The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-12
THE UNLUCKY MIRANDA.
COOKS ARCTIC ETGURsIOSIsTs IN C0LLIsIOS--DROW FOUR MEN.

tuners ol the ssw hhschefsh houAo"b "' New York Sept. l1.-A more unlucky expedition than Professor Cooks to the Arctic regions has seldom occurred. The
 ship Miranda, which carried the excur- sionists to the ice bound north, collid- ed with lighter. an iceberg and reef and then sank In midocean, and yester- day the Portla, while carrying the party back to New York. after their summers succession of hardships, ram med and sank the three mnsted schoon- CT. Dora NJ. French of Bangor. Me. from Hoboken for Boston, laden with coal. Four men lost their lives. One man was saved.
 The collision occurred at o'clock yes terday afternoon about two miles south of the Vineyard Haven Sound light. There was heavy fog at the time and fresh southwest wind.
 Captain Ash of the Portia said this morning in regard to the accident:
 We were steaming along through the dense fog-so thick was 1t that we could see but few feet over our bow. Our horn was going constantly. At about o'clock heard a horn right on our starboard. It blew three times. l an- swered. An instant later a three mast CT loomed up out of the fog right across our bow. Before could stop our boat We hit her, bow on,right foreward of her foremast on the port side. There was a big crash.
 "We realized instantly her danger,for she began to sink very quickly. Three men jumped into a small boat, which was quickly launched.
 Then the life boat was put off. The time elapsing after the collision and the sinking was very little-not more than
 few seconds. We reversed, of course,
 and pulled fire, and in about five sec
 onds the schooner was gone.
 "The small boat picked up one man. a common sailor by the name of Jere-
 miah Murphy, who was clinging to
 spar. All the others-there were four more, we learned later-must have gone down with the shop. I saw one man floating in the water, head down. He
 sank before the boat could reach him. Murphy, who was saved, does not know the names of the lost crew. The captains name was French, and the sailors were called Tom, Harry and
 Simms. That is all he can tell about them.
 From what he says judge that the schooner's skipper, when he heard our fog horn, instead of keeping right on his course, put his tiller down and came right over our bow. Had he kept right ahead it would have been all right. "The Portia was injured, but not bad ly. Five plates were stove in, and she shipped some water in her forward bal last tank, but not enough to endanger
 her. We have not yet learned If there was any further injury.'
 The Portia reached her dock at the foot of Warren street at 7so'tiock this l morning. NO time was lost by the eighteen members of the Miranda ex- petition in getting ashore and starting for their homes, where, as they said,
 they could get~some pcleanr clothes a pleasure they had not enjoyed since Au- gust 23, when the ill-starred Miranda sank and carried with her nearly all
 their luggage.
 The little party that landed this morning carried a promiscuous lot of luggage, more ragged old caps and clothes that bore evidence of the hard ships they had undergone. They all talked freely of their experiences and Ao1io iohf s,t thoir fo Dr. Cook, after leaving the Portia went at once to his home at 15 Hoyt street, Brooklyn.
 He said that the excursion to the Arctic regions was a most enjoya ble one, and that all of the men who went
 with him are anxious to go again. The doctor looked in the best of health. His face and hands were brown ed like a berry, aud he said he never | felt better in his life.
 Louis J. w. Joyner of the Riverview
 academy. Poughkeepsie, who went to 1 make chronological researches, told the following after relatin details of the l first two accidents: After the Miranda 1 sank and repairs had been made at l St. Johns we left on July 29 for Green l land again. We passed Fredericksboat
 and Gootboat since we were unable to 1 land there on account of the ice flow ! along the coast. There were dense fogs
 all the time. Finally we made Sukker- i topen and succeeded in getting into
 the harbor. We spent two pleasant days
 there.
 1 we were entertained by Governor
 Bistrup, and large party visited the
 great glacier in the vicinity. This lit-
 tie place is in latitude 65 degrees, 20
 minutes the farthest north we got,
 although we expected to get well up
 to 73 degrees.
 "on August we started out again. We were warned to keep well out in
 order to avoid reef that almost en- compasses the harbor. We kept too far out and ran on a reef that in an ordinary sea we could have cleared.
 "There was 8 pretty good sea that dropped us on the rocks with three distinct bumps. The engines were
 stopped and the ship lay there with
 her bottom badly injured. Signals were
 given and aid came to us from the har- Dor. The ballast tank over the broken
 plates acted as an inner shell that saved
 the boat from taking more water than the pumps could handle.