Omaha daily bee., 1895-03-18
OFFICERS OF THE ELBE UPaBID.
Otto vandcrsee Declares tho Stories Told
by Hoffman Had M Foundation In Fact.

by Hoffman Had M Foundation In Fact.
TOLEDO, o. March 17.-Otto vandersee
Of Munich, one of the survivors Of the ILL
fated Elbe, arrived in this city yesterday.
vandersee appears on the list Of passengers
saved as Fritz Appel, and he carefully avoided
giving his real name. either at Lowestoft or
New York. Vandersee ran away from his
native city in order to escape military duty,
and he has been haunted with a fear that
he would be captured and sent back to Ger
many, without even the formality of trial.
The young man gives an entirely different
version OF many Of the incidents of the Ell
bes laundering. and does not hesitate to say
that he believes the later stories of the pas
sengers were colored at the instigation of
some one who is desirous Of throwing more
blame on the Elbes officers than they de-
serve. He is especially severe on Holman.
and says there is not word of truth in the
latter's statement that his wife was ordered
away from him just as he was about to enter
the boat which saved the survivors. On
the contrary he says he was playing chess
with Hoffman when the accident occurred,
but that he made his way to the deck alone.
The boat was launched before Hoffman came
on deck. and IL was only by accident that
Hoffman himself got into 1t. He came on
deck, dragging his wife by the arm when a
sudden lurch, given as the ship was settling
in the water, pitched Hoffman into the water,
in much the manner that Miss Becker was
thrown.
Another statement that has been discussed,
and always to the detriment of the Elbe's
officers. is that a division was made of the
women and children and the men who were
on deck. He states that the accident oc-
Cured at an hour at which every one would
naturally be below, few minutes after in
the morning. For this reason very few pas
sengers knew of the accident. and he be-
lieves the greater part of the drowned were
stranded in their berths. The ship settled
rapidly, going down entirely within twenty
minutes of the time she was struck and
| rolled in such manner that the few who
| were awake had great difficulty in getting
| on deck. Vandersee does not think there
were more than three or four women on the
| deck, and one of them was saved. In fact
he says there were less than thirty people
| on the deck when the ship was sinking. OF
| those who were saved, Vandersee says nine
of the twenty-one were passengers This
1 he says, accounts for nearly every passen-
| ger who was able to get on deck before the
ments say that only four passengers were
saved. Vandersee accounts for that by say
| ing that the steamship company only has
| its list to rely on in making up its record
| while some of the passengers had only taker
| passage to England and having paid theil
| fares on the boat were not booked.
There is very little doubt that Vandersee Il
| the man he claims to be. as his papers ant
records, both in Lowestoft and New York, arr
in his possession. He has been carefully ex
! amined by Germans familiar with the case
| and they have no doubt to his being thu
| man he claims to be. Vandersee was a stu
dent at the Munich conservatory for twelve
| years. and talks German, French. Italian anC
| Spanish in scholarly manner but does no
| speak English. He avoided newspaper mel
in New York, and endeavored to find employ
ment as an instructor of languages. Failing
in that he came to this city to join fellow
| townsman, and will make his home here.