The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1889-04-25

Captain Knuasen, her commander, re-
ported the tail end Of his shaft was
broken and he wished me TO take his
passengers to New York. Owing to
the state of the weather and because
of the fact that was not prepared to
accommodate such a number of people
1 declined to aecede to his request.
but offered instead to tow
his vessel to the nearest
port. This offer Captain Knudsen ae-
cepted and at S:20 p. m, or two hours
after we first sighted the Danmark we
placed q tow rope on board that vessel
and proceeded slowly, turning to the
sea and wind and heading northwest
for st. Johns, Newfoundland, which l
considered the best port to make under
the circumstances. The wind blew
with tremendous force all night and
progress was most difficult. On April
9Th at $50 a. M, finding that I could
make no Roadway in a westernly di-
rection and seeing ice to Wlndward 1
decided to abandon Iny hope of reach
ing st. johns. and decided to make for
st. Mich3els. one of the Azores islands.
I signailed my determination to the
captain of the Danmark, and he agreed
that this was the best course to pursue
and one hour later we squared away
for st. Michaels.
At a. IN. the Danmark signalled to
us: I'VE are leaking considerably
there is now three feet of water in the
aft hold and it is gaining rapidly"
Il asked what / should do and the
signal came, keep on towing At 900
a. m. the Danmark again signalled us,
this time the signal read:
The Danmark is sinking and we
must abandon the ship; will you take
our passengersP
Without a moments hesitation, 1
signalled back, yes, viii take all on
board and do the best l cam
Ithen cut the tow line and dropped
down to the Danmark. Chief Officer
Glen, of that vessel, came on board the
Missouri and informed me of the con-
dition of his ship. He said that al
though the weather at the time was
fine, Captain Knudson thought that
for the best interest of those on his
ship it would be best to abandon her
and get all the people on board the
Missouri while there was plenty OF
time
At $50 a. m. we launched our two
life boats, in charge of Sec
S %er o FSssvtb Lucas spa 9 t6ase Third tT6
boats proceeded to the Danmark. In
the meantime seven of the sinking
steamers boats were manned by the
crew of that steamer and the work OF
transferring the passengers began. A
heavy swell was running during all OF
this memorable day. making the work
of removing the people from the sinking
ship one of great difficulty, and 1t was
only by the hardest kind Of work that
we were able to avoid accident, bott
to the people and to the boats
The women and children were
removed first and after them the
male passengers and crew. The officers
of the Danmark remained on board
their vessel. At 2 p. m. we finished the
work Of transferring the passengers
having consumed nearly fYe hours anC
getting everybody with the exception
of the officers safely on the Missouri
without a single accident of any kind
About one hour later the barometer
began falling, the weather was coming
in thick and looking dirty and sem
word to Captain Knudsen and his faith
full officers to leave the ship and come
on board the Missouri, and after get
ting some provisions from the Danmari
which had now settled very perceptibly
that vessel was finally abandoned
Captain Knudson being the last to
leave his ship.
then counted heads and found thai
we had on board in addition to ouI
own crew of forty-five and four pas
sengerS 500 cabin and steerage passen
| gers and SO of the officers and crew Of
the Danmark. After we had takeI
everybody from the Danmark we pulled
the plugs out of the bottom and
can't understand how the Minnesota
picked up one of these boats six day!
later. Our last view of the Danmarl
showed the vessel to be going down
her stern being almost even with thu
sea. We threw overheard most of oul
cargo.
On April 7 at 1890 a. m. about ter
hours after the transfer Mrs. Linnie
was on her way to America to meet he
husband gave birth to a girl baby.
We were 720 miles from st. MichaelE
at the time of the transfer. We were
short of provisions and when the storm
arose made me fearful of reaching thai
point in safety. By daylight of Apri
| 8, however, the gale had decreased anC
we were able to make fine progress
The 9th went by without incident ant
at $50 of April 10th we arrived at st
| Michaels. On April 18th at IL a. m
we landed $40 of the passengers ant
| crew of the Danmark including Cap
| tain Knudsen.
In dividing up our load we kept OF
board the Missouri the families, en-
deavoring as far as possible to leavt
single men and those not having chill
dren at st. b1iehaels. We took 365 PEG
pie of the Danmark, including eight o
the crew when we returned and hat
fine weather all the way to Philadel
phia.