The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-07-11
DEATH CLOSE
TO BARRETTS
ON LINER
Experience Of
Colonel and Wife When
Steamer Rams Iceberg.

0eSUkuSA NuhAAS
On the steamer Kronprinz Wilhelm,
of the North German Lloyd line, which
struck an iceberg in the ocean Mon
day night, were Colonel Michael T.
Barrett and Mrs. Barrett. of this city.
who were on the way home from
Carlsbad, a famous German health re-
sort. They came to this city yester-
day after the teamer arrived at her
pier. but after a couple of hours they
went to their summer home at the
shore. They will remember their ex-
perience of Monday night.
Baron Won Sternberg. German am
bassador to the United States. was a
passenger on the Kronprinz Wilhelm.
The great steamer was saved from
probable destruction by the prompt
action of Captain A. Richter, her
commander, when he saw that what
he at first thought was a fog bank
was a gigantic iceberg. The night was
very dark n the steamer was for
tunately going at slow speed. Captain
Richter signaled the engineer TO back
with both screws. n the great
steamer backed after sliding onto a
submerged shelf of the berg.
In the terrific grinding which came
the steamships bow smashed into
the berg an o~verhanging mass OF hum
dreds of mi barely missed crashing
through the decks, ever as the screws
were churning at full speed astern, in
obedience to the quick command from
the bridge. when the impact was found
to be impossible to avoid.
Striking the ice at a sixteen-knot
gait. the great liner raised her 2S.o0o
tons of steel. passengers and cargo on
a ledge of the berg beneath the sur
face, and for a moment Captain A.
Richter and the officers on the bridge
feared that the crash would tear off
the liners bows. But as easily as the
great hull went up the ice hill, the
screws whirling to release her accom-
plished the purpose and back she
at her proper depth, then slow
ly went astern. The striking of the
berg, the lifting of the liner and the
roar as the block of ice fell as
the ship tore 1t off nearly unnerved the
on the bridge.
While Captain Richter was doing his
duty on the bridge in the cabins the
shock of the blow and the tremble of
the big steamship as she churned her
screws astern caused some alarm. Men
in their night clothes and
in the steerage the excitement was in
tense, although at once stewards hur-
ried about calming the frightened per-
sons.
There was little t. show that the
Wilhelm had tried conclu-
sions with an iceberg when she ar
rived yesterday. On the starboard bow
at the waterline the load draft nu-
merals were missing and the paint was
scraped off for several feet aft from
the stem.
One of the incidents of the striking
of the berg was the ice fragments that
tumbled in through the omen ports into
the seamens' quarters A. ward. Sew
eral of the men off watch were awak-
ened by the flying frozen particles as
they struck them lying in their berths.
I'VE were off the Grand Banks on
Monday night" said Captain Richter,
land Just after midnight | came on
the bridge, as we were in dangerous
waters. 1t was very dark and we were
steaming at reduced speed, perhaps
sixteen knots an hour, when suddenly,
at twenty minutes past twelve, the
lookout forward shouted that he saw
a fog bank dead ahead. 1t was the
iceberg, apparently not a ships length
away, and as the night was warm
there was a mist hanging bout. In
the moment that I looked I saw that
the peak was about fifty feet out of
49, o,loroI tP,,11 cnood act6Tn'
on both screws, and the helm hard
over. Quicker than | can tell II the
big ship swung beautifully and we
grazed along by the berg on our star
board side.
"There was an overhanging shoulder
of ice that just caught on our pows'
and down it came crashing, tumpllns
| clear of the ship with a roar into the
sea. For a moment 1 feared II would
fall on board. AS ii was, there were
small pieces that splintered ana came
on the decks forward, but they were
of little weight compared Win the
great lump we detached.
but there was yet another event
happening thai gave me even more
cause for fear. At the same time that
the mass of ice broke off the kronprln2
struck a shelf of the berg beneatn inc
surface, and the impact raised her bow
several feet out of water as she Sic
upon the floating mass. Evidently the
berg ran for several hundred feet out
all around beneath. and h top had
melted more rapidly than the sub
merged portion.
Pressing the lever at the contro
dial on the bridge, | set in morton tins
automatic apparatus for the closing o.
the bulkhead doors far beneath tn'
water line, and in seventeen seconds
the thirty or more doors were shu'
tight.
by this time the liner was backin
clear of the berg, and I sent a iorc'
below in the forepeak to see II any
/ damage had been don was
/ when First Officer G.. Hagermeyel
came up with a smile on his face an'
said the ship showed no sign OF narm
we laid to for fifteen minutes am
then set on our way westward