The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-17
sfChers Have Thus Far Re-
covered 536 Bodies, Mostly
Women and Children
DIVERS ARE STILL BUSY
IN RUINS OF The SL0CUM
President Barnaby of Steamboat Com
pany Denies Reports That Life Pre-
servers and Life Rats Were
Rotten and Inadequate.

New FORK. June 16.--With uneeasing eff
forts search is going on FOR the bodies
of those who perished yesterday on the
General Slocum. What the list of victims
will total scarce one dares venture a
guess.
Police and fealth department officials
high as 1900 or more, but tonight it would
seem that the maximum fatality will not
largely exceed 200.
All day long anxious searchers kept
Up their eternal vigilance and at dusk
there had been recovered $50 bodies, for
the greater part women and children
Up TO dusk 499 bodies mad passed
through the morgue. and of these more
than 300 were identified Streets leading to
the morgue were Hooked, and only with
difficulty could the police keep clear the
passages leading to the long rows of cof-
fins for those who came to search for the
missing.
Up the sound where the hulk of the
General Slocum lies submerged, showing
only a paddle box, scores of small craft
aided the tugs In graphing for the VIC
tins. Divers went down time and time
again. and when their work ended for
the day. they declared that there were
10 more bodies in the wreck. A score Of
times a diver reappeared after his plunge
with the body of woman or a child.
Two of them coming to the surface on
enc occasion, had In their arms two little
s-sisters-clssped in eath others en-
brace. and their mother. bYas thought,
whose dead hand tightly -cienched the
skirts of one of them.
Divers Make Thorough Search.
AS far as comes within their power the
divers searched the wreck from stem to
stern, but there were masses of broken
timbers through which it was almost i'm
possible to explore, and 1t may be that
some will find a grave under those sunken
timbers until the hulk is raised or the
waters of the sound wash away the last
trace of the wreckage.
There are a number of places where
the living may have landed and it is be-
lieved that many that are now reported
missing, are safe. and eventually will be
heard from by the officials. who have the
rescue work In hand. Indeed, tonight
surprising number Of persons reported to
the officials they had been saved, thus
cutting the list down considerably, as
well as the probable mortality list.
valuabIes Taken From Bodies.
Although many of the bodies taken to
the morgue were very badly mutilated,
and the clothing in many cases almost
entirely burned off, valuables have been
taken from them and are in the keeping
of city officials to the extent of $500 900 or
more. Several of the women and men
had the savings of a life time on them
when they perished. Much jewelry it Is
reported to the police has been lost, but
an explanation may be found in the fact
that 1t was destroyed by fire, rather than
stolen by ghouls.
The coroners investigation to fix the
responsibility for the disaster will begin
on Monday next. The federal authorities
as well as the district attorney, also will
hold an investigation and the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,
through its counsel. has signifed its in
tention to push the inquiry to the ut
most.
Presiden. Barnaby Makes Statement.
President F. A. Barnaby of the Knick-
erbocker Steamship company, the owners
of the steamer General Slocum made a
general denial today of the reports that
the steamer was equipped with worthless
hose and life preservers, and that the life
boats and life RATS were lashed to the
steamer with wires.
1.-THE apparatus for fire fighting on
board the boat at the time Of the acci-
dent was of the very best that money
could buy said Mr. Barnaby. The
equipment was thoroughly overhauled
this year. and we spent over s25 600 on her
in reftting, machinery. hose, extinguish-
ers. pumps and machinery as well as
for life preservers. We did all and more
than the law requires. The hose was all
new this year and was all right. The
fact that the vessel was rated as an AL
risk. Is the best evidence that every
thing was done that human foresight
could provide.
Crowd Surrounds the Morgue.
The crowd around the morgue and the
department Of charities pier on East
Twenty-sixth street. this evening, was
much greater than last night.
AT one time, at least 1900 people. were in
line waiting admittance, besides the hun
dreds of morbidly curious persons who
lined the adjacent streets.
Despite the many curious ones, the
crowd was a reverent one. Often as the
groups standing on Twenty-sixth street
stood and talked in low tones of the catas-
trophe, from the interior of the pier shed
would come despairing cry. which told
that some one else in the silent row Of
bodies hao been identified.
This evening the body of a girl of eight
years which was declared by neighbors to
be that of the little daughter of Henry
Heinz Of Front street, was washed up
against the side of pier at the foot OF
Clinton street in East river. hardly
block from the girls home. The tide BY
strange yagary had carried the little body
from the scene of the calamity of North
Brothers Island down through the narrow
channels OF the river to this point. so near
her home. The girls mother Mrs. Annie
Heinz, Is among the dead
Information was received at the district
attorneys Office this evening that En-
gineer Conkling, who was said to have
perished In the disaster. was alive and in
hiding.
County detectives. under the direction Of