The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-01-01
The Umbria Arrived in New
York Yesterday Morning.
ALL ON BOARD WE'RE WE'LL.
Her Shaft Was Broken on Friday, De-
cember %.
at That Time She Was Five Hundred
Miles from New Yorl-There Was No
Panic and Everyone Made the Best
of the situation.

NEW YORK. Dec. 31.-The long over
due Cunard steamer Umbria was sighted
at Fire Island shortly after midnight and
arrived off Quarantine at $3.50 this morn
ing, and after inspection steamed slowly
up the bay to the dock. She had $50 pas
sengers on board, about equally divided
between the first and second cabin and
Storage. All on board are we'll. The
gallant Captain Mckay has brought the
steamer and all on board safely through
the terrific gales, though disabled, and
amid the thanks of passengers and the
noisy greeting of the steam whistle from
the vessels in the harbor he brought her
to the dock. 1t is twelve days since she
left Queenstown, the longest time on
record for crack ocean racer.
Though the weather was tempestuous
most OF the time from the beginning of
voyage, all went well till the afternoon OF
December %, when fracture was dis
covered in the shaft and the machinery
was stopped off the banks of Newfound-
land, and Engineer Tomlinson set about
the difficult task OF mending the break.
After drifting for twelve hours, the
steamer Bohemia, of the Hamburg Amer
lean line, bound from New York to
Bremen, hove in sight, and in response
to signals for tow, turned about and at
tached big steel hawser to the Umbria
and began to tow her to her destination.
The weather was extremely rough and in
the night, after having towed the dis
abled vessel seventy five miles, the haw-
ser broke and the vessels parted company
in the darkness.
When the day dawned over the Umbria
the Bohemia was no where to be seen.
Alter drifting for three days to the south
east she started again with the old ma
chinery and came on in fine weather 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 weight hours and The machinery
had twice been stopped the previous night
for inspection of flaw in the great steel
casting. The steamer came to standstiil
during dinner on Friday, and little later
Captain Mckay entered the smoking room
announcing to the gentlemen the fact of
the breakdown, and added: "The ship is
in no DANGER The announcement put
damper on the spirits of the passengers.
most of whom had been looking forward
to spending Christmas in their own
homes. The vessel lay two hundred miles
from Halifax and five hundred miles from
New York. There was very little COM
motion in the ladies' cabin when the in
formation was given there, and in fact
everybody decided to make the best of the
disagreeabie situation. The chief danger
was that the vessel would drift out OF the
regular steamer track, but the steward
gave the information that there were
enough provisions on board to last for
three weeks without being stinted or even
four or five weeks with only deprivations
of few luxuries.
That night oil was poured on the water
| and the ship was quieter than when the
machinery was in motion Early next
morning the Bohemia hove in sight and
took the Umbria as above stated. On
Sunday, Christmas Day, an unusual
large number attended the divine service
in the saloon and the prayers were un-
usually hearty. Ut at dusk a vessel
was sighted to the southwest. and proved
to be vessel OF the Wilson line, bound
for Philadelphia. She signalled that she
could not take the Urnbria in tow, be-
cause she had not enough coal, and pro-
ceeded on her course on Monday. The
gale continued and the vessel continued
to drift. Just after luncheon on Monday
the steamer Manhaset, from Swansea to
New York, hove in sight, but she had
hardly come to a stapdstili when another
much larger vessel bore down upon the
drifting Umbria. In few minutes it was
close enough TO be distinguished as the
sister ship Gallia of the Cunard line,
| bound from Boston to Liverpool.
| Captain Mckay says: At 2:30 pm.
Dec. % we signalled the Gallia, bound
east. We signalled her to lay by and she
J did SO for time; as we also signalled her