Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-02-07
SUNK IN A COLLISION.
NORTH GERMAN LINER ELBE
GOES DOWN.
Accident Occurs Near Lowestoft, on the
Coast of EDgland-only Nineteen Per-
sons Known to Have Been Saved from
the Disaster-Details of the Horror.

Gossel, from Bremen for New York
via southampton, has been sunk in
collision with the British steamer
Crathie, bound from Rotterdam for
Aberdeen. The disaster occurred be-
fore daylight yesterday morning at
point some thirty miles from the Hook
of Holland.
When the news of the disaster be-
came generally known the excitement
was intense. Cable dispatches were
at once forwarded to all the principal
European cities, and soon food of re-
turn dispatches were received asking
for further information, which at that
time it was impossible to obtain. The
dispatches from Germany show that
the news caused the greatest excite
ment and sorrow, most all the officers
and crew of the lost steamer and
majority of the passengers being Ger
mans
AS time wore on it was apparent that
the first reports of the sinking of the
steamer had minimized the horrors of
the disaster. Many dispatches were
forwarded to Mas Luis to the COM
mander of the Crathie asking him if he
had rescued any of the Elbe's passen-
gers. Up to a late hour, however, no
answers were received to these dis
patches, and the belief grew that the
Crathie after the accident had rather
sought its own safety than to rescue
the people on the doomed Elbe.
From the details now at hand it is
learned that the Elbe was proceeding
along at its usual rate of speed and
keeping the ordinary lookouts. The
night was dark, but there was no gale.
Suddenly the forward lookout on
the Elbe reported to the Off
Ger on deck that the lights of
a steamer were close aboard
over the port bow. Before the course
of the Elbe could be changed, so as to
sheer it off from the approaching
steamer, the latter struck it just about
the engine room, going through the
plates as though they were pasteboard
and sticking its nose almost COM
pletely through the hull of the Elbe.
For time the Crathie held the Elbe
on its nose, but then it's engines were
reversed and it backed out of the
aperture it had made. AS it did so the
water rushed into the Elbe in a torrent
and it Immediately began to settle.
The officer in charge of the ship at
once saw that it was doomed and gave
hurried orders to clear away the life
boats for launching. Three of the
boats were cleared and lowered, but
one of them shortly after it got clear
of the steamer capsized, and it is
thought that all occupants were
drowned. The first boat contained
the third officer, chief engineer, purser
and twenty of the passengers These
are the persons who were picked up
by the fishing smack and taken to
Lowestoft.
Nearly all the passengers were asleep
at the time, but many of them were
awakened by the shock, slight as it
was. They could hear the rush of the
rapidly infiowing water, and, with
cries of terror, sought to make their
way to the upper deck. The steamer
being loaded by the stern water patur-
ally rushed aft, and this allowed
many of the passengers forward
to reach the deck. In the case
of the saloon passengers, how
ever, the result was fatal As they
rushed from their state rooms into the
saloon they were met by the torrent,
against which it was impossible for
them to make Roadway. They were
caught up and swept aft toward the
cock pit, where they were probab bly,
drowned before the ship foundered
Altogether about fifty of the passen-
gers reached the deck, where the
widest confusion existed Wild
rushes were made for the boats, but
the terrible excitement prevailing i'm
peded the efforts of those who
were trying to clear them away.
Many heartrending scenes were
witnessed between parents and chill
dren in the few moments precad-
ing the sinking OF the vessel. The cry
was raised on the doomed vessel for
the women and children to go over to
the other side of the steamer, away
from the port side, in which was the
great gaping hole caused by the
Crathie. The half fainting women and
terror stricken children hurried to the
starboard side, but they had scarcely
reached the boats when the huge YES
sci lifted it's bows high in the air and
then slowly and silently sank, stern
foremost, beneath the waves, taking
with it it's human freight. Barely
twenty minutes elapsed between the
collision and the sinking of the
steamer. heavy sea. was running
and the wind, which was from the
east southeast, was bitterly cold.
The small boat containing the sur
vivors tossed about until II o'clock in
the morning. The survivors were
nearly frozen, having hardly any
clothing, and their sufferings were in
tense Eventually the fishing smack
Wild Flower saw the signals and bore
down on the boat. -