The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-12-14
BRAVE SAILORS.
They Rescued 40 Persons nom a
a Sinking Ship.
The Steamer LOndonian was Wrecked
During a Tremendous Gale and All
ON Board Would Have Perished
but for the Gallant Conduct
OF the Crew of the VedH.
more = Twenty-Five
Wen Drowned.

more Twenty-Five
Men Drowned.
Baltimore, Dec. 9.-The Johnston
line steamship Vedamore, of Liver
pool, Capt. Bartlett, Tor whose safety
fears were beginning to be felt, as she
was several days overdue. arrived
Thursday at Locust Point, with As
shipwrecked mariners which she had
picked up at sea. Twenty-Five others
went down with their ship. The sup
posed lost are: Captain William Lee,
Chief Officer Murray, Chief Engineer
Stafford, Third Engineer Slater and 21
other seamen, fremen and cattlemen.
The men landed are the survivors OF
the British steamship Londonian, OF
London, bound fom Boston for Lon
don with large general cargo and
$50 cattle on deck. She left Boston
November Is and on November 20, in
violent gale her cargo shifted and
she almost capsiZed, finally resting on
her beam ends with big seas breaking
| over her. Her crew were helpless to
right her, and for two days she drift
ed about at the mercy Of the winds.
Assistance came at 5 o'clock on the
morning of November rs. The Veda-
more hove in sight five miles distant,
and as it was still dark the London
ian burned signal fires and fired dis
tress rockets. The signals were seen
by the officers on the Vedamore and
reported to Capt. Bartlett, who gave
orders that the Vedamore's course be
changed. 1t did not take the Veda-
more long to cover the five miles that
lay between them, and as soon as she
arrived alongside she was signalled
to stand by.
do you wish to abandon the ship?"
was signalled from the Vedamore as
soon as daylight would permit her
signals being seen and Capt. Lee sig
nailed back that he wanted the Veda-
more to tow his ship. Capt. Bartlett
saw that this was an impossibility
and refused to attempt it, as it would
have endangered his own ship. Capt.
Lee then asked that the Vedamore
stand by to render assistance. Soon
afterward he signalled 'TWill abandon
ship" and at noon in the teeth of a
stiff gale, Second Officer Hobbs and a
volunteer crew launched one of the
Vedamore's boats and attempted to
reach the sinking Londonian. For
| 4l,oo lo,,,, 4la p,.;fonc haftla1 will
wind and wave in a vain attempt to
reach her, but finally were forced to
return to their ship. Capt. Bartlett
then steamed to windward of the
doomed steamer and several other
fruitless attempts to rescue the Lon
domains crew were made. As it grew
too dark to do anything more Capt.
Bartlett signalled "Will stand by You
until morning"
The piteous signal For Gods sake
don't lea7e u.s." came back in reply.
During the night the wind increased
and by morning it was blowing very
hard. Then it was that another means
of rescue was decided upon. For
hours life buoys, with lines attached,
were floated towards her and at last
her crew succeeded in getting one OF
them aboard. One of the Vedamore's s
lifeboats improvised as life car made
4 trip successfully and % half frozen
men were hauled up over the side OF
the Vedamore and given every COM
fort the ship afforded. AS the boat
was going back to the Londonian
wreck big sea demolished it. The
lines were carried away and the COM
munication broken.
Chief Officer Doran, of the Veda-
more, volunteered to launch another
lifeboat to attempt the rescue. The
seas were by this time terrific and il
was only owing to the splendid man.
ner in which the boat was handled
that she lived it out. For two hours
the boats crew struggled at The oars
but could not get closer than 60 yards
of the wreck. They were at last forced
to give up and return to their ship
and in doing so the boat was smashed
against the ships side and lost. They
all came near drowning, but were
hauled aboard with lines. Another
fearful night of peril and fear passed
The next morning % of the London
ian's men succeeded in launching one
of their own boats and reached tn,
Vedamore in safety, Their boat was
also lost and all that day was spen'
in trying to again establish communi
cation with the wreck. The gale wa.
constantly increasing and all efforts
to save the Others were in vain.
| Even after night had fallen ,bt
vedamore was kept cruising about II
the vicinity, but when day broke mex
morning the Lopdonian had vanished
| The Vedamore then nroceeded IN R1I