The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-09-09

{ of $40, made total of 1904. The old
est seagoer can recall no figures thai
approach this number The great size
of the vessel was never better illus.
trated than when on the night of July
q, in the midst of a heavy fog, the
big liner was struck by the French
bark VILE de Dion. OF the 1884 pas
sengers. scarcely $50 knew that there
had been a collision. and the great
majority of those on board slept calm
| ly for three hours while the ships Of
ficers examined her, and then, in ac-
cordance with maritime laws, reversed
engines and sped through the heavy
/ fog in the hope of overhauling the
bark.
| While it was admitted that the bark's
| ramming the big vessel had about as
much effect on 1t as rubber ball
would against fortress, nevertheless
| the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria showed
marks of the collision, and there was
some excitement and little fear
among those who were awakened and
| who rushed on the deck in their night
clothes.
William Reckmeyer, a wholesale fur
rier of Chicago, was on the promenade
deck at the time of the collision. There
was an unusually heavy fog, and Mr..
Reckmeyer had gone out to observe its
effect on ocean traffic. To a reporter
for The Tribune Mr.. Reckmeyer de-
scribed the collision as he saw it and
the excitement that followed.
|. 1--WE were about three hours out of
Cherbourg," he said, 'It was exactly
fifteen minutes after midnight. The
fog was so thick that I could scarcely
see my hand before me. Suddenly I
saw something heavy in the fog. Tt
was, or seemed to be. so near US that
I could touch it. felt the danger, but
had hardly formed an idea of it when
that big black something in the fog
rammed our starboard side. Tt must
have been a powerfully-built vessel, for
it shook the entire starboard side of
the Kaiserin. though, of course, it did
not in the least disturb. the vessel as
a whole In fact, I marveIed there and
then at the immensely of the ship.
1.-THE first shock as T said before,
came so suddenly and with such vio-
lence that at least one hundred and
fifty of the first cabin passengers were
thrown out of their hunks. In less than
minute, and before the bark rammed
our vessel the second time, that num-
Der of passengers were on deck half
clad. The next moment the bark
struck us again, but, of course, not
with such force as the first time. Sew
eral of the portfolios, however, were
ripped in the second crash. The noise
of foghorns and other danger signals,
coupled with the two distinct shocks
against the vessels starboard side,
reused many more. In a few moments
men, women and children, all on their
knees Captain Ruser stopped our YES
sci Immediately. The fog appeared to
lift a bit, but there was nothing in
sight. After examining the vessel we
reversed engines and sped after the
bark. but did not succeed in overhaul
ing her In fact, as far as I could
learn, nobody knew what struck us
until a few days before we reached
port That the Kaiserin's crew was
ready for an emergency was shown
by the rapidity with which the life
boats We're manned. I observed that
before the second crash the orders had
been given to man these boats, though,
of course, there was nothing alarming
in the collision. With the exception of
those aroused from their slumber, prob
ably two hundred or three hundred, in
all. the rest of the passengers knew
nothing of the collision"