The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-20

Helpless .as an abandoned babe, hel huge bulk tossing about at every | whim of wind and tide, the steamer John H. Starin of the Starin Trans portation Company, plying betweer New York and New FIaven,w was wreck ed last night on the breakwater that
 winds its stony way far out into the Sound from the southeastern point of
 Steeplechase island. Not a life was
 lost, nor was a mortal injured. F'uri-
 ously ragged a storm, the like of which
 few seafaring men have experienced in
 these parts. Painting like thing of
 life, the good ship to-day lies upon
 it's bed of rock mortally injured. A
 great, gaping hole, irregular and sinis-
 ter, shows in the hull, while on the
 port side, just aft of the forward bow,
 extending almost to anidship, the
 main deck is rent and torn. The
 paddle wheels, for the ship is not of
 the modern twin screw construction,
 are a mass of tangled and bent iron.
 The greates rudder, together with the rest of the8teering apparatus, is twist
 ed beyond recognition; for all the
 world it looks like a congested mass
 of junk tailings that one finds not in frequently in an out of the way place in ship yard.
 Luckily, the Starin has not been in the passenger trade for the past two months and her human cargo, when she left New Haven at 9:30 last night,
 consisted of her crew of 20 men and one other man, a guest of the ships company. The only woman on the ship was the colored stewardess, Alice Boynton of New York. Within few o<f %1,o 1Ns <s%, a1r &1. rocks, the crew, with the exception of the captain, the pilot, the mate and the chief engineer was taken off in safe ty. The BOyntOn woman was rowed ashore by the crew and, as she suffer ed from chill and exposure, she was taken to the Bridgeport, hospital, ,pneu- monia being feared.
 As to whether the accident was avoidable only an investigation will determine. It has been definitely as- certained that there were three men in the pilot house at the time the vessel Iunged on the rocks. These were the captain, the pilot and the quartermas- ter. Who had the wheel at the mo- ment of the crash only these know,an they are not telling. There is good in formation that the pilot, than whom none more able navigateS the Sound was temporarily relieved of the wheel and was in the position of lookout within the p1lOC house. CapCa1n van Pelt frankly says that the ship went on the rocks because he lost control of it. He thought he was making for the mouth of the local harbor, being guided by the narbor lights. It was reported at first that there was no light on the sea end of the breakwater, but Captain Van Pelt admitted that the light was burning there and that he saw it. It can thus be imagined that the control of the vessel got com pletely away from him when he fetch ed up almost in the center of the string of rocks on the Southeasterly side.
 The chief engineer, Elisha Allan says that the ship sprung a leak in mid sea and that after he found the craft was taking in more water than it was pos sible for the combined energy of ship and crew to get rid of, he notified the captain and suggested that they make for the nearest port To the best of his recollection the craft struck the rocks in less than IS minutes from the time she headed to.
 The water, he said, poured in so rap dly through the leak that it extin- guished the fires and put the electric | lighting plant out of business.
 Fortunately for the company where 1 .he ship struck there is only about six l