Evening journal., 1892-12-31

YORK Pier TO the Great Joy of Sleep
less Watchers and the Glad saIutes
of Tugs-History of the Trip.
New YORK, Dec. 31.-The long over
due Umbria of the Cunard line arrived
off the bar at 3 30 a. m, to-day All were
reported well on board.
After the re-assuring news of yester-
day much of the apprehension regarding
the steamship was allayed, but as the
last report of her was ON Monday, when
she was repairing her shaft off the banks,
and as four days had gone by without
further news from her, there was con-
siderable anxiety as to the safety of her
large list of passengers. A message from
the lookout at Fire Island announced
that she had been sighted few minutes
after midnight and that she was pro
ceeding slowly under her own steam
toward this port
She arrived off the bar in company
with the Britannia of the White Star
Line and an oil tank steamer. Both her
escorts left her at the outer lightship
and went up the bay at rapid speed
compared to the speed of the Umbria
She was steaming nine miles an hour.
The slow rate was maintained as pre-
caution against further damage to the
shaft. Captain Mckay had brought his
fine steamship and all on board safely
through terrific gales and as his vessel
entered harbor he was congratulated and
thanked by many passengers who had
waited up all night to see the welcome
lights of New York again. 1t is twelve
days and-a half since the steamer left
Queenstown and the trip is the longest
on record for a crack ocean racer
The Umbria proceeded slowly up the
bay by the main channel, burning her
signals at Sandy Hook and blowing her
whistle in response to glad salutes of
tugs in the lower bay. Captain Mckay
declined to permit any one to board or to
furnish details of the accident and the
voyage until after he had reached guar
antine and been passed by the health
officers.
Cause of the Delay.
Frank Marshal White, former London
correspondent Of the New York Sun,
who was one of the Umbrias passengers,
gave the following account of the acci-
dent to the ship and her experience since
it occurred: A fracture was discovered
in her shaft and her machinery was
stopped south of the banks of New
Foundland at $50 o'clock on the after
noon of Friday, the 23d instant After
drifting for twelve hours in a storm she
was towed seventy-fve miles by the
Bohemia, of the Hamburg American line,
but tho cable that connected the two
steamships wps broken in a heavy gale
on Saturday night and they lost track of
each other. After drifting for three
days to the southeast she started again
with her own machinery, which had been
repaired under great difficulties by Chief
Engineer Tomlinson, and came on in
fine weather and at half speed to her
destination.
The first intimation the passengers
had that there had been an accident
was after dinner on Friday, although
the engineer had been watching the
shaft with anxiety for forty eight hours,
and the machinery had twice been
stopped during the previous night for an
inspection of the flaw in the great steel
casting. During dinner Friday the
steamer came to a standstill, which
caused some speculation among the
passengers, though as the weather was
rough it was not at once perceived that
the machinery was not in motion.
Halted by a Broken Shaft.
About 730 in the evening Captain
Mckay came into the smoking room.
Gentlemen" he said, "I am very
sorry to inform you that we have broken
our shaft and shall be unable to proceed
at present. / shall, however, accept a
towing offer from any vessel large enough
that comes within hailing distance"
There was a momemtary silence as
the situation dawned upon the room and
then a plaintive voice inquired "Why
( don't you send up rockets2" "There will
be time enough for rockets" responded
the captain, when a vessel comes near
enough to see them.
The conditions that confronted the
company on the Umbria were not entirely
gleeful In the first place the idea of
reaching home by Christmas day which
so many cherished was out of the
question and then there was the pos
sibility of drifting out of the ocean
roadway and the track of other vessels,
so that it might be even weeks before a
port was reached.
The big steamer lay disabled in lati-
tude 43. As and longitude 57 II about goo
miles from Halifax and 500 miles from
New York with heavy gale blowing.
Nevertheless there was no actual danger
I and almost every passenger on board
accepted the situation cheerfully,
Cowardice and Courage.
OF course there was an exception. It
came in the person of a long iimbed
biped of the masculine gender with Dun
dreary whiskers and an unusually large
nose which he used as a subsidiary organ
fl speech as well as for purposes of res
hiration, and who had been noticeable on
oard before, principally, because he
gore his wifes fur cape when he prone
4naded the deck He uprose at the end OF
'iohe smoking room after a startled inter
Change of views with some of the men
,bout him and said in tones at once nasal
and fearful;
"Gentlemen we are in imminent
danger We are drifting into mid ocean
with every chance of hurricane coming