The Springfield herald., 1909-01-29
COLLISION OF
OCEAN LINERS
STEAMSHIP RIDA CRASHES
INTO THE REPUBLIC OF THE
WHITE STAR LINE.
SIX PERSONS KILLED
REPUBLIC SINKS AFTER PASSEN-
GERS HAVE BEEN TRANS
FERREp TO FLORIDA.

Nantucket, Mass.-Marconi's Won
derful invention Saturday averted prob
able heavy loss of life when wireless
messages brought prompt and plenti-
full aid for two great liners which col
lided in a dense fog.
In cropping her way through the
dense bank off Nantucket lightship at
dawn, the steamer Florida of the
Lloyd-Italianie line, bound to New
York from Naples, dealt a death-blow
to the outward bound steamer Repub-
lie of the White Star line, laden with
pleasure-seeking passengers for South
ern Europe and with supplies for the
United States battleship fleet.
The Florida, proving to be less seri-
ously injured than the other steamer.
took aboard the Republics passengers
almost Immediately, and twelve hours
later all the officers and crew of the
Republic with the exception of Cap
tain Sealby. left that vessel.
Captain Sealby in his gig refused
to leave the sight of his beloved ship
until she had disappeared forever be-
meath the waves.
The Republic was on her regular
course for the eastward. but the Flor
ida was thirty miles off the prescribed
lane for inward-bound steamers.
Whether she was seeking to return to
that course or was wandering still fur
ther astray in the fog could not be
learned from the meager dispatches.
Later, owing to the serious damage
bn l1-t hn a
passengers and crews of both vessels
were transferred to the Baltic.
The palatial Republic went down at
$3.50 Sunday night. Her passengers,
taken off many hours before, are on
the steamship Baltic. which was off
Sandy Hook at late hour.
That there was loss of life attend
ing the collision was not known un-
til an early hour Sunday morning.
Then the wireless, which has had its
first great trial and proved its utility.
brought the news that Mrs. Eugene
Lynch of Boston and w. ]. Mooney,
banker of Langdon, N. D.. had been
killed, and Mrs. H. NJ. Murphy, wife
Of the financial agent of the Union
Central Life Insurance Company of
Grand Forks. N. D., and Eugene Lynch
of Boston, injured.
In addition to these casualties among
the passengers of the Republic, 1t was
reported that four members of the
Florida's crew had met death. The
bodies of the dead and the injured per-
sons were transferred to the Baltic.
The Republic was in tow of the rev.
ha
destroyer Seneca when she sank. On
board her was Captain Sealby with a
volunteer detail of their crew. They
had towed but short distance when
she began to settle rapidly. Seeing no
hope of saving the ship, Captain Seal
by gave the order to abandon her. and
the crew was taken off by the Gresh-
am, which cast loose from the crippled
liner and stood by until she sank be-
meath the waves.
The Gresham and the Seneca then
headed for the Massachusetts coast
and will land Captain Sealby and his
brave crew at Gayhead, Mass, or New
port, R. I.
The ramming of the White Star liner
Republic early Saturday morning by
the Italian liner Florida off f'antucket,
Mass, has been followed by series of
events constituting one of the most re-
markable ocean mishaps on record.
Not less than seven ocean liners, the
Baltic, New York, Furnessia, Lorraine
and Lucania, and the two crippled
ships, Florida and Republic, are fig
rring in the stirring story. The 442
passengers and some members of the
crew of the Republic have undergone
two transfers on the open sea, first to
the crippled Florida on Saturday morn
ing and again early Sunday to the
more commodious Baltic, which is
bringing also the 900 and more pas
sengers from the disabled Florida.
With this great human cargo of res
cued persons besides her own list of
$50 passengers, the Baltic arrived off
Sandy Hook Sunday night.