The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-10-22
STORY OF SEA fire
RESCUERS TELL tale OF DARING
DEEDS In MID OCEAN
Ships WORK Together

Port, Brings IIdlngs OF herolSln
and Seamanship in the Midst Of
Black Disaster.-VividD Description
of Scenes Around Burning Boat.
When the Carmania arrived at the
side of the blazing Volturno, in re-
sponse to it's wireless call for help,
Capt. Barr recognized at once that 1t
would be almost hopeless task to
attempt to save the Volturno's human
cargo, but with daring, amounting
seemingly to foolhardiness, he in
structed First Officer Gardner to low
er a small boat. The order was re-
ceived with ringing cheer, but the
attempt at rescue failed, and as fur
ther efforts to get alongside the Vol
turno meant certain death to the boat
crew First Officer Gardiner regretful-
ly gave the order to turn back. After
two hours battling with the sea the
| boat again came within hail Of the
Carmania and was almost smashed
against the side of its own ship. But
finally it was lifted aboard amid
cheering.
Arthur Spurgeon, who first sent
Trintepohl's graphic story by wire
less and described the rescue work
around the burning vessel, thus sup
plemented his dispatches with addi-
tional details Monday: Late in the
afternoon, after the fleet of rescuing
ships had gathered about the doomed
ship, the captain of the Volturno sent
| message that the situation was be-
coming desperate. Attempts were
made to send RATS from the Car
mania and these almost reached the
burning vessel, but just missed it,
and thereby was lost the chance to
get line aboard.
Shortly afterward Capt. Inch re-
ported that the upper plates soon
would give way. An explosion, which
seemed to seal the doom of the ship,
| followed. In desperation an attempt
was made by the Volturno to send a
| boat with line to the Grosser Kur-
| feurst, but the boat was hurled
against the German liner and wreck
ed. The men were saved.
After the failure of the lifeboats
from the Carmania to reach the burn
ing ship and when Capt. Barr man
oeuvred his vessel close to the Vol
turno the passengers on board the
Cunarder did everything In their
power to encourage the terrified
Lcrowd huddled together in the after
part of the Volturno. They waved
handkerchiefs and shouted cheering
words through megaphones, to which
they received answer fro mthose on
the Volturno. Late on Thursday af-
ternoon Vapt. Barr made another at
tempt to reach the Volturno by
throwing overheard life-rafts which
he hoped might be secured by those
on board, but this attempt also prov
ed futile.
In the meantime the despairing
messages from Capt. Inch, Of the Vol
turno, calling for succor grew more
insistent as the flames ate their way
through. Great clouds Of smoke en-
veloped the ship. Later there occur
red a terrific explosion, which to the
helpless thousands of spectators on
board the the surrounding vessels
seemed to seal the doom Of those on
the stricken ship.
AS soon as Capt. Barr, Of the Gu
nard steamer, realized the situation,
he told the Marconia operator on
board the Carmania to get in touch
with the oil steamer, as an abundant
supply Of oil seemed to be the only
means of subduing the violence OF
the seas and OF facilitating the rescue
operations. The Carmania quickly
picked up the oil ship and received
| hearty response.
True to his word, the skipper of
the Narragansett brought his steam
er onto the scene early on Friday
morning and Immediately sluiced
hundreds Of tons Of oil on the waves.
Humphrey Jones, a passenger on the
| Carmania, describing this scene at
the wreck, said the International fleet
worked splendidly and with the regu-
larity of a naval review. The Grosser
Kurfuerst, the Kroonland and the
Gard did wonderfully. "The spec
tacle of the burning ship in the mid
die Of a ring of vessels impotent to
help" he said, "was too terrible to
describe. But for the subsidence of
the storm all on board the Volturno
must assuredly have been lost" Capt.
Inch left his vessel at s o'clock Fri
day morning, carrying with him all
the ships papers.