Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1907-02-14


day after having collided with the three
masted schooner Harry Knowlton off
Quonochontaug. The passengers and
crew from the steamer took to the
boats, but it is feared that some have
lost their lives either by being drowned
or freezing, as the temperature Was be-
low zero.
Block Island, R. l., Feb. IA ma
rine disaster with an appalling loss of
life and entailing suffering almost be-
yond the limit of human endurance came
to light today when a life boat of the
Joy Line steamer Larchmont, bound
from Providence to New York, drifted
into Block Island harbor.
In the boat were several bodies of
men who had died from the effects of
long hours of exposure to death deal
ing temperature. In the boat also were
eleven men whose suffering was so in
tense that they seemed oblivious to the
fact that death was in their midst and
that they had escaped only by the vir-
tue of their ability to withstand the
rigor of zero weather in an open boat at
sea.
The boat brought tale of disaster
that has rarely been equalled in New
England waters, and it is believed that
when the final count is made it will be
found that not less than one hundred
and fifty lives have been lost. Follow
ing closely in the wake of the solitary
life boat came bodies, cast upon the
beach by angry waves. Then came life
boats and RATS. Each of them bore
their burden of grim death, as we'll as a
load of suffering humanity, and each
brought tale Of horror.
Owing to the condition of the survi-
vors it was impossible to get from them
at the time an estimate of the loss of
life
Captain Haley, of the Knowlton, as
serts that the steamer did not give his
vessel sufficient sea room and that the
collision occurred before he could take
his schooner out of the path of the on
coming steamer.
The steamer, with huge hole in her
torn side, was so seriously damaged that
no attempt was made to run her ashore,
and she sank to the bottom in less than
half an hour. The Knowlton, after she
had backed away from the wreck, be-
gan to fill rapidly, but her crew manned
the pumps and kept her ahoat until she
raachad q rO;nf 0fF O,,oroobn+o,,c- ,v,Lo-o
they put out in the life boat and rowed
ashore. There was no fatalities on the
schooner, but the men suffered much
from the extreme cold.
The impact was so terrific that the
big clumsy bow of the sailing craft
forced its way more than half the
breadth of the Larchmont. The schoon-
er temporarily remained fast in the
steamers side, holding in check for
moment the in-rushing water. But the
pounding sea soon separated the vessels
and they backed away, the water rush
ed into the gaping hole in the steamer
with velocity that could only mean
the swift doom of the passenger YES
sci.
AS the inpouring water struck the
boiler-room clouds Of steam arose and
the panic-stricken passengers, all of
whom had been thrown from their hunks
when the collision occurred, were at
first under the impression that a fire
had broken out on board.
The passengers rushed to the decks.
Few of them had waited to clothe them
selves. Their fear was so great that
the first penetrating blast of the zero
temperature was .disregarded, but the
suffering from the cold and the water
soon become so intense that personal
safety was forgotten in a general effort
to keep the blood in circulation. Those
who had not stopped to clothe them
selves now found it impossible to return
below and do so. Their rooms were
flooded soon after they had been de-
serted and the steamer was sinking
with a rapidity that sent terror to the
hearts OF the officers and crew. While
some of the seamen held back the fran
tic passengers by brute strength, others
were preparing to lower the lifeboats
and RATS. The women suffering more
intensely than the men, were placed in
the hfeboats, the male passengers and
the members of the crew selecting the
unprotected RATS as their vehicle of es-
cape.
Captain McVey remained on the up
per deck directing his officers and crew
until every one on board appeared to
have been cared for. He ordered all
life boats and RATS cut away and before