The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-02-28
BRITISH STEAMER SINKS;
MANY LIVES LOST
Huge Seas Pound Berlin TO Pieces
and Few Aboard Escape.
FATAL NORTH SEA DISASTER
Shin Struck Off the Hook of Holland
in a Terrific Storm, and Tugs
Could Not Reach Her to Bring
Assistance-Over 100 Perish.


Hook of Holland.-Themail steam
er Berlin. belonging to the Great
Eastern Railway Company, OF Fng-
land, from Harwieh for thezHook of.
Holland and Rotterdam. was wrecked
on this Mace shortly oafore C o'clock
3. M, and, with the exception of four
teen persons. it is believed that all on
board were lost. The passengers and
crew numbered altogether 143 per-
IONS.
Among the drowned are -Fra1lein
Sehoene. Of the Mauuheim Court
Opera. who the week before san~ the
Wagnerian parts OF Elisa and Eliza-
beth at Covent Garden. London; NJ.
.Orelio, baritone. of Amsterdam. and
NM. Stellmach and Menmler. who all
sang minor narts. and Fraulein Co
bel. of the Court Theatre ~ Dresden.
who acted as leaders of the chorus
during the Cevent Garden season..
Arthur Herbert. one of. the English
Kings messengers. was drowned.
No ore knows the cause of the dis
aster. The vessel encountered a ter
rife sale all through bAr journey
from Harwich. lust as she was en-
teriug the new waterway hero she
was seen to turn around as though
her engines had stopned. and a no.
ment later sB~rwas dashed against
tha iettv. She rod taken the chrrnnI
entrance CORRECTLY and was making
her way between the niers.
A short time after the vessel struck
she broke in two and her forn part
~htsapneared. Her afterpart did not
slip into deem water. as tho persons
on shore at first believed. but 4eems
70 be imbedded in the sand bank.
There wer still n few VERSIONS on
board clipging tn = wreckage. Dur1
ing the high wator. at the height OF
the storm. the waves shut OF all view
of the wreck, which led TO the belief
that No trace OF the Berlin had been
left. The ~receding lido. however. re-
vealed the remains of her stern with
q handful of survivors. .
After over thirty hours %ineessant
effort the Dutch lifeboatmen reached
the wreck of the Berlin and took off
eleven Of the fourteen survivors. Two
women and n child refused 70 jump
and the lifeboatmeni had to come
away without them.
The l~ife-savers launched their boat
reDeatedly. only to be hurled back by
mountainous seas. AT last, with the
recading tide and some improvement
in the weather, they succeeded. It
was $50 p. m. when the rescue was
made.
The cold had been so intense
throughout the night that it was
deemed hardly possible that any liV-
ing thing so exposed could survive,
but when daylight broke small groups
could still be seen clipging to the
poop and deck houses. the only por-
tons of the vessel visible.
CAPTAIN Jensen say he was COM
PEELED to leave the two women and
the child On board the wreck because
they did not dare to make the descent
of the ope owing to their completely
exhausted condition. In fact they ap-
peared to be dying.
Captain Parkinson, oe the Holt
Steamship Line, who was a passenger
on the Berlin. said that the disaster
was due to the fact that the Berlin
reached to in the terrific sea as she
was entering the waterway, and was
dashed upon the pier head, immedi-
ately "crunching up like a concertina
and parting amidships."
Many of the bodies which already
have been washed mp are battered be-
yond- recognition and some are with
out heads and others without arms or
legs.
1t now appears certain that after
the catastrophe there were many more
than fifteen persons remaining on the
wreck and that. most of them were
washed of by the waves. One wom-
an was carried away just before the
rescue was effected. The survivors
huddled together for warmth and the
members of the crew who were still
alive shared their food with the 9th
ers. There vas not enough to go
around, however, and for twenty-four
hours not a morsel of food passed the
lips of these unfortunates.