The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1913-10-18


ficer, II. p. Miller. After this boat
left the ship she capsized, throwing
her occupants into the water She
afterwards righted herself and sew
eral of the crew got back into the |
boat, the chief officer being one Of
them. No. boat was lowered and
got away safely filled with steerage
passengers in charge Of Fourth OFF,
Ger Langsell. No. boat on being
lowered was caught under the stern
Of the ship, the boat being completely
wrecked. ...
Meanwhile the chief engineer, two
seamen and myself fought the fire and
apparently subdued the flames. 1 gave
orders to send no more boats away
as l had received word from the Car
mania that she was hoping to be with
us by IL u. m. Life belts were served
out and put on each passenger. FooI
the bunker was found to be ablaze. 1t
being impossible to stop the fire in the
bunker on account of gases, the
watertight doors were closed and
water poured down the No. 2 hatch
onto the fire but the fire was gain
ing all the time.
AT II a. m. the Carmania arrived
and lowered a boat, but could not
reach the ship on account Of the high
sea. Asked Carmania to look for No.
boat. The steamship Seydlitz arrived
and lowered boats, which could not
reach us. About p. m. the Carmania
returned and tried to reach the ship
with life-rafts. but all drifted past
our boat too far away.
Several steamers had arrived by
dusk. The Kroonland put away
boats which made four attempts to
come alongside, but were swept away
each time.
'At $50 p. m. the saloon and chart
house were flaming. The deck, bridge
and all before the funnel were blaz-
ing fiercely. Pumps and dynam3s
stopped for want Of steam. Wireless
men worked with the accumularors
until ii p. m. when the magazine OH
the bridge blew up, carrying the
aerial away. ~
Several boats by this time were
1vin off
sengers to jump and they were rescued
| by boats. At IL midnight the weather
was overcast and squally. Operations
weEessuspended, it being too dark for
boats to see. The fire meanwhile work
ed through the women's steerage to
the after end of the ship, but we kept
knowledge Of this from the passep-,
gers, who were quiet throughout the
rest of the night. The chief engineer,
the Marconi men and seamen and
mysen' spent the night making small
RATS in case the fire burned through
the deck before daylight.
''At 5.35 a. m. the first boat ar
rived. Weather and sea having mod
Grated boats were enabled to come,
alongside the ship, which enabled
passengers to embark quickly. All
the steamers lying around the ship
sent boats. Now we were enabled to
load these boats with passengers ut
once. The passengers left in a very
orderly way and there was no panic,
womn breaking down and crying
when help was alongside, and all were
off the ship by s a. m., about 400
passengers. l searched the ship my
self and found no one else on board,
so decided to abandon her as the NO.
3 hatch was we'll alight by now, SD
the remainder of the crew embarked
on the KroOnland.
Nothing at all has been heard oc
the two missing boats. Passing YES
sells were asked to keep lookout for
them.
Il wish to express my heartiest
thanks ard gratitude to the captains
OF ships who stood by; also to the
officers ard crews who came to our
assistance for their barvery and en-
durance in their endeavOr - come
alongside the ship also to the pas
sengers of the KrOOnland for their
kindness to the rescued passengers
engineers and crew and myself in fit
ting us out and doing everything for
us.
"FOllowing are the names of the
steamers that came to our assistance:
Carmania, GrOsser Kurfuerst, La Tou-
rain, Asian, Narragansett Seydlitz
Minneapolis, Devonian, Car, Kappa
hammock, also one steamer without
wireless. The ship was Abandoned
i'm latitude 1880 north, longitude 34.57