The San Francisco call., 1913-11-28

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ment manned the light on the bridge
With it he located the fourth officer
He had donned some of the life buoys
thrown TO him and was floating Wen
out of the water. After considerable
difficulty another boat with five men
was lowered
LIGHT WENT OUT
They started after the officer. Just
as they were well under way the
light went out 1t refused to work
The boat blundered about in the dark
ness for about 15 minutes and then
returned to the ship 1 never in gil
my travels have seen such lack of
seamanship. A few handy lifelines or
bowlines and Leacham would have
been saved. Defective handling of
the small boat was responsible for it's
upsetting."
CUT TO PIECES
when the alarm was sounded that
there was a man overheard all the
passengers were allowed to come up
on deck" said C. S. Crawford, chem
icaI engineer, who says he viii file
charges with the United States In
spectors at once. There was great
confusion and no officer seemed to be
in charge. We searched all over for
life preservers or lines, but none could
be found.
The steamer backed up until the
Etern nearly touched the drowning
passenger. All the while the pro-
peIler was allowed to churn. He must
have been cut to pieces.
Then the lifeboat was lowered. The
ropes were far too short for 1t to
reach the water and some person cut
them. When 1t fell into the sea 1t
came down on the passenger in the
water. Tt Immediately overturned
throwing all those in 1t into the surg
ing waters. There were seven men in
this boat One of them disappeared
Immediately, four were rescued while
the other two fioated on the water.
PASSENGER VOLUNTEERED
These two kept calling for help to
those on the ship. We were helpless,
owing to the lack of lines or life pre-
servers. Several of the passengers
shouted to lower another boat, but
authority appeared to be unable to Sc
cure enough of the crew to man it.
One of the passengers volunteered.
1T was a half hour before this sec
end lifeboat was lowered into the
water This was explained because no
plug could be found for the boat All
this while we could hear the pitiful
cries of the two men in the water. BY
this time they had drifted out of the
weak rays of the small searchlight
and had become lost in the darkness
of the stormy sea.
After making an attempt to circle
the vicinity of the accident, the life
boat returned. The boat could not be
taken aboard the vessel, owing to the
sea, and was set adrift. Had another
accident or a wreck occurred, we
would have been short two lifeboats,
each capable of caring for 20 passen-
gers.
Il have travelled the seas for many
years, but this is the first time I have
ever witnessed such gross carelessness
on the part of the officers Of q steamer.
intend making these charges to the
federal authorities"
PASSENGER ONLY SAILOR
Van Koolberger and Crawford's
stories are substantiated by other
passengers.
"Tve been to sea, so 1 know what
I'm talking about said William A.
Barnes OF Bellingham. "I never saw
so little preparedness. There wasn't
a real seaman aboard, with the pos
sible exception of J. Johnson, one of
the passengers. Johnson Is a quarter
master, and was one of the few who
maintained his coolness It was owing
10 his presence of mind in finding
lines and throwing them to the sailors
who fell out of the first boat that
more lives were not lost"
DR.. Ida Rosencranz, from Seattle,
was bitter III her condemnation of the
events leading up to and following
the tragedy. II had planned to con-
tfnue south by water but nothing
could make me adhere to that plan,'
According to a member of the crew,
no heaving lines could be found Sew
ereal lines he said, were buried under
a heavy coil Of rope on the stern OF
the vessel
BOAT LOWERED WRONG
"It was rank folly to lower the
boat in the manner they did 1t was
lowered on the weather side and not
on the lee side 1t was lowered away
aft so that the surge of the water
lifted it under the counter of the
ship. 1t is a wonder that all of the
crew of the first boat did not lose
their lives. The steamer is lacking in
equipment. There was no way of
suitable communication between the
bridge and the stern Of the boat. That
is one reason why the propeller was
started when Leacham was near it.
There was a sad lack of cooperation
AS an illustration. the fire bell in our
quarters has been out of order for
some time. In the event of fire we
would never hear the alarm"
Captain Paulson denied the tales of