The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-18
STEAMER WAS SUNK
THE OLIVE WENT DOWN, DROWN
ING SEVENTEEN PERSONS.
STRUCK BY A WHIRLWIND.
ONLY SIX FOUND REFUGE IN THE
PILOT HOUSE.

the Storm-On RightinE, the Water
She Had shipped Sank Her-Pny-
tinI List of Those Who Perished.
Survivors Were Almost Frozen in
the Icy Water.
Norfolk, Va. Feb IA cyclone
struck the passenger steamer Olive,
which plies between Franklin, Va. and
Edenton, N. c., at $50 o'clock last
night, and sent her to the bottom of
the Chowan river, off Woodleys pier,
! between Mount Pleasant and divers
wharf.
Seventeen people are known to have
been drowned, and those who were res
cued are in a serious condition.
The whirlwind, when it struck the
Olive. caused her to go over on her
beams end, and when she righted it
was only to sink on account of the
water she had taken. A majority of
the passengers and crew were below
at the time, and had no opportunity to
reach the pilot house of the vessel.
This point was the only portion left
| above water, and in it, standing waist
til 6 o'clock in the morning, Capt.
George H. Witty and five others were
saved.
No complete list of the dead has been
| obtained. 1t is known that the follow
ing perished:
Jake Lassiter, white, aged 25, home,
Rich Square. N. c.; salesman for Car
lin & Fulton, Baltimore, hardware
| dealers.
Mrs. Bennett, Franklin, Va.
Twelve-year-old daughter of Mrs
Bennett.
Mrs. Vaughan, Franklin, Va.
Frank Hunter, George Butt, w. II.
Edwards and Andrew Vaughan, coll
ored deck hands.
Abraham Cooper and Prescott Scott
colored firemen.
Esther Williams, colored cook.
John Cooper, colored porter.
George White, colored preacher.
Four unknown colored passengers.
Those saved were:
Capt. Witty, Engineer Conroy, PURSE
err Bell, the colored stewardess and two
white passengers.
| At o'clock this morning the river
! steamer Petit hove in sight and res
cued the almost frozen survivors.
The Olive was a small single screw
steamer owned by j. A. Pretlow of
Franklin, Va, and has been plying be-
! tween North Carolina and Virginia for
several years. She left Franklin last
evening for Edenton, and had almost
reached her destination when the cy-
! clone struck her.
The Captains story.
According to the statement of Capt.
| Witty to the Associated Press CORE
| spondent here tonight, seventeen per-
| sons are known to have been lost on
! the sinking steamer, and a lifeboat
| loaded with Engineer G. l.. Conway,
! Assistant Engineer j. P. Murphy, Pur-
| ser j. n. Bell, one white and two col
ored passengers, unknown, and two
colored deck hands, which left the
| steamer in hope of reaching a vessel
! whose lights could be seen in the dis
| lance, is yet unheard from. If these
have been drowned, the death list will
! reach twenty-five.
Capt. Witty reached Norfolk this
| afternoon in company with Martha
| Barrett, colored stewardess of the
steamer. To the Associated Press
correspondent he made the following
| statement:
I'VE left Franklin on our regular
! trip to Edenton yesterday morning at
! IL o'clock. A heavy southwest wind
! was blowing, but along the Chowan
river we did not mind it much. At
o'clock last night we passed Hollies
wharf and headed for Edenton Bay.
| The weather became so heavy that l
would not risk the open water and
put the boat about to return up the
river for safety.
ut was just about 2 o'clock when
| everything became inky black and a
terrible roaring broke out of the night.
was alone in the pilot house and most
of those below had turned in. In a sec
ond something struck the boat on her
port beam and turned her over on her
| starboard side. 1 thought she would
never right herself, and a monster
wave dashed over us. 1t flooded the
hold and smashed every window
around us.
With the rush of water into her
hold, the Olive slowly righted. and in
less than two minutes after having
struck, she was resting on the bottom
with only the pilot house above the
river. Two life boats were swept away
and one was left. Into this the en-
gineer, assistant engineer, purser and
one white and two colored passengers
climbed and put off in hope of catching
up with towboat that could be seen
ahead of US.
Il never saw them after they left
our side. Their going left the steward
/ ess and one white and two colored pas
sengers on board with me. We stood
in water waist deep until o'clock in
the morning, when a Norfolk and
Southern steamer hove in sight took
us off and landed us at Edenton
where we took the train for Norfolk
THE boat sank so quickly after be-
ing struck that none below had a
chance to reach the deck, and all must
have been drowned in berths."
Rescued the Boat Load.
A special from Suffolk says that the
crew of eight who embarked in the
| lifeboat, were picked up after rowing
four hours by the tug Gazele, of the
John l.. Roper Lumber Company, and
landed al Tunis. There they took the
train for Suffolk and later went to
Franklin
They reported that they were unable
to overtake the tug which they set
out to reach and finally came up with
a barge anchored in the river, from
which they were taken by the Gazelle.
II was learned tonight that a white
man named Wilder OF Coleraine, n. c.,
is also among the drowned, making
the eighteenth victim. Work will be