The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-12-18
DIG LINER ON ROCKS
Prinzessin Victoria Luise Strikes
! Reef In Port Royal Har-
! Dor, Jamaica.
CAPTAIN COMMITS SUICIDE.

Blows His Brains Out After Seeing
That All His Passengers are Safely
Laadod-caase Of Decd Mot Known.
Vessel Filled With Amsricsns Re-
turning Frea1 yvest sndian Trip.
Kingston, Jamaica, Dec 1S.-Guided
by a brain that never had made a
serious mistake in seamanship, sailing
a smooth sea with everything favora-
Bile to a safe voyage, the well filed
tourist steamship Prinzessin Victoria
Luise OF the RRnburg-American line,
with many New Workers and other
Americans as passengers. ran on a
shelf of.rock under tie Port Royal
lighthouse, at the mouth of this har-
Dor, and is now at the mercy of the
great waves.
All the passengers were saved, but
Captain Brunswig, who was in COM
mand when the steamer struck and
whose first grave error in the exercise
of his craft was responsible for the
jeopardy in which hundreds of lives
were placed, locked himself in his
cabin two hours after the crash and
blew out his brains
Either he knew all the passengers
probably would be taken off without
injury and considered himself at liber-
ty to pay with his life for the ruin
wrought to his reputation as a navi-
gator or else he expected loss Of life
from the oncoming of heavy weather
that followed hard on the heels of the
accident and resolved not to survive
a single one Of his charges.
Panic When Ship Strikes.
Panic almost beyond control by Of
ficers or crew spread among the pas
sengers when the ship struck. Many
Of the officers and sailors realized
swiftly there was good prospect
that everybody would be saved, and
they assured the frenzied women and
men Of that fact as soon as they them
selves recovered from the shock. But
most of the passengers either were
too frightened to hear the reassuring
words of the sealnen or were unwilling
to credit them, for the uproar on deck
and in the saloons was so terrible that
it seemed impossible to restore order
In the thick of all that early excite
ment Captain Brunswig, despite his
despair, played dominant part In
quelling the panic. He alternately
pleaded with passengers near him to
be calm and shouted to those in other
parts of the steamer that there was
no peril Above the roar of the waves
on the rock and the grating of the
vessel against the reef, the banging Of
unsecured doors as she swung with the
sea and the cries of men and women
streaming from staterooms, the voice
of the captain sounded forth in power
full appeal for self control by every
soul aboard. In the end he had re-
course to telling them that If there
really was danger their one chance of
escaping it lay in cool obedience to
his orders.
Vessel Withstands Shock.
The excellent condition of the big
yacht, for as such she was rated much
of the time, though 400 feet long, had
much to do with the escape of her pas
sengers. A vessel not above the aver
age Of seaworthiness striking that reef
at the speed under which the Victoria
Luise was steaming and being subject
ed to the onslaught Of stormy sea
that followed the calm in which she
hit the rock might have gone to pieces,
mariners said, and that too quickly to
give time for the transfer Of her pas
sengers to land. The steamer stood
the shock nobly. A shudder ran
through her as she struck, and so great
was the impact that she recoiled sharp
ly, but not far enough to shake herself
free of the ledge Then the reef seem
ed to- grip her keel, and, rolling menac-
ingly, her stern swung shoreward Oh
the ground swell that preceded the
rapidly roughening weather.
When the news of the wreck reached
here the German cruiser Bremen was
in the harbor. She steamed up and
went down the harbor to the assist
ance of the stranded vessel The
French training ship DuguayTrouin
was also in the harbor, and she, too,
went to the Prinzessin's assistance.
The passengers of the Prinzessin are
quartered in the various hotels here
They have lost many things, and their
cruise has been tragically interrupted.
but their chief grief is over the sad
ending Of Captain Brunswig.