The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-15
NINETEEN SURVIVORS No Change in List Res
 cued from Vessel.
STORY OF MAN AT HELM
Quartermaster Was Watching the ]. Swerving Schooner.
She Came ut Steamer Too Late tu Avert Ceilision--Captain Admits
 Leaving snip Early Bat - Explains it.

Providence. R. l., Feb. i4.--Fifty- four names this afternoon were ou the list of identified dead among the victims of Monday nights disaster m Block Island Sound, when the Joy Line steamer Larchmont was sunk in a collision with the schooner Harry Know1eton.
 The figures of the disaster are as follows:
 Survivors, is; bodies Identified. 5t. known missing. s5; total known 10 have been on board. iss; bodies rs-
 only one was reported as being picked up during today. A fishing schooner recovered the body Of a man off Block Island.
 James Stables, quartermaster Of the Larchmont said today that he was alone at the wheel of the steamer when the collision occurred.
 Stables said he saw the schooner and was watching her carefully. He said. however. that when the swervinw vessel began bearing down on tho steamer 1t was too late to avert q collision.
 Captain Mcvey. who is but 2s years old, and probably the youngest captain plying the sound. has been ordered by the United states steam boat inspectors to submit detailed report of the accident to the board which 1t was said would meet at New . London, Conn. today.
 Captain Mcvey was able to prepare a report Of the manner in which his ship was sunk, but owing to the condition of his frozen limbs. 1t is believed that he will be unable to 50 to New London until tomorrow.
 A new element was injected into the horror when Captain MeVey of the steamer today admitted that his life boat was one of tho arst. of not the first. So leave the sinking ship
 This statement was made in reply to the charges by Fred Hiergseil, one of the survivors, that the passengers were left to shift for themselves: that the ships crew crowded the boats without attempting to provide for tho passan gers and that Captain McVey was tho first to desert the ship.
 The statement of young HiergssiK created q sensation h view of the fact that ten of the ninetaen snrxsvorN were employees Of Che ship or, in otApF words. that while approximately % per cent of the vessels crew was saved, only per cent of the passengers sur vived. t
 Captain Movey explained that while his boat may have been the first in the water 1t was because he had a good crew and that he remained by his ship until she went down. He said he made no move to get into his boat until ha had given orders to his men to lower all boats and clear away the rafts.
 The captains boat was on the wind ward side and he said he called to tha passengers to jump Into hts boat. which would hold about twenty-two people in all but the electric lights had been extinguished and in the darkness and confusion no one needed his summons. Everybody was on the leeward side
 |, Es~ row around there, he claims. but the gale baked his plans. and as the boat was driven away from the steamer his men had to give up their task and crouch down in the bottom of the boat out of the way of the piercing wind.
 New London, Conn, Feb. 14. .--Uni- ted States steamboat inspectors Wii~ liam Withey and John Stewart, exaifl- ined the four members of the crew of the schooner Harry knowiton who were on watch Monday night when the schooner colIided with the steanfeE Larchmont. They were Captain Frank Haley. Mate Frank Govant and Seaman Carl Johnson and Judlius Bryarson.
 Their testimony did not diner In eE~ sential details and they all united in telling of a strange steamer which ap- preached within a mile after the cole llsion and then headed the other way and passed up the sound.
 The hearing lasted from late this afternoon until well into the evening. Captain Haley was the first witness and his evidence in regard to the schooner's course was practically the same as that given by him yesterday in his sworn statement to Inspector Withey. He said 1t was q beautiful night and vessels lights were visible for n distance of a mile or two, Cap- tain Haley said his lights were burns ing all right. When he saw the light of the steamer 1t was red and not more than 100 yards away. He or- dered that the man at the wheel keep her on her course and received q re- ply that she was on her course.
 Captain Haley believed that the course of the schooner was not changed from that time to the time of the col lision. Finally Captain Haley said he saw the nose of the steamer cross the bow of his vessel. Al the same time he heard a whistle signal from tho steamer and then the crash came As soon as the vessels drifted apart he waved a lantern for help but the steamer kept on her course. Another vessel, evidently the strange steamer. was observed with both her red and green lights showing. indicating that she was headed for the schooner, hp- to give help. but when the steamer had approached within a m To her green lights only showed and she headed up the sound again.
 To Inspector Stewart Captain Haley denied that there was any danger as his schooner having waved" from her course