Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-06-24
ONLY THREE SAVED.
Two Hundred and Forty-fOur Peo-
pie Lost on the Drum
mond Castle.

IilOIlNA Oc1ollC'
Brest France, June 1S.-The details
are slowly being obtained of the loss of
! the Castle liner DrummOnd Castle,
bound from Cape Town to London with
LA passengers and 103 officers and men.
The steamer was going at full speed,
shortly before midnight, on Tuesday,
June Is, heading around Finisterre from
the Bay of Biscay and making for the
British channel Off Finsterre is the
island of Ushant, about twenty-siX miles
/ northwest of this port, one of Il group
of some thirty islands, the largest OF
which are Ushant, Mo!ene, LIE Conquet
and st. Michael
The Drummond Castle, to steer a safe
course, should have been away outside
of Ushant, upon which island is
| lighthouse and signal station, but, for
some reason, not satisfactorily explained,
the steamship headed inside of UShant.
Between that point and the mainland OF
France is a line of islands, including
Molene and LIE Conquet and connected
by ridges of rock with each other. At
! different places there are riffs through
! which vessels can pass With safety but,
! between Ushant and Molene, the latter
island being about half way to the main
land, is sunken reef of rocks, with deep
water on both sides of it, and covered
in parts even at the lowest tides. 1t was
on the ridge that the DrummOnd Castle
struck while going at full speed.
AS intimated in these dispatches yes
terday, the steamer must have struck
so as to tear big hole in her bottom,
thus filing her watertight compartments
almost Immediately and sending her to
! the bottom, on the other side of the
reef in about three minutes. Only two
boats were lowered after the Castle
liner struck. One of these capSiZed and
only three men were saved out of the
247 people on board. The British sec
/ ond-class cruiser Sybelle, which was off
! Nahant at the time of the disaster,
heard the signals of distress and sent
! boats to the rescue of those on board the
sinking vessel, but without avail.
Of the saved, two men were picked up
floating on wreckage by some fishermen
from the mainland, and the third, man
named Marquardt, succeeded in reaching
MOlene island. About ten bodies have
already been recovered Oh Ushant.
At the time the Drummond Castle
struck the reef a high southwest wind
was blowing, and it was raining and fog
i gT, about the worst conditions possible
/ Tor approaching that part OF the coast.
| Marquardt, one of the survivors, has
made a statement in which he says Capt.
| Pierce had just gone to his ca bin for a
brief rest when there was a terrible
| shock which caused the DrummOnd Cas-
| tie to culver as if shaken by a dynamite
rible grating, rasping sound the noise of
| inrushing water, the cries of the pas
| SengerS.
/ Passengers sprang from their berths in
| terror and the sharp words of command
| from the officers on the deck who ordered
out all hands to clear away the boats
for lowering, but the rents in the strick-
en- steamer were so wide and deep that
but few of the passengers had time to
scramble up on deck before she gave
two or three heavy rolls and then an aw-
full lurch, accompanied by some interior
explosions, and sank.
Marquardt, contrary to the reports Of
the two seamen of the Drummond Cas-
| tie who were rescued, said that the
! steamship went down SO suddenly that
| there was no time even to launch one
boat, much less two, and that even if a
| boat had been launched the seas were
| running so high and in such rapid sue
/ ceSSion, a peculiarly of the season on
| that part of the French coast that she
was promptly swamped. Some of the
passengers fastened life belts around
them. All hope of finding any more sur
yiyOrs has been abandoned.
A tug which has just returned from
Molene island says that the bodies of
twenty-five of the victims of the wreck
of the Drummond Castle have been
washed ashore at that place. They will
most likely be buried today. Much
washing ashore at Ushant and Molene
Brest, June 19.-The man named
Goodbolt who survived the Drummond
Castle disaster, was the quartermaster
of the ship. In an interview on the
causes of the disaster and his experiences
he said: Il was on duty few minutes
before the shock A drizzling rain had
commenced to fall and the atmosphere
was thick and muggy, but it was not
! foggy. The sea was not rough, but there
was a long swell. No lights were Wis
ible in any direction. The children on
the ship had gone to bed, but there
were a number of passengers on deck.
The vessel was going at fourteen knots
an hour when suddenly,w it'll absolutely
no warning, there was a terrible crash.
THE captain, who was on the bridge
with the third officer when the ship
struck, Immediately ordered all hands
to the boats. All of the passengers
rushed on deck, many of them only half
clad, and all in a panic-stricken condl-
| ton. The steamer was now listed so
heavily that, although the crew behaved
admirably and took up their stations,
all their work left it impossible to do
anything. A heartrending cry rose from
those on board when they realized hat
they We're doomed. The Drummond Cas-
tie sank beneath our feet with al on
board, about two minutes after she
| struck.
81 found myself in the water and
seized a floating plank which l had seen.
l then saw the other survivor, Wood,
who was clirging to a small spar. We
joined our efforts in the collecting of
other spars and thus made a rough sort
of raft. On this we were bpffeted
about by the waves till morning, when
we perceived a fishing boat not far from
US. l waved my cap, which was seen,
and we were soon picked up
Wood, the other survivor, said that he
was in the forecastle when he felt the
crash and he just had time to rush to his
post at one of the boats when the ship
sank. Thrty-one bodies of victims of
the wreck have thus far been picked