Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-02-03
SURVIVORS TELL
GRAPHIC TALES
PASSENGERS FEARS DIsPELLED
BY SYSTEMATIC WORK OF
REPUBLICS CREW.
ONE MAN CHAMBERS INTO FIRST
BOAT LOWERED AND is
JEERED FOR coWARDICE.


tragic drama enacted on the high
seas were drawn yesterday by many
of the Republics passengers, from
their various points of view Two
women who occupied the stateroom,
the second from the one where Mrs.
Lynch was killed, and a woman who
occupied one between Mrs. Lynch
and the other which was crushed,
graphically set forth their expert
ences. The former, Mrs J. S. Gran
dali and Miss Elizabeth Potter of
Chicago, were among the first to
reach the deck
only one stateroom separated ours
from the one in which Mrs. Lynch
met her DEATH said Mrs. Crandall.
81 heard agonizing screams, every
light went out and from the corridor
we saw three rooms smashed in, so
very close to ours, a huge anchor in
one Through the mass of wreckage
two stewards were already lifting a
woman who had been caught in the
impact 1t was very evident from the
start that the passengers were in the
hands of the little army of men
trained to care for them in the best
manner possible in the face of such
an emergency, and it was this knowl-
edge that kept feeling of fear from
our hearts. At no time was there a
panic"
Praises Work of Crew.
Before the order for the transfer
of the passengers to the Florida
came" said Miss Potter, nearly all
of the passengers were crowded well
forward on the Republic. Eagerly
they watched Captain Sealby on the
bridge. Distinctions between first
class passengers and steerage had
been done away with. We were all
fellow passengers in distress. 1t was
a long. long time before we knew we
were to be transferred to the Florida.
FINALLY Captain 5ealby gave the
signal. He told us women and chill
dren would be the first passengers.
There was no jostling and no exhibit
ton of frenzy. All in all the conduct
of the women was excellent. 1t is I'M
fortunate that right at the start there
should have been an exhibition by
one of the men that was otherwise.
He was not an old man either, but he
surely did seem the most scared per-
son of all. He clambered into the
first boat lowered There was yell
of derision from the passengers. The
sailors who were to row the lifeboat
and the officer in command of them
plainly showed their contempt for the
fellow An order was shouted to put
him out of the boat. He came back
up to the high deck of the Republic
in very ignominious fashion, being
made to haul his way up on a ladder,
the passengers jeering all the while
he was making the journey.
1.-THE lifeboats made trips in al
most uniform procession. There was
so much to admire in the proceedings
that our fears were all the more dis
PEELED"
llI-Fated Passengers Cheer Baltic.
Miss Potter, continuing her story,
told of their arrival on the Florida
compared the condition of the emf
grant ship with the palatial steamer
they had been obliged to abandon and
of how glad all were to get even mac
aroni to eat. Speaking of the anxious
wait and watch for the expected sue
cor Miss Potter said:
I'VE expected that the Baltic or
La Lorraine would reach us by p.
m. We waited patiently. That hour
came but no Baltic. We became anx-
ious. Three o'clock came and no Bal
tic and we were more anxious. -Four
o'clock and no rescuer in sight, and
we were a worried lot of people. Five
O'Clock found us bordering close to
despair, though / am proud to say we
were not the people to say 1T.
but O'Clock was to tell a different
STORY. Az Qudl Lei " IhO. hOuA A.'A
off a light shot up into the heavens
Hundreds of us saw it at the same
time. We had been on the watch for
it. for we had learned much of the
life of the sea the half day preceding,
and we knew, nearly all of us, what
the light meant. 1t was a rocket from
the Baltic We jumped to our feet
with one common impulse and bur-
rah went up"
Women Are Brave.
Among those aboard the Baltic, the
steamer whose looming hulk afar in
the dim fogginess had reused cheers
and new hopes of the transferred
passengers on the Florida, was Henry
Savage Lander, the famous traveller.
In my travellers through the two
hemisphere" he said yesterday.
ssneyer have l seen displayed the
spirit of womanhood that could be
better in such an extreme than was
that of the women of the Republic.
When we of the Baltic met them it
was as they were being brought to