The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-15

wife with a rope, beseeching two sailors
to take care of her. Then sailor cut
the rope The bow of the boat was
held by the bowline. The stern sank,
throwing them all into the water. The
officers in charge of lowering the boats
lost their heads There was no method
TO their actions. Every one acted for
themselves. 1t was a case of brute
strength and a question of who could
get there first The mother fought for
her children; the young husband who
had jumped TO save his wife, fought
for hours.
ITO add to the confusion, the remain
der of the crew dropped the second boat
on to the first 1t did not hit the lower
one full, or it would have smashed both
boats. The second boat had "a people
in it, mostly crew Those hanging on
to the first showed her away from the
steamer.
'Then a life raft was dropped over.
All the crew VINO were left jumped for
it, One landed on it, others hung on to
the life ropes. The crew acted like
madmen. The women were brave.
/ Their courage, even after running the
gauntlet amidships, was amazing. II
the crew had been made up of those
women more would have been saved.
Capt. Brooks and Pilot Weatherwax
are highly praised Those who we're
screaming were from between decks"
Harry Wilt Of Philadelphia supported
his mother and a woman he did not
know-Mrs. Henry Purcell of New
York-in the water for an hour, and
they were all finally rescued, Before
| the danger was over young Wilt was
completely exhausted, and could not
have held out much longer. AT the
Hudson street hospital this afternoon
he said
Mother and 1 got into boat and
I did my best to calm her. Just as our
! boat was about to push away from the
Nutmeg States, woman, Miss May
Savage Of Black Rock, Bridgeport,
Jumped into our crowded boat. She
landed all right, but just after we
pushed off the boat turned completely
over, and every one was thrown into
the water. When l came to the sur
face l could see, mother clinging to a
life preserver, and l swan over TO her.
A few feet away a woman was clinging
to an oar. She was Mrs. Purcell, and
was praying for help. Both mother and
she said every little while they could
not hold on much longer. told them
help would come right away.
Several men were clinging to the
overturned boat not far away, and
mother shouted to them to help us, but
| they paid no attention to the cries. /
was almost exhausted, and it was aw-
fully discouraging to hear them say
| they would have to give up.
Then a boat came. / felt when we
were hauled in that if we had been in
| the water another minute it would have
! been too late. We had hung on that
! life preserver just one hour"
Dennis English of New York said
that while he was in the water an un-
known man, minus a life belt, caught
him around the neck. He induced the
stranger to let go his hold and try to
support himself in the water until help
came, by means of an oar. The
stranger became chilled, let go of the
oar and sank.
| Several of the passengers confirmed
the story that an unidentified woman
| passenger was burned to death aboard
the boat and declared that they saw
| her, possibly in faint, fall to the
blazing deck.
The Nutmeg State, which was built
at Noank, Conn. in 1892, was 206 feet
in length 81 feet beam and drew 10
| feet of water. She cost 100000 and
was worth about $4,000 at the time
of her destruction. The value of the
cargo destroyed can not be estimated.