The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-13

panic-stricken passengers, many of whor1 had been thrown from then hunks when the collision occurred, were at first under the impression that fire had broken out on board.
 Unfortunately the point of the colll- sion was in that part of the vessel where was located the signaling appar- atus connecting the engine room With the pilot house. Captain McVey, stand ing in the pilot house, could not com municate with his subordinate ofilcers below decks, and, therefore, was un- able to determine the extent or the damage. The quartermaster was hur- ried below to make an investigation.
 The passengers, meanwhile, had thronged onto the decks. Few of them had awaited to clothe themselves. Their fear was so great that the first pene- trating blast of the zero temperature was diregarded, but the sufferings rom the elements soon became so intense that personal safety was forgotten III a general effect to keep the blood in circulation. Those who had not stop ped to clothe themselves now found 1t impossible to return below and do so. Their rooms were flooded soon after they had been deserted, and the wound ed steamer. foundering around in the high seas tkat are feared by all sound navigators, was sinking with a rapid itv that sent terror to the hearts of the officers and crew. These men were prompt in answering Captain McVeys call to quarters.
 While some of the seanen held back the frantic, freezing passengers by brute strength, others were preparing to lower the lifeboats and rafts. There was no time to think of the comfort of any one. Even before the boats were cut away Captain McVey knew that the list of victims would be greater than those who survived.
 It was a physical impossibility for any but the most hardened to with stand the cold, which turned ears and noses white with the frost and which so benumbed feet that both the pas .sengers and members of the crew stum- bled rathen than walked to the small craft in which they were to leave the sinking ship.
 sIlrleks of agonized pain drowned the roar of the inrushing water. Pan demonium feigned supreme, but in spite of it the women on board, suffer- ing more intensely than the men, were placed in llfeboats, the male passen- gers and members of the crew select ing the unprotected rafts as their vehi- cle of escape.
 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 lifeboats and rafts cut away, and. be- fore he stepped into Glis own boat he stood on the upper deck moment to see that his order was executed Then he ordered that this boat, the largest on board, be cleared away. Before the men had an opportunity to loosen the tackles the bottom of the boat rested on top of the surging sea, which was raging over the hurricane deck, and for a moment it seemed as though the lifeboat would be dragged down before she could be freed from the doomed steamer.
 l Every hand in the boat was too cold ] to handle knife and cut the ropes 1 which, however, slipped through tho tackles and set the lifeboat adrift just as the vessel became submerged. The Ipitiable condition of the passengers ant crew was increased hundredfold tht moment they had launched their boats Every wave sent it's dash of spray ove the boats and their contents. Soon {; thin coating of ice enveloped every one Those who were fully clothed suffere, from frozen faces and numbed feet, bu there were, many who had on only thei night clothing.
 One man in the captains boat, al though dressed warmer than many oth CTS, was suddenly driven insane by hi Intense suffering. He pulled big clasl knife from his pocket and gashed hi throat. No one stayed his hand, ant again he plunged his knife into hi throat. Those wIlo sat near him eithe' were too dazed to interfere or looked upon the act of self-murder as justified The unknown mans body fell to tn, bottom of the boat, where it remained until he died
 Fishers Point, the nearest point O land, was not quite five miles to thu westward of the point where the steam CT went down, and every boat immedi ately headed for the place. But tht boats were heavy and the men at tn, oars were weak. A flfty-mile gale blew on their backs as the men strained a the ice-covered oars in a hopeless en deavor to overcome the handicaI against which they were struggling The boats and rafts soon became sep arated, and the only details of the ter rible disaster which could be learned here were given when Captain McVey's boat came ashoret Not man on boarc was able to walk. Their feet wer, frozen so badly that the llfe-saver, carried the survivors bodily to the life saving station.
 Captain McVey was so overcome by the enormity of the disaster that for time he was unable to give a lucid ac count of wilat had happened after tn, ship had gone down. Shortly after hi arrival here the captain said that h, had on board his ship between 150 ant 200 passengers and a crew of fifty.
 Later he said there were betweeI fifty and seventy-flve passengers ol