Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-02-14
Lie Guards al Block Island Are Watching Out For Dead Bodies
 From Wrecked Larchmont
CAPT M'VEY TALKS
Tries 10 Explain Why He Was One of the First 10 Leave Doomed Ves- sel-Serious Charge Made By
 One of the Passengers.

Providence, R. l., Feb 14.--A new element was injected into the horror
 attending the loss of the steamer
 Larchmont in Block Island sound
 Monday night through collision with
 the coal laden schooner Harry Knowl-
 ton, when Captain McVey of the
 steamer early to-day admitted that
 his lifeboat was lone of the first, if
 not the first to leave the sinking ship"
 This statement was made in reply to
 charges by Fred Hiergsell, an IS year
 old lad of Brooklyn, one of the sur
 vivors. Hiergsell alleged that the
 passengers were left to shift for them
 selves, that the ship crew crowded
 the boats without attempting to pro
 vide for the passengers and that Cap
 tain McVey was the first to desert the
 ship. The statement of young Hierg-
 sell created sensation in view of the
 fact that ten of the 19 survivors were
 employees on the ship or in other
 words that while approximately 20
 per cent of the vessels crew was
 saved. only s per cent of the passen-.
 gers survived.
 Captain McVey explained that
 while his boat may have been the first
 in the water it was because he had
 good crew and despite the fact that
 he was among the first off the deck
 he remained by his ship until she
 went down. He said that he mad
 made no move to get into his boat un- til he had given orders to his men to lower all boats and clear away the rafts. While his boat was in the wa ter it was fastened to the ship by q rope in the running gear that had be- come caught and this was cut by BOatswain Andrew TObesOn who saw that with the ship settling rapidly s,Ie boat and It's occupants would be caught in the whirlpool and sucked down beneath the surface.
 The captains boat was on the windward side and he said he called to the passengers to jump into his boat which would hold about 22 peo- pie In all, but the electric lights had been extingushed in the collision and in the darkness and confusion no one needed his summons. Everybody was on the leeward side of the ship and he ordered his men to row around there. he claims, but the gale baked this plan and as the boat was driven away from the stricken steamer hls men had to give up their task and crouch down fin the bottom of the boat out of the way of the piercing wind.
 At 8 o'clock this morning the num- Der of known lost in the frightful ca lamity stood at 13S. At least l57 persons were known to be on the steamer and there is every indication that the number was nearer 200. Sev- enty-one bodies had been recovered | up to s o'clock and these lie in the | mOrgue in this city awaiting indenti- fication. The stream of anxious rela- lives and friends that passed through | the chamber of death for the purpose | ,f seeking some missing dear one aid i not cease until after midnight this | The work of identification | more rapidly than when he corpes lay in their caskets of ice ,n Black Island from which place hey were brought yesterday after loon by the steamer Kentucky and {, when the doors of the morgue closed he list of identified dead numbered B. A number of people were early m hand to file once more through the ong lines of the dead and every train brought more people on the mournful Iuest.
 Block Island today was given a nance to rest from the high tension f tragedy of the past two days. Of II the victims of the wreck. dead and wing. only few of those too serious ? injured to he removed yesterday l. emained on their beds of pain. Their , onditiol was reported ''as well as ould be expected"
 Life guards patrolled the coast as , sual but the sea cast up no more of ] ts dead at their feet. For the first ( Ime in As hours they obtained some bysIcal relief and rest. The weather ad moderated rapidly and this morr- { lg it was calm. clear and mild. The ( ga had gone down. there was scarcely i breeze to ripple the surface of the I Tater. Under these conditions there q ras little expectation of any more I odies coming ashore to-day on the { 'land and the tired men were able to elax from their trying vigils.
 Passing ships may pick up bodies nd at other shore points along the ,und a few corpses may he cast up s ut the life savers here do not anfici- s ate that the list of recovered bodies r ill be much heightened until the ull of the Iarchmont Is blown up, ,r It Is known that many passengers d nd some of the crew perished below d ecks. ii