Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-07-06

1 /.
London, July 4. Over 100 Danish and
| Norwegian emigrants, bound for New
York, were drowned In the North Allan,
tic on June 2S. Out OF nearly 800 souls
on board the Danish steamer Norge,
which left Copenhagen June 22, only II
are knoa q 70 be alive. and for the rest
no hope is held out.
When last seen the Norge wassinkinp
where she struck on the isles of 5Rockali,
whose isolated peak raises itself from d
deadly Atlantic reef some 200 miles OF
the " est coast Of Scotland.
Early last Tuesday morning the Norge.
who was out os her course, in heav,
weather, ran onto the Rockall reel
which, in the distance, looks like ship
under sail. The Norge was quickly
backed of, but the heavy seas poured
in through q rentin her bows.
The emigrants, who were then await
lug breakfast below, ran on deck The
lhatchways were scarcely built for these
hundreds OF souls and became clogged.
The Norge quickly began to go down
by the head. Eight boats were lowered
and into these the women and children
were hurriedly put. Six of these boats
smashed against the side of the Norge
and their helpless inmates were caught
up by the heavy seas and drowned.
Two boat loads got safely away from
the side of the sinking ship and many
OF the emigrantS who were left on board
seized life belts and threw themselves
into the sea and were drowned.
The boats kept together some hours
Practically all of the occupants were
passengers and not used to handling
such craft. The boat occupied by the
survivors, which landed at Grimsby,
was life boat.
The rescue of those on the life boat
took place at 8 O'Clock on the morning
OF June ~, the survivors consisting OF 20
men, one of them a seaman, six women
and girl.
One of the survivors said that when
he got on deck, the Norge was half sub
merged and was rapidly getting lower in
the water. Half mad with fright the
survivors all struggled for places in the
boats. They fought their way to the
big life boat aud an officer slowed in the
six women aud the girl and told the men
to get in. The officer then took charge
and got the boat to the side of the Norge.
Seetng that the boat was already over
laden, the officer, with great heroism,
jumped into the water and tried to board
another boat, which was not 80 full. He
failed and was drowned
Tho sea by this time was a mass of
struggling men, women and children,
gasping and choking from the effects of
the water They tried to get in the
already overladen boats, but were beaten
off with oars. The boat rowed clear of
this seething inferno and just as she
drew away the Norge went down.
Peter Nelson, one of the survivors, de-
scribed as a young American, said: "For
some hours we rOwed in company with
other boats, but the strong tide drifted
us away from the others and nothing has
been seen of them since. The Saliva
picked us up and we were we'll cared for
on board the trawler. All of us lost our
entire belongings. We had no time in
that fierce fight for life TO think of any
thing but the getting of seats in the
boat"
The only hope except for those known
to have escaped is that some few of the
emigrants might have been washed upon
tho barren rock. Their chance OF being
rescued even then is practically nil, for
vessels sailing the North Atlantic give
Rockall as wide berth as possible.
The news of this disaster, which it is
feared, in its death record is greater
than any previous tragedy of the Allan
tic, came with the arrival last night of
the steam trawler Saliva at her home
port, the quiet fishing town of Grimsby.
The Saliva had been on q fortnight's
cruise around the Hebrides. BY lucky
chance she steamed further west than is
usual for Grimsby trawlers, and fell i'm
with the survivors of the Norge, who.
for "a hours, had been tossed about in a
small boat on the rough waters " the
North Atlantic. The survivors were
taken aboard the Saliva and were landed
at Grims6y last night.