Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1907-07-26
COL UMBIA'S ROLL
OF DEAD IS 90,
HOPED THAT WHEN ALL SURVIV-
ORS ARE ACCOUNTED FOR LIST
WILL GROW SMALLER.
EXPLOSION SAVED MANY.
Boilers Blew Up When Ship Was Sink
ing and This Counteracted Ire
nendous Suction.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal, July o.
The Pacific Coast Steamship company's
passenger steamer Pomona, arrived in
this morning, bringing from the latter
place one of the surviving passengers of
the wrecked steamer Columbia and the
thirty-two members of the Columbia's
crew, who were saved out of her total
complement of ffty-nine
The passenger is Miss Al Leidell of this
city.
1t is hoped now that the loss of life
Will not be so heavy as at first reported.
The exact number will not be known IN
til complete accounts are brought in from
Bryceland and Shelter Cove.
Death Roll Is SO.
1t is known that of 1873 passengers
reported by the company as sailing on
the Columbia. 81 were saved by the
George W. Elder, who towed the San
Pedro into Eureka.
There were sixty in the crew of the
Columbia and of these thirty eight were
on the Elder. Reports from Shelter
Cove announce the arrival of one boat
with fifteen more passengers and crew,
leaving the total death roll at ninety
eight.
Saved by Boiler Explosion.
That so many escaped is accredited,
strange to say, to the fact that the ex-
plosiOn of the boilers when the steamer
was sinking, cOunteracted the tremendous
suction and saved lot of people who
were in the water from being drawn into
the vortex and down with the wreckage.
The back wave from the sinking steam
er, threw many swimming for their
lives, back from the point of danger and
gave them q chance to escape.
Not a few of the passengers on board
the Columbia were teachers and their
friends who had been attending the Ma
tional Educational association in Los
Angeles. Many of these have been res
cued and were among the arrivals on
board the George W. Elder.
Offer Prayers of Thanksgiving.
On Sunday evening there was an af-
fecting scene on board the Elder, when
the rescued passengers gathered in the
social hall and divine services were held
by Rev. DR.. Frank Talmage of Los
Angeles, son of Il. Dewitt Talmage.
Kneelng on the floor the passengers
joined in offering thanks to the Almighty
for their deliverances.
1t was a touching spectacle while
women and men with bruised faces and
limbs in strange clothes supplied by the
passengers and crew of the Elder sang
Nearer My God to Thee" and Rock Of
Ages
Sank in Eight Minutes.
Eight minutes after the San Pedro
struck the Columbia the latter vessel had
filled full of water and sunk. The night
saloon Waterman notified all the passen-
gers to go to the upper deck. Without
clothing they climbed out of their berths
and rushed off out. 1t was only two or
three minutes before the decks were
awash Six boats and three life RATS
were cut loose and as many passengers
as possible were crowded into them.
S. G. Peterson, sailor aboard the
Columbia. was on watch on the fore
castle. He could see the lights of the
San Pedro some hundred yards away.
He gave notice of this fact in shout
to his superiOrs on the bridge. What
they did he does not know, but at any
rate the Columbia shot across the path
of the San Pedro. He says that signals
but that there was hardly time enough
to slacken speed or make any prepare
ton to meet the inevitable disaster.
Misty and Foggy.
Passengers say that the collision oc
cured at half past u or thereabouts; that
it had been misty and foggy, but that the
weather had cleared up somewhat, and
that after the collision, the steamer San
Pedro could be seen where she had drift
ed away quarter of a mile. That
some poor navigation was made is gen
orally conceded. 1t is said that the San
Pedro was under a slow bell and the
Columbia, according to the testimony of
passengers was going at full speed. 1t is
said that she was headed west when the
collision occurred and one passenger stat
ed that the Columbia crossed the bow or
attempted to cross the bow of the San
Pedro.