The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-04-30
Decks of Mackay-B Piled High With Coffins--Body of John Jacob Astor Positively Identified- How Wreckage and Bodies Were Located
Death Ship Loaded Down With Titanic Victims, Makes Port t-19o Bodies Brought Ashore; l16
 Buried at Sea
Capt Lardner Describes In Detail the Work Which Be-
 fell His Crew Since April 17-Iittle Hope Held Out Of Recovery of Many More Victims of the Disaster

V4 xOOOOVV4y VI AAosA.y ASA
 His Majestys Dock. Halifax, N. S., April 3O-Loaded with 19O bodies of victims of the Titanic disaster. the Mackay-Bennett made port today af- ter having buried at seq 116 bodies. some of which had been identified. Captain Lardner, who commanded the death cruise, with a broken voice de- clared that his vessel was unable to bring to shore all the dead recovered.
 "we sailed from Halifax on the 17th of April" said Captain Lardner, seat ed in his cabin with the ships log opened before him, with instructions to bring to port all of the bodies found floating near the scene of the Titanic disaster. Owing to the number of bodies recovered and other conditions. bad weather and fog. we were unable to carry out these instructions. Some bodies were therefore committed to the deep water after appropriate services by Canon Kinds, who accompanied the vessel
 Beside the captain sat the benevolent looking round faced Canon Hinds. worn by the heavy duties that had fallen to him through the cruise.
 why were those bodies buried at sea?" Captain Lardner was asked. The srizzled ssid ssa captain, shook his head sadly and a. pained expression swept his weather beaten face.
 They were members of the crew.. . he said, most of them, and we could not care for them. When we left Halifax we took on board all of the embalming fluid in the city. That was only enough to care for 70 bodies. It wasn't expected that we would find bodies in such great quantities. The undertaken didn't think these bodies would keep more than three days at sea and as we expected to be out more than two weeks we had to bury them. They received the full service for the dead before they slid over the rail"
 Fifty-seven unidentified victims of the Titanic disaster were buried at sea from the Mackay-Bennett. They had been crushed between huge cakes of ice and were wholly unrecognizable. being impossible.
 Those who were buried at sea. !" continued the captain, were mostly badly mutilated and the undertaken said they would not keep. They had been struck by bergs or floating wreck age. The night closed down Sunday with the bodies still around us. We commenced work again on Monday morning at daylight, but bodies were scarce. We got only 26 that day. We searched 15 miles in and out along the line of wreckage. At night we marked the floating wreckage with a drifting buoy so we could find it read fly in the morning.
 Tuesday morning bodies were nu- merous again. We picked up 90 bod ies before noon. Then the weather came on thick and in the afternoon bodies together. All were floating No two were clasped in each others arms or anything like that. In one place we saw them scat tered over the surface looking like flock of seagulls. They looked Just like gulls with the white ends of the lifebelts fiuttering and Tapping up and down with the rise and fall of the waves.
 "A great many of those recovered were injured when the Titanic went down." said the captain when asked why so many of the bodies were bruis- ed. When the water swept her decks many must have been carried against stanchions. against spars and other parts of the vessel All of those we picked up wore lifebelts and they rode upright on the waves, the belt carrying them high above the water"
 Then the captain continued his out inc of the cruise, consulting the log before him from time to time.
 '.All day Wednesday we were in nick fog and it was blowing hard. night the weather eased up and we shaped our course back to the bodies. At 5:30 Thursday morning we found ,ne drifting near us. We let the ship rift until daylight and then picked up T bodies that day. Thursday I got message saying the Mirlia was com ng out to assist us. She arrived about b minutes after midnight, Friday.
 "At daylight the two ships commence I'd searching together. At noon I picked up IA more bodies and then we started for Halifax because we had IS many on board as we could look liter. We experienced bad weather | m fha way in. -
 Halifax, April 30-The body which vas identified as that of George D. Videner. the Philadelphia millionaire, 1 " the name inside the clothing was n such condition that it had to be ,uried at sea. The captain of the Ia said there was mol vay of making the identification cer> ain and that the belief was that the