Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-12-01

panic seizes the passengers and the
weaker ones are trampled under foot in
the mad rush for the lifeboats or those
wrecks where there is no time for con-
sideration, and the officers have no op-
portunity to exercise their authority.
Interest III the question as to the
treatment which women in shipwreoks
receive has been aroused by the sinking
of the Mohegan and the fact that
small proportion of women were saved
from the wreck. Miss Katherine B. No
BILE of Baltimore, who was one of the
few survivors of this terrible wreck, has
told the story of her experience, and
thrilling tale it is
When the Mohegan crashed on the
rocks off the Lizard, Miss Noble was
self possessed enough to seize a life pre-
server and rush on deck. But before the
lifeboats could be lowered the vessel
turned partly over, and huge wave
swept completely across the deck The
plucky Baltimore girl saved herself by
clinging to deckhouse, and when the
wave swept past attempted to climb
into the rigging Miss Noble s clothing,
which by this time was soaked with
water, impeded her movements, SO she
slipped off her shoes and her outer skirt.
II was clinging to hatch with one
of the officers. = said Miss Noble in de-
scribing her experience, "when an i'm
mense wave swept down on the ship and
carried me overheard In my struggles
to keep afioat was driven against a
plank and seized it despairingly.
In the rush and roar of the waters
there came to me constantly the story
of woman who was rescued after the
Elbe foundered some years ago. She had
been for five hours in the water, and
the thought of her long struggle, which
ended in rescue, gave me fresh cour-
age. clung to that plank in the waves
for three hours. Then a lifeboat came
along, and I was picked up. 2
The story of the Elbe which Miss
Noble found SO sustaining was the case
of Miss Anna Buecker, the only woman
who survived that stupendous disaster
to the i'll fated North German Lloyd
steamship.
During the wreck Of the steamship
Schiller in the English channel 2S years
ago but one woman was saved, although
43 men escaped alive. 1t seems la
mentable and yet peculiar coincidence
that only one woman, too, should have
been saved from the recent wreck of
the steamer Bourgogne near Sable is
land.
II saw the big hull of ship loom
in the fog" said Mrs. La Case, the
heroine Of the disaster, and almost
Immediately there came tremendous
crash. Our steamship careened over on
her side, and the waves washed in and
swept some of the passengers against
the iron stanehions of the steamship.
The last that remember of the disaster
itself was that took hold of a raft on
the deck and was washed overheard by
a big wave, held on to the raft, how
ever, and then lost my senses.
Her husband Ieaped overheard and
caught her just as she was slipping into
the water, and both floated about for
some time before they were rescued.
But such cases as these are exeep-
tional. Women, as rule, always re-
eeive at sea first consideration, and it
seems to be only in cases of general
panic among the passengers that sea
men find it impossible to abide by the
aid tradition, women and children
first ~ JEANETTE DEvoE.