Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-09
PROMPT ACTION ALONE
SAVED HUGE FIGHTER
Fire Was in Compartment Beneath
a Powder Magazine.
COOL IN FACE OF PERIL
Officers Worked With knowledge
That Explosion Might Blow Yes
quiry Begins Investi-
CATION.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. Sep
tember 9.-Belief prevails here to-
day among the crews of the bat
tleships that Joseph S. Schmidt.
Robert Gilmore and Joseph STREET.,
the three coal passers who died
yesterday aboard the North Da-
kota, gave up their lives in order
that the ship and the lives of their
officers and comrades might be
spared.
The fire was beneath maga-
zine stored with powerful explo-
sives and they werein the compart-
ment with the flames. Flooding
of that compartment at once was
necessary to the saving of the
ship. Possibly they were uncon-
scious or already dead; probably
their rescue would have been i'm
possible in any event.. But it was
one of those great emergencies the
navy expects and is trained to
meet. 1t was met by the turning
on Of the water.
If Schmidt and Gilmore and
STREET. were conscious when the
flood rushed in upon them they
died without a chance to know
that their three lives purchased
immunity from death for several
hundred other men and saved
from destruction the gallant ship
they served so proudly. 1t prob
ably never will be established
whether they were conscious at
the moment of sacrifice, but the
fact that water was found in their
lungs indicates that life was not
extinct.
NEWPORT NEWS. Va, September a.
The official list OF the dead and injured
in yesterdays disaster aboard the battle
ship North Dakota is as follows:
The dead:
Joseph S. Schmidt, coal passer: enlisted
at New York October -. 1899. Next kin.
mother. Anna Schmidt, 104S Decatur
street, Brooklyn.
Robert Gilmore, coal passer: enlisted at
Newport, r. l., January, 1910. Next kin,
mother Nellie Gilmore. Seyms street.
Hartford. Conn.
Joseph STREET., coal passer; enlisted at
Grand Rapids, Mich. June, 1907. Next
kin, father, Peter Streit, So Bremen
street, Newar'-. y. J. Also sister. Amelia
L. Letsche, IL Cook street. Ansonia,
Conn.
The nine injured men are:
F.. w. Andrews, chief machinist. Next
kin. sisters Mamie A. Cameron. LIB 5tn
avenue, New York. and Mrs. Joseph G
whyte, 11th street northwest, Nashlng-
ton.
J. FL. McDonough. machinist. Next kin,
father, T. G. McDonough. 1s9 Park ave-
nue., Brooklyn.
Charles {. Roberts. machinist's mate:
enlisted at Norfolk, Va.
Sebastian j. wttwer. fireman, first
class enlisted at Philadelphia.
James 4. Brady, fireman, first class, en-
listed at New York.
Leo r. Piorek, fireman, second class,
enlisted at Chicago.
John J. Morrison, fireman, first class.
enlisted at Boston.
Fred p. Kinney fireman. first class. en-
listed at Mare Island, Cal.
w. ]. McCauley, fireman. first class.
Bodies of the Dead Recovered.
The bodies of the three men who lost
their lives were recovered when the COM
partment was pumped out.
The board Of inquiry appointed after
the accident yesterday by Rear Admiral
Seaton Schroeder, commander-in-chief OF
the Atlantic fleet. this morning began its
investigation of the disaster. Its report
will be forwarded through the regular
official channels TO the Navy Department.
Officers OF the North Dakota and OF the
feet generally are exceedingly retieent
about the accident, and Admiral
Schroeder will not talk I'm advance OF
the investigation: but il is the belief OF
the men on the ships that the three men
who are dead were drowned in the food
ing of the fireroom. IL is thought that
they were helpless. perhaps unconscious.
from their burns. before the inrushing
water drowned them.
Flooding the Only Course.
There seems no doubt that the imme-
diate flooding OF the fireroom was tho
only means of averting the total destruo-
ton OF the great ship and the annihiia-
tion OF its hundreds OF men. The prox-
unity of the fire TO a magazine stored
with powerful explosives made imperative
the instantaneous extingushment OF the
flames.
The board Of inquiry consists OF Capt.
Cone and Lieut. Commander Price OF the
Delaware and Lieut.. Commander Proctor
of the Connecticut.
That the fatalities were SO few is 0as 20
the heroism Of many Of the crew, who. IL