The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-02
OYER TENT THE BIG sHIP.


 The Story of Remarkable Marine Dis aster-The BlairmOre CapsiEed at An chor in San Francisco Bay and Part os Her Crew Imprisoned-A Long Eight With the Rising Tide for the Lives of | the Men.
 | u'rom the san Francisco ExamnerD The British ship Blairmore went down in the bay yesterday morning, and the bodies of six men are entombed within her. The vessel was sunk In a raging storm of wind and water that lasted only for few minutes and then calm as 8 sheet of glistening glass. A few moments before the vessel crashed over on her side and disappeared in the waters of the bay the sky was clear and the bay calm. A few moments more and the heavens were heavy with dark clouds, rain beat down in a tor rent, and the waves were dashed by the wind.
 Then there was sudden lurching of the ship and the great masts began to dip. The crashing of timbers and the l IuiIlDlluS Ql luuS OL petliQ SOoiaoSo above the roar of the wind in the ears of the men in the hold Slowly the ponderous mass of steel tipped to the level of the bay. Water poured n a deluge through the matches and the sailors were entombed. Then the bay was calm again; the sky was clear and the wind was a harmless breeze.
 A little later several men stood on the side of the ship and worked With desperate energy to cut hole in the steel. They could hear the agonizing cries of the imprisoned sailors calling for help Some at least had escaped the flying timbers and the weight of sand. They were groping in darkness and shouting for aid. They could hear the hammers ringing on the steel, but they could not see the rising tide. | Their only chance of life rested in the energy of the men working on the ves- sells side. Three lives at least were to be saved if the steel were cut before the tide raised the waters to the open ing. The tide rose slowly and the res cuers worked with stubborn zeal. There seemed time enough, but the muffled cries within the ship grew weaker and the waters swept gradual ly higher until they washed the feet of those who were boring into the vessel
 It was a contest seldom seen In the harbor of San Francisco, and the res cuers lost Just as the merest ribbon of steel remained between the en- tombed sailors and life a wave rolled over the curving side of the ship. Al though hope had almost gone, there was still chance. A hammer smashed open the steel plate. The compressed air burst forth with tre- mendous force, spouting the water to height of thirty feet. Those who had tried with all their energies. to be res- cuers scrambled to their boats. With piercing hiss of air and water the ship sank lower, and the waves rolled over the spot where few moments be- fore were heard the cries for help. The men in the hold were beyond help.
 Those who were lost on the vessel were Thomas Ludgate. first officer; Samuel Kenny, steward; Henry T. Clarke able seaman; T. Renebaum sailmaker; Roland Emil Siegel, ap- prentice; H. Synstrand, watchman. Those who escaped were John l., Cav, captain; Dugald Mcdonald, second of ficer; William Melville, third officer; James L. Watson, carpenter; Albert Powell, apprentice; Hamilton Bell, ap- prentice; Stuart Warwick, apprentice; George Pope, apprentice; Alfred Bah ner, apprentice.
 A heroic effort was made to save the sailors imprisoned in the hold of the submerged vessel It was struggle of mechanical skill and willing muscle against the flow of the tide. The cap sized vessel lay only about half mile out in the bay from the Union Iron Works wharf. and it was nearly an hour after the vessel went over before it became known on shore that three of the crew were drowned or imprisoned | in the hold of the craft There was a hope that they might yet be alive, clinging to some floating plank in a narrow space filled with air under the bulge of the ship as she lay on her beam in the mud at the bottom of the bay The mechanics of the Union Iron Works needed no second appeal for the work of rescue.
 John Scott, the general superinten- dent of the works, told off three of the best steel cutters in the employ of the company to cut through the hull of the vessel, These workmen were William Thompson, J. Hurley and J. McCabe, but their efforts were futile. James Diclde. the superintendent of the ship yard. was given charge of the relief work, and he had as his aids Fl. Frear, the chief draughtsman of the works and Alexander Donaldson, the dock master. All these are experienced in the construction of vessels, and all are practical engineers. They took careful soundings about the submerged vessel and made sure that she was resting on the bottom of the bay before taking ! any chances of cutting through the plates and allowing the buoyant air in the hold to escape.
 James Dickie was the first of the rescue party to step upon the hull, a few inches of which was above the wa ter. He gave several sharp taps on the steel plates of the hull with heavy hammer as a signal to any who might be alive in the hold that rescue was ]