Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-10-30
THE WRECK OF TIE NOYEGAN
Vlvidly Described ly Miss Maude
ROudebuSch, a Survivor.

| THE VESSEL STRUCK ABOUT SEW
| EN- O'CLOCK THE EVENING OF
! OCTOBER 49, WHILE THE PAS
SENGERS WE'RE AT DINNER-THE
| STEWARDS CONTINUED SERVING
| THE MEAL FOR SEVERAL MIN
| UTES AFTER THE FIRST SHOCK.
! HORRIFYING EXPERIENCE OF
| MISS ROUDEBUSCH IN THE WA
| TER UNDER A BOAT-EVIDENCE
THAT THE BOATS WE'RE NOT
WELL HANDLED.
I New York, October 29.-MisS Maud
Roudebush, who is better known on
the operate stage as Miss Maud Rou
deg, one OF the survivors of the Mohe-
| gan disaster, arrived here to-day, on
the Cunard liner Etruria. Miss Roud-
| ebush was dressed in deep mourning
and her face bore traces Of the strain
and hardships she endured when the
steamer was wrecked. When seen by
a reporter, Miss Roudebush told the
story of the loss of the Mohegan.
my mother, Mrs. L. S. Grandin, and
|
! 49," she said, and everything went
well until the evening of the 14th. At
| the time the ship struck it was, as far
as l can judge, about o'clock in the
evening, and my mother had just gone
| into the dining saloon, and the dinner
had just begun. Suddenly there was
N, yf,11 md oh ,n -t, ty,'c
bottom was being torn out. My moth
er and myself both got up from the
table and walked to the stairs to go
to our rooms. At that time no one
seemed to know what was the matter.
Stewards continued to serve the din
ner. We reached the head of the stairs,
where our state room was. when we
met two of the deck hands We had in
! the meantime secured life preservers,
but were utterly unable to put them on.
AS we stood bewildered, the men came
up to us and offered to assist us up
! the stairs. | can positively say there
was no panic at that time, for as
o
number of people still seated at the
table. l should judge it was about
four minutes after the ship struck
when, without warning, every light
went out. On deck the scene was pa
thetic and l shall never forget it. The
masts were black with people, the ma
: If
were sailors. | assisted my mother up
a mast, but as the men by whose aid
we escaped halped to save our lives,
we got into boat with them. Many
, of the boats were not unfastened and
there seemed to be no attempt to
launch them.
I'VE reached one of the boats and the
| men assisted US into it. The decks We're
now aslant. For few minutes we sat
in the boat terrified. Suddenly the boat
| lurched and a wave struck us and then
| the boat turned over and L felt as if
| had gone to the bottom of the sea. Con-
| seriousness had almost left me when 1
| came up and l found myself under the
! overturned boat with scarcely enough
| only my shoulders out of the water and
with my chin resting on the seat. Close
beside me was old Mr.. Duncan and he
| shouted loudly as he was able. His
shouts grew weaker and bye and bye
they stopped. l did not care to think
what had become of him. My mother, 1
knew, had been in the boat, but that was
all. L didn't know where she was then.
You can imagine the horror of the situa-
ton. L could feel humping against my
bosom the head of some one, and l knew
by the short hair that it was one of the
deck hands that had helped us into the
boat. l almost in despair when sud
denly the boat was overturned violently
and 1 fell exhausted in the bottom still
clnging to the seat. The next thing 1
was grasped by strong hands and thrown
violently into the life boat
Mrs. Compton was also in the boat and
was saved.
My mother was either caught in the
| wreckage or fast under one of the seats.
for the men in removing her chopped off
one of her feet
In reply to a question, Miss Roudebusch
said:
THE opinion of Mr. Haslop that the life
boats were difficult of access | believe is
true, and 1 can say for myself that they
were double rallied, as has been stated.
and that the rail around the boat was al
most as high as ones chin. They were
chained down and when l went on deck 1
saw some of them which apparently no
attempt had been made to launch. l do
not know what caused the accident"