The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-08-23

than 600 Of her passengers and crew.
The three men, August Tornberg, Carl
Johansen and Wilhelm Poulsen. had
nothing but the clothes on their backs
when they boarded the Cedric at Liver
pool. but many heurs had not passed
before purse was made up by their
fellow voyagers.
Tornberg and Peulsen are married
and left large families in Sweden. Jo-
hansen, lad Of nineteen, is Dane,
who left home to join his elder sister in
Chicago. Poulsen was permitted to
land and went to a relative in Perth
Amboy. The other two men viii be
cared for t.the Swedish Home. near
the Battery, until they secure transpor-
tation to the West.
The three men were the centre Of
blue-eyed. tow headed crowd Of Scan
dinavians when the Sun reporter
reached Ellis Island. They were tell
ing again the story of the wreck.
Tornberg was OF. the lower deck Of
the Norge talking TO a sailor when the
ship rasped lightly against a reef. A
heavy mist hung over the sea. But
few hundred feet ahead, rising high
above the water, could be seen the
great lonely shaft Of Rockall. In anoth-
er moment there was a terrific crash,
and Tornberg fell on deck half stunned.
He could hear the sound Of water rush
ing into the gaping hole in the bow, and
then came the cry Man the boats.
The ship is sinking"
Immediately the steerage was in a
panic. Tornberg regained his feet as
the first boat-the one that was dashed
against the side by giant wave-was
being lowered. He lifted little girl
into this boat only to see her swallowed
up by a wave a second later. He
turned to assist in the lowering Of a
second boat when sea broke over the
deck and he. was washed off with a
hundred others.
Tornberg, although strong swim-
mer. was nearly exhausted when Third
Mate Basse and another of the crew
pulled him into lifeboat. Tornberg
jumped overheard again a moment
later and helped rescue Poulsen and
Johansen, who were clinging to piece
Of timber In the course Of fifteen
minutes @hree sailors and seven pas
sengers, all men. were hauled out of
the water, making seventeen in the
boat. The last man rescued was so
weighted down by the gold sewed in
his money belt that he could not swim
more than just enough to keep his head
above the surface. A%
The boat had all ii would hold, and
Basse ordered those who were strong
enough to lend a hand and row out of
the zone Of danger. They had not
made a hundred yards when the Norge
pitched forward and disappeared A
boat and hundreds of living and dead
who were near the wreck vanished in
the vortex.
Basses boat had aboard a key Of
water and d bag Of ships biscuit. 1t
had not gone far when second boat
with twenty-eight men, four women
and two children aboard came along
with absolutely no provisions. Basse,
confident that he would reach st. Kill
da, $50 miles away, in forty eight hours
at the latest, gave them two-thirds of
his supply. For two days these two
boats and third that joined them on
the first night were in company. The
men rowed in relays two hours at a
time. About midnight on June 80 the
wind rose to gale and the boats
drifted apart.
BY this time all Of the water and all
Of the biscuits in the boat Basse com
manded was gone and the men were
tired and sick Their hands were COW
cred with blisters and Basse and his
four sailors had no little difficulty in
keeping them at the oars. The man
with the gold they could do nothing
with. He was sick and lay in the bot
tom Of the boat alternately praying
and offering the gold for piece of
bread.
After about ten hours the gale gave
way to cold rain. They caught some
water in the bottom Of the boat and
got little relief. but salt water soon
spoiled the fresh.
On the fourth day the men could not
work more than an hour at time at
the oars, and onsthe fifth day not more
than half an hour
They had now been three full days
without food or drink, and most Of
them suffered so that they cared little
whether they reached land or not. But
Basse had left blue-eyed wife and a
two-year-old son in Denmark and
meant to see them again. When man
threw down his oar and said he could
work no longer Basse would ask him
If he had a family If he hadn't Basse
tried on him the photograph Of his own
boy; or, il necessary, punched his head.
On the morning of the sixth day
Basse tore up number of life preserv-
ers and contrived crazy sail by piee-
Ing the coverings together. Late that
afternoon this clumsy sail was sighted
by one Of the crew Of the Scotch fish
ing smack Rattray Bay and in another
hour the seventeen men had been taken
aboard the smack
me rescued could nor make tne res
cuers understand much about what
had happened. The smack got to Aber-
deem on July 6. The boat with which
Basse shared his provisions was picked
up by the British steamer Cervona. and