Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-27
Fears That 500 Lives We're
Lost i'm an Awful Colli-
sion Far Out at Sea.
A SHIP CUT CLEAN IN TWO
That Is Thought to Be a Nova Scotia
Vessel With 23 Men.
SOME CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
Both Boats Overdue, and the Sailing Fort
of The Taylor
FOUND ON ONE HALF OF THE WRECK

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.1
NEW YORK, June 26-The identity oi
the vessel cut in two on or lust before
Thursday last by the iron prov of a swift.
running steamship, about $50 miles east OF
Sandy Hook, has been pretty we'll estab-
lished. 1t is believed that she was the
Nova Scotian ship Fred B. Taylor, which
lett Havre in ballast for this port 43 days
ago
She was spoken on June II, about o60
miles east of New York, by the White
Star steamship Majestic bound west. On
Thursday last, her after-half floating bot
tom up, was passed by the Dutch tank
steamer Ocean, which arrived on Saturday
from Amsterdam The forward half was
passed on Wednesday last bv the steamship
Stuart Prince, which arrived on Friday
from Mediterranean ports.
The Ocean passed the after-half in lati-
tude 400 90, longitude $50 1O', and the
Stuart Prince passed ;he forward half in
latitude 400 81, longitude $50 90. They
were thus onlv few miles apart. The cap
tain of the Stuart Prince says that the
shaven part of the wreck he saw was under
water. The jibs and all head sail were set,
water.
Minute Description of the Wreck.
To Nova Scotian skipper interested in
the Fred B. Taylor, Captain Voge, of the
Ocean, gave to-day a minute description of
the wreck. 1t was apparently that of
vessel in ballast, otherwise it probably
would not have been afoat That the
vessel was a ship was evident from her
mizzen channels, which were very long.
Her Stern was large and round, like that of
the Fred B. Taylor, and she was painted
black. That part of her counter on which
her name was lettered was under water, but
her hailing port, Yarmouth, n. S." was
visible.
All this answers to the description of the
Taylor She had been struck on the port
SIDE, and the cut was as clean as if it had
been made by gigantic az. 1t looked as if
it was only few hours old. The fate of
the Taylor's skipper, Captain E F. Hurl-
bert, and his % men, must be matter of
conjecture until the steamship that ran the
ship down'is heard from, unless she too was
wrecked by the collision.
There is chance that some of the Tay-
lor's crew may have clung to the after-half
of her and may have been rescued.
Description of the Missing Vessel.
The Taylor was a sturdy double-decker,
OF L, $50 lODS, anu was Dullt al luSket, N.
S, in 1888 She was 237 feet long, AZ feet
beam, and "A feet deep, and was constructed
of hard and soft wood She was overhauled
and repaired last year, and was in frst-class
shape. She was owned by William Law &
Co., of Yarmouth.
Captain Hurlbert, who is, or was 2S years
old, was accompanied by his young bride
on the ships last voyage to Havre. She
left him there and came TO Brooklyn. On
Wednesday Mrs. Hubert became mother.
The ship was chartered by Paul Gerhardt,
of the Brazil Mail Line, and was coming
here to load for Buenos Ayres The fate
of the ship naturally started the nautical
sharps guessing what steamship it was that
had run her down. The fact that the Por-
tuguese steamship Vega is five days over
due at this port, from Lisbon, whence she
sailed June 8, caused the linking of her
name with that of the luckless Nova
Scotian.
The Vegas agents, G. "Amsinck & Co.,
are somewhat uneasy about her. One of
their representatives called at the Barge
Office to-day and said she had been conf
IDENTIFY expected on Wednesday last. He
her, under the impression that she might be
reported disabled
Five Hundred Lives in Doubt
When the Vega left Lisbon she had 316
steerage passengers aboard. She called at
the Azores and got probably 100 more. Her
usual time between this port and Lisbon,
including five days at the Azores, is from Is
to 16 days. She is now % DAYS out She is
an iron vessel of ], ,943 tons and was built at
Newcastle by A. Leslie & Co., in 1879. |
If she or any other westbound steam |
ship ran down the Fred E. Tav- |
lor, the Nova Scotian must have |
been standing to the south on the starboard |
tack, otherwise she probably would not |
have been struck on the port side A blow |
on the same side might have been inflicted |
by steamship bound east, if the Taylor |
was standing to the north on the port tack. |
If the steamship was bound this wav, and |
was not damaged, or sunk in the collision, |
she ought TO have been heard of before to-
day.
Three steamships, La Gascogne from |
Havre, the Brittania from Gibraltar and |
the Fulda from Genoa, arrived to-day and |
saw nothing of the Vega, and nothing of |
the drifting halves of the Nova Scotian.
Some of the experts were inclined to doubt |
that the Vega had the speed to make |
such clean cut through the Taylor
They said it was more likely that
the ship had been hit by one of the twin
screw racers, but there was none of them |
there The nearest was the Majestic, which |
on her last west-bound trip spoke to the
Taylor and brought news to the Captains
wife that his ship was nearing New York. /
The Majestic did not leave this port, on her |