The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-01
ONLY TWENTY SURVIVORS.
4 FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR THE
 ELBIg'S PASSENGERS.

Conflicting Accounts as to the Cause of
 the Disaster-A Life Boat Found on the
 Beach.
 Lowestoft, Eng, Jan. 31.-The de- tails of the loss of the North German Lloyd steamship Elbe, with nearly all of her passengers and crew, in the North Sea, at o'clock yesterday morn ing, following collision with the steamer Crathie, from Rotterdam for Aberdeen are recounted to-day to crowds of people by the survivors at the different places where the latter are staying. A gale is blowing and it is bitterly cold The lack of news from any point along the coast shows that there is little reason to hope that any other survivors of the disaster have reached land.
 A life-boat, at first supposed to have belonged to the Elbe, has been washed ashore near Yarmouth. In the boat were number of life-belts and and oars, and it was believed to be the boat from which the fishing smack Wildfower rescued the twenty persons who escaped from the steamship after the collision. These were Carl Hof mann, Eugen Schlegel, and Jan Yer vera, cabin passengers; Miss Anna Buecker, the only woman saved, and MT. Bothen, steerage passengers; Third Officer Stollberg, First Engineer Neus- sell Purser Wefer, three assistant pur- r1i1 tTUn Gtnlxarg and five seamen. It is difficult yet to get from them a satisfactory answer as to how the disaster occurred.
 As near as can be ascertained now 324 of the passengers and crew are missing and probably lost.
 The survivors will go to Southamp- ton tomorrow, and embark for New York on board the next steamer. The crew will go to London tomorrow after having made their statements to the German vice-consul. They will then be shipped to Bremen.
 A handful of the survivors who were clustering around a hotel fire this morning bitterly blamed the to them still unknown vessel which rammed the Elbe and sunk her in such a short time. They all claim that she should have stood by the Elbe, and that if she had done so a great many lives would have been saved. This, of course, is matter which cannot be decided until all the facts in the case are brought to light by the court of inquiry which will inquire into the mat ter.
 The following statement of the disas- ter was officially given by the German vice-consul, Herr Bradherr, and was corrected by him. The statement was made after sitting all the interviews with the survivors and cross question ing the officers and crew:
 ''The collision occurred forty-fiv min utes from MerschelEng lightship. Though both the EIbe and the colliding steamer were going full steam ahead, the conoussion was very slight. Imme- diately after the collision the Elbe be- gan to settle down stern first, her bow mounting high into the air and rendering it impossible to reach some of the boats. As everybody crowded up on deck immediately after the shock and In state of great alarm, it was inn possible for the orders of the captain, who was standing on the bridge, that the women and children should be saved first could be obeyed. A rush was made for the boats that were ac- cessible. The first boat to touch the water was immediately swamped, and the passengers who had crowded intoNI it were drowned. The second boat launched was lost sight of in the high sea which was running; but it is feared that she capsized.
 Unto the third boat, at the last mo- ment, when the water was up to the promenade deck the vessel sinking under their feet, and two minutes be- fore she disappeared, there crowded 1 nineteen men, the women and children | having rushed to the other side, ow- ing, it is said, to the command that they | should get into the boats there. This | third boat pulled away from the ship | and in so doing soon afterwards ! passed woman passenger, Miss Anna | Buecker, who olung to the gunwale or side of the lifeboat. Sometime elapsed | before she could be pulled into the boat |
 'The twenty survivors drifted about | until 11:10 a. n., the heavy seas repeat edly washing over the small craft, | which was in constant danger of being swamped, and drenching its occupants, WAO llctd lOI d lllOISGtb OL IOUu LO 6dlt Miss Buecker lay in the bottom of the boat, half drowned and in a semi-con- scious condition. The lights of many vessels were seen all round, but not one approached, though, after daylight, a steamer and two fishing vessels passed. Their crews did not notice the signals of the liferboats. Finally, the waving of a shirt from the boat attracted the at- tention of the crew of the fishing smack Wildflower, which eventually rescued the survivors with extl@me difficulty After the collision an unknown steamer passed under the stern of the Elbe and proceeded on her course without paying any heed to the shrielzs of the people on board the sinking steamer"
 A dispatch received here from Yar- mouth this afternoon says that the trawler Flora returned to that port from the fishing ground this afternoon, and when asked if they had seen any thing of the missing lifeboat of the Elbe, her crew replied that they knew noth- ing of the disaster. One of the fisher men of the Flora who was on deck early yesterday morning said that he saw rockets fired and feared that something
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