, 1896-07-22

ldII6I, VINO WIS Will tIlG lllUlo Sh1, utu al
in his power to save her, but I soon lost sight
of them"
Wood and GodboIr. who have related their
experience 10 a variety Of jnteryiewers declare
that the scenes Of that terrible night are still
constantly Lefore their eyes. They say there
was a pr longed grating noise when the ship
struck. Captain Pierce, who was on the
bridge. Il pealed to the passengers who were
hGrlying On deck to remain calm, and, be-
lieving that the watrItight compartments
would keep the vessel ahoat long enough,
he gave the order to get ont the boats. The
saiIols made all possible haste TO execute this
ordel. lut before this could be done the
vessel Went down. Wood was in one Of the
boats. which he was endeavourlnG to untaS-
ten, ahd as the ship sank he felt himself being
dragged down under the BOAT, but aIter
diving he came to the s~Vrfase and succeeded
in s~eizingIhold Of a plank With It's ad ne
swan towards a hatchway, to which Godbolt
was c~lin9ing. The two men were carried by
the current a considerable distance from
The scene of the wreck. For some time
thew could hear the cries Of the drowning, and
they saw passing close to them, borne along
by the current. "a woman, who was calling
loudIy for help. About daybreak Wood was
seized with cIamp and was unable to raise
himself from the hollow Of the hatch on
on which he had stretched himself. He hal
nothing on but a shi,t and trousers. At last,
towards : o'clock. he and his comrade were
picked M by the fishermen and taken to Mo
lene. Godbolt sayS:-'I was on duty at the
TINS Of the disaster, while the other man was
below. a few moments before the steamer
struck a drizzling rain was coming down and
although it was not foggy the atmosphere was
very muggy. The sea was not rough, but
h NJ l,uht1 mar. = hn ,aoD
~anywherr. Able seaman PEBBLES, who was
drowned, was the look out man. The child
rem had all been pu! to bed, but Of the 200
passenu,rs quite a number We're on deck.
suddenly there was d terrible crash. Cap
tain Pierce. who was on the bridge with the
third officer, seeing the gravity Of the situa-
ti0n-for the Drummond Castle was steamIng
at about II knots-ol dered all hands to the
boats.
by this time all the passengers were on
deck. Although the crew behaved admlra-
by the steamer listed SO heavily that all
work vas rendered impossible. A beartrend-
ing cry came from those Oh boarG when they
realized that there was no escape. The Drum
mond Castle sank under our feet with all
on board. in, perhaps, two minutes after she
struck. l found myself IL the wafer,
and, at once recovering myself, seized hold
OF q bug plallK, winch Was Ho'tlHS ~ ~ AC'
/ then saw Wood, who was clinging 10 a very
small pr. We neared each other and JOIN
ed our efforts in collecting some other spars.
Although we were washed away several times
in the course of the night, we managed to
keep afoat until the morning, encouraging
and helping one another as the hours passed
by. All the time we feared we Were hoping
against hope. In the morning We saw a
fishing boat about a mile of. waved my
cap and shouted as loud as could. Fortu-
naIpIy. we were seen by those in the fishing
boat. and were picked up"
Wood, in reply to questions, said, 4 was in
the lorecastle ut the time of the collision. |
lust managed to reach my station at one of
the boats when the steamer sank. This shows
how rapidly she went down
Wood and Godbolt, the only surviving
members of the crew, went to the Board Of
Trade on Monday, aud we're sympathelically
recel> ed by Sir Coultenay Boyle. the Herma-
nent Secretary. The solicitor to The Depart
memt took down in writing the statement
which each made. The Board Of Trade in
quiry, which is to be held as soon as practi-
cable, will be as searching us the circum-
stances will allow.
Searches in every direction have failed to
discover a vestige Of the Drummond Castle.