The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-06-16

terrible, and that any escaped alive
seems wonderful
Stuck to Their Posts.
Through All the wild panic. during all
that Inferno, with IRE and smoke sur
rounding them, the officers and men of
the doomed boat remained az their
posts, bat they were pOwerless TO avert
the catastrophe.
The Slocum got within nifty feet of
the northwest point of the North
Brother island and there stopped in the
shallow water.
1t was just before she beached that
the hurricane deck the supports or
which had burned away. fell with its
load of women and children, adding
TO the panic and horror OF those on
the deck below. Very soon after parts
Of the second and third decks also
caved in. Just before this happened
the tug Walter Tracey had come along
side the burning steamer and been
dashed to it.
Tug Took Fire.
Many Of the passengers were taken
of by the crew of the Tracey, which
remained alongside the steamer until
the tugs pilot house took hre.
The point where the SlOcum was
beached was just on the scarlet fever
ward on North Brother island. The
patients, who had been out on tie
porches and lawns watching the APP
proach of the burning steamer, We're
ordered indoors, and the physicians on
the island FASTENED to the assistance
Of those who were being brought
ashore through the shallow water.
Many of those who leaped from the
steamer were carried away by the cur
rent even after she was beached, ana
were drowned.
PitifuI Scene.
The scene on North Brother island,
as described by the rescuers. was a
pitiful one. Body after body was
washed ashore or brought IN by boats
and added to the long row on the beach.
Fifty-three persons died there while
the doctors were attending them.
AS the bodies Of the living and the
dead were taken out of the water,
those alive were taken to the hospitals
on the island or sent across the river
to hospitals in Manhattan. Here am
balances from almost all the hospitals
in Greater New York and every other
sort Of conveyance which could be
found were put into service.
Bodies DTifted Ashore.
For hours the bodies of the burned
and the drowned drifted ashore on the
island and between One Hundred and
Thirty first and One Hundred and
Thirty eighth streets in Manhattan
Some came ashore still alive. Many
Of these died but others viii recover.
The scene was pitiable in the extreme
as the living and the dead were brought
in Rows of bodies were stretched
along the beach. Frantic meU went
along looking at one after another,
searching for children and friends. WO-
men with disfgUTed faces. their clothes
partially stripped from them were car
ried to the imprOvised emergency hos
pital. crying for children who had been
torn from them in the mad rush when
the boat took FIRE
Meanwhile the SIocum burned 10 the
waters edge. At 1925 o'clock. two
hours and twenty-five minutes after
the fire was discovered, she sank. Tt
is estimated that there were then near
ly 100 charred bodies on her decks.
Just after the steamer sank the water
near by was black with bodies. The
tug finally succeeded in picking UP
eighty eight charTed corpses i'm Hunts
Cove, off Riker's island, and carried
them into the sound. None of these
bodies, it is thought, can ever be ideu-
tilted