The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1913-10-13
BIG Liner BURNS
in ]. MID OCEAN
Loss Of Life is Reported Heavy
When Steamship volurno i.
Destroyed by Fire.
WIRELESS CALLS FOR ASSISTANCE
Ten Steamships Respond to Appeals.
For Help And Succeed in Sss-.
ing 500 Persons.

Liverpool, oct. 1S.-The British
steamship Volturno. Rotterdam fol
New York with 757 passengers and
crew on board, burned in mid-Atlantic
and 236 persons are missing, accord.
ing to wireless dispatch from the
Cunarder Carmania.
The meager report said that the Vol
turno, afire from stem to stern, was
"a abandoned in latitude 4S.25, longitude
34.33,. and burned to the waters edge.
Only 521 Of her passengers and crew
were saved SO far as the Carmania
knew. ..%.
The Carmania's wireless . said the
fire broke out aboard the Volturno at
$3.50 Friday morning Ten steam.
ships responded to the Volturno's
wireless distress signals, but by the
time they reached the doomed liner
and stood by she had burned to the
waters edge and her 521 survivors
were in lifeboats and RATS: The 236
unaccounted for We're supposed to
have burned to death and not drowned.
The Volturno was owned by the Ca
madam Northern Steamship company,
known as the Royal Mail line, She
was under charter by the Uranium
company of Rotterdam. She was a
twin screw steamship of 1902 gross
tonnage, built in 1906. -" j..
The vessels that went to the Vol
turno's assistance and the survivors
they have aboard are: 80 -
Carmania, IL; La Touraine, 40:
Minneapolis, 80; -Rappahannock, 10;
Car, 1902; Narragansett, 20; Devonia,
SO; Kroonland,, 30; .Grosser Furst, 1O5
and SeidlitZ, sc. -. r,..'..s... &c.,, "a"
The Volturno's passengers were
mostly emigrants. She sailed from
Rotterdam on Oct, 2 with twenty-four
cabin passengers, SAC. steerage and 4
crew of 1913.
Wireless Summons AID F..3'5g:: p
When the stirring s.. O.. s. OF the
sinking Volturno cracked. out over the
Atlantic the ensuing circumstances
were notably different from those Of
the sinking OF the Titanic a year and
half ago. Ten liners picked up the
Volturno's distress signals and hur-
rted in her direction. The Carmania,
La Touraine, Minneapolis, Rappahan-
mock, Car, Narragansett, Grosser
Furst, Davonia, Kroonland and Seid-
litz rushed full speed to the spot whore
the survivors, who were in lifeboats
and RATS. -
Wireless reports from other vessels
OF the rescue fleet, transmitted by
Captain Barr Of the Carmania, agreed
that 521 were rescued, but differed on
the number of those lost. stating the
number variously from 1872 to 236 and
1923.
The world got first word of the Vol.
turno disaster in a wireless message
sent out by the Cunarder Carmania
and picked up by the wireless station
here. The Carmania's first message
was:
THE steamer Volturno, bound from
Rotterdam for Halifax and New York,
with 600 emigrants on board, on fire
and abandoned Friday night in lati-
tude 1925 north, longitude 34.33 west
1856 passengers missing" ~
A fouled propeller is said to have
caused the fire aboard the Volturno.
Quickly the liner was ablaze from
stem to stern. So rapidly did the fire
spread that many of the steerage pas
sengers were burned in their quarters.
Captains of the rescue ships said some
of them got to the Volturno before she
went down. &.