The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1913-10-17

Fishguard, England. One of the
most thrilling stories of the sea that
have ever been told is that Of the
destruction Of the liner yolturno, OF
the Uranium Line, by fire in mid
Atlantic last Thursday night and of
the loss Of from 131 to 1875 lives. OF
her complement Of 20 cabin and 538
Eteerage passengers and SO In the
crew. 657 in all, 521 or 52S were saved.
The Voltnrno was bound from Rotter-
dam to New York, by way of Halifax,
having sailed October l.
There are some discrepancies in
the figures of the rescued given by
the captains Of the Carmania and the
Grosser Kurfuerst, but they are prob
ably due to errors in transmission
and do not greatly alter the figures.
Ten Liners Race To Rescue.
Ten big steamships. eight Of them
transatlantic liners carrying thou
sands of passengers, clustered about
the burning ship for 20 hours until
she was abandoned, fighting terrific
gale and mountainous seas In the
work of rescue.
All those saved. but one were taken
on by lifeboats of the 10 vessels
standing by, as there had been time
to launch but six Of the Volturno's
lifeboats, and four of these were dash
ed against the iron sides of the vessel
and destroyed The Cunard liner
Carmsnia picked up one of the Vol
furno's steerage passengers from the
waves
Fight Between Elements and Science.
It was fight between the elements
and modern inventions, and the ele-
ments won a partial victory. But for
: the Marconi wireless, which flashed
the news Of the fire through the ether
L for hundreds of miles on every side,
probably all aboard the Volturno
would have persisted.
The rescue ships reached the scene
Of the disaster in plenty Of time to
save all, but for hours stood by the
blazing vessel. impotent because Of
the storm to reach the agonized men,
\ women and children crowding the af-
ter part Of the ship and within q
stones throw
AlI-Nisht Battls With Sea.
All night Thursday tll1s lifeboats
made desperate effort to get along
side the Volturno. but the waves beat
them back again and again, and not
until the storm abated at daylight
Friday did the rescuers succeed in
removing the survivors from the
doomed vessel.
The Volturno was well equipped
with boats, suficient; the agents say.
for 1000 persons, but the boisterous
sea or lack of boat drill or panic
among the passengers prevented the
successful employment or them. The
rescue ships were able to lower life,
boats, but apparently most of the
boats launched from the volturno
were smashed or upset and the occu-
pants drowned.
London The latest accounts of the
disaster to the Steamship Yolturno,
burned and abandoned In midocean
on Friday morning. confirm that the
loss OF life will be limited to about one
A1uautSQ 6uu tuIEIy-oAA. luo Lar
mania, first Of the rescuing ships to
reach the burning steamer, arrived of
Queenstown, but owing to the gale
proceeded direct to Fishguard.
A graphic story by the solitary sur.
vivor aboard the Carmania was 70
ceived by wireless, and presents a
terriable picture Of the horror, the
panic and confusion aboard the burn
ing liner. Walter Trintepohl. a Ger
man, who tells the story. however, Is
clearly suffering from the stress Of
Illness and awful experiences. and his
story is too incoherent to be accepted
In every detail Most important, II
true, is his denial that two boats
got away from the volturno.
According to other accounts, Cap
tain Inch was the last to leave his
vessel. which was still burning late
Friday night and was danger to
navigation.
Arthur Spurgeon. passenger on
the Carmania. in wireless dispatch
supplements his own description Of
the race OF the Carmania to the burn
ing vessel and the rescue OF the pas
sengers Of the volturno by the story
told him by the survivor. Walter Trim
THE TARIFF WORRIES ERAMcE