Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-13
THE DANMARK ABANDONED. The Owners Believe In The
 Safety Of All On Board. 4 LEGISLATIVE EXCURSION. A New York Firm Detected
 At Smuggling. OPENING OF B0ULANGER'S TRIAL. Comments On The State
 Prison Management.
OPENING OF B0ULANGER'S TRIAL.
ABANDONED IN mID-oCEAN.


 ABANDONED IN MTD-OCEAN.
 The Steamer Danmark Reported
 Abandoned and sink1ns-Over TOO
 People on Board-The News Carried To Queenstown by the City of Ches- ter-The Steamer Amply Equipped
 Letter From she Owners of she
 Vessel-TheIr Belief in the Safety of
 the Passengers and Crew.
 NEW YORK, April 12.-From London this morning came the startling news that the steamship Danmark, from Christiansand for New York, was sighted on April 8 in lati- tude 46 N., longitude 37 w., in water logged condition and abandoned. There was not sign of life aboard.
 French, Edye & Co.,, of South William street, are the general agents in this city of the Thingvalla Steamship company of Copen- hagen, to which line the Danmark belonged. The agent of the line here said in reference to the dispatch: ''The Danmark was new addition to our fleet of ships engaged in the traffic between this city and Christiansand. The trip she was on when, if it has really oc- cured she was abandoned, was her first un- der the Danish flag.
 Originally we had her with the Belgium oolors and engaged in carrying passengers and frieght from this city ro Antwerp and return. She has just come off the dry dock in Copenhagen. She had been in repairs for two months preparatory to her adoption of her new colors, name and route. She was originally the Jan Breydel, and as such will be remembered. She is not to be confused with the National liner Denmark. They are two different ships.
 stWe have here a cable dispatch to the ef- feet that the Danmark left Christiansand on
 flag and nams. She had been completely overhauled and it was thought by all that she was the best of our fleet. There were on board of her at the time of her departure at least 710 people. Of these, $50 were passen- gers. To manage and to look after the com fort of this large number of passengers there must have been at least sixty in the crew and probably the number may have reached 100 or perhaps 125. There are therefore to be accounted for the lives of from 710 to 775 people.
 The Danmark is commanded by Captain Knudsen, an old seaman, well known for his courage and presence of mind, and he is not the man to abandon 8 ship to the mercies of the waves when there is one chance in even thousand of getting her into port. As we do not believe that he has abandoned her. She may have been disabled, but we are very nearly certain that she has not been abandoned.
 "The position in which the Danmark is said to have been sighted abandoned is one in which she might very easily have been at the time, April 8. She had at that time been out from Christiansand thirteen days. I do not think it at all improbable that some fearful calamity might have befell her, but please allow us to state to the number of friends of the Dsnmark's passengers that we do not believe she has been abandoned. ''No incoming steamship to this port re- ports any lifeboats or fafts that might have belonged to the Danmark. Even If the Dan- mark has been abandoned she had sufficient means to accommodate all the passengers on
 board if not all the crew.
 "There was great number of lifeboats- 1 enough for the great passenger list-and sev- eral new iferafts of the latest pattern and improvements which could have accommo- dated the crew and officers and some of the passengers. If there was not enough room in the life-bOats for them"
 The Danmark is one of the line to which the steamships Thingvalla and Geiser belong ed. It will be remembered that these two steamships collided off the Newfoundland banks almost year ago, and that the Geiser was sunk and a fearful loss of life resulted. The Danmark was of 3, 414 gross tonnage. Her net tonnage was about 2, ,236. She was $40 feet long, had breadth of beam of 40 feet, and A hold 26 feet deep. She was a three-master and had one funnel. NEW YORK, April 12. To the general manager of the New York Associated Press, No. 195 Broadway, New York:
 Dear Sir-As some of the comments on the reported loss of the Danish steamer DAn- mark have been accompanied by heavy loss of life, we beg leave to state, for the benefit of all persons, who have friends on board the ill-fsted boat, our belief to the contrary. . II IL l. GI.z .e Monday last in latitude 45 66 north, longi- tude 37 16 west, the decks aft and the sails were in pieces, but the vessel was floating, and, although the reporting steamer expressed the belief that she would shortly founder this did not occur during all the time that elapsed from the hour she was frat sighted until lost sight of. The Danmark was floating directly in the track of the transatlantic steamers and we believe beyond persdventure that the passengers and crew were taken off sometime, possibly as far back as couple of days before the City of Chester sighted the wreck, since the Dan- mark, having left Christionsand on the 26th of March should under ordinary circumstances have advanced considerably beyond the posi- tion found in.
 If the wrecked passengers and crew had not been picked up they would naturally, even if embarked in boats and on rafts, have remained in the neighborhood of the wreck,
  to attract the passing steamers than small boats or rafts would. The City of Chester evidently did not find the slightest wreck age near the vessel, such as might be at tributable to smashed or otherwise incspaci- tated boats. whilst the steamer bore no sign whatever of human life.
 We confidently believe, however, that with | the possible exception of single casualties such as may occur during the transfer of so 1 many people from one vessel to anot her, the passengers and crew of the Danmsrk are safe and will ere long be heard of as on board of one of the trans Atlantic steamers. Very respectfully, FRENCH, EDEYE 6 Co.,, General Agents. NEW YORK, April 12.-The steamer Brit tanio, which arrived from Liverpool to-day, | broupht no news of the wrecked steamer