much as touched by the water. The
Tningvalla's crew did all they could to
rescue the unfortunates and they obeyed
orders promptly. The Thingvalla's upper
deck was not injured but her bows were
brogen in from point ten feet below the
deck The dent was about twenty-seven
feet in length and ran back above ana be-
low the water line to the collision bulk
head. Had it not been for that bulkhead
The Thingvalia would nave gone
L ~. nNN af. nt
the Geiser had gone down, and 1t was
known that there were no passengers IN
any of the lost steamers boats: had the
boats on his own vessel protected as far as
possible with straw mattresses and other
materials TO prevent the water from enter
ing Distress signals were sounded and
the ship laid to for daylight. The fog
lifted about $50 o'clock. Between
10 and 1890 O'clock the steamship
Wieland, of the Hamburg Ameri
can packet line, WAS sighted.
She bore down to us and lad to within
short distance OF our vessel. Captain
Lamb took boat and went TO the " leland.
Captain AlberS OF that vessel readily con-
consented to receive the rescued passen-
gers and crew of the Geiser The work of
transferring was accomplished with only
a single incident \ 10 year-old boy whose
name did not learn, had his legs crushed.
lie was one OF the Thingalla's passengers.
\ number of her crew were also
taken aboard the Wieland. The
sea had become somewhat rougher by
this time. and there were many lively
scenes as the children and older passengers
were lowered in the boats The able-bodied
passengers and the crew used the shlplad-
ders. AS we reached the Wieland the last
of the Geiser's abandoned life boats tioated
out of sight There was no fault to be
found with the manner in which we were
-..l ri ha j.lo n
too good for Us. Even the passengers
divided their clothing with the unfortun-
ates from the Geiser."
Captain Albers, of the Wieland, upon
reaching quarantine, telegraphed the first
iutimation OF the disaster to Captain Bor-
denhauser, general superintendent of the
Hamburg line. Arrangements were at
once made for the reception of the rescued
passengers in New York. Surveyor of
the Port Beatty and his assistant,
John Whelan, together with the
agents of the Thingyalla line, met the
Wieland as she reached her mock in Ho-
boken. The Geiser was one of four vessels
owned by the Thingvalla line and was con-
sidered their crack ship. Most of her pas
sengerS were western people who were
booked by \. Mortensen * Co, the general
agents Of the line at Chicago. Mr.. Nor
Jensen IS at present in Copenhagen. His
partner Mr.. \. L. johnson, is expected
10 arrive tomorrow in the North
German Lloyd steamer Scale. John
Teuwheld. saloon Keeper o
Hudson, Wis, 4 round face. bulkey Svede
said: Il was asleep when I heard the
crash and hurried 10 the deck where
found quite a number of men attempting
to loosen the boats. | saw no chance Of
saving myself there, so l rushed out,
picked up plank and jumped overheard.
The scene was heartrending. There must
have been thirty-iive heads above the