The midland journal., 1914-06-05
THE SAL LVATION
ARMY'S LOSS
Nearly All Their Leaders IN
Canada.
A sERGEANTs STORY.

Bumps Into Floating Bodies In His
Desperate Effort To Save Himself.
Before Leapinu Overheard He Put
= LIfebelt Around Girl Carrying 4
Baby -commIssIone Reese, or SAL
vationlsts, Goes Down With wife
and Children After Helping Many
Other Persons Escape A Very
Pathetic Scene.
Montreal Exhausted survivors Of
the Empress of Ireland disaster, wear
ing misft clothing supplied by the
people of RimOuski, arrived in Mon
treal. In the party was remnant Of
the Salvation Army band, more than
hundred of whom perished The
survivors included Messrs Mcintyre,
Measures. Greenaway. STAFF Captain
McAmmond. Lieutenant Keith, r. John
ston, Major and Mrs. Atwell, e. Green,
Captain Spooner, little Grace Hanna
gan, Miss Bales, all of Toronto; Mrs.
Cook and Band Sergeant Fowler, OF
Vancouver, and Miss Wilmont, of
Winnipeg.
Il was looking through the port
hole in my cabin amidships,' said Band
Sergeant Fowler, when / saw big
black shape loom up out of the dark
ness. 1t seemed only few feet away.
Then came the jolt; it could not
be called crash, because it was more
of grinding sensation. Before /
realized what had happened my cabin
began TO fill with water. rushed out
of the cabin and up the main COM
pianionway. saw a girl with baby
in her arms and little child follow
ing her. The girl begged me to put a
lifebelt on her, SO stopped long
enough to do this"
BY the time Fowler had reached
the deck; he said. the ship was listing
badly and the passengers had to cling
to the rail to keep from going over
the side. Fowler jumped
Fight For Life.
II went down and down until /
thought my lungs would burst" he
said Bodies bumped into me. Once
q man threw his arms around me and
had to fight to break his grip.
swan several hundred feet and was
almost exhausted when boat picked
me up
Commissioner Reese, Of the Saliva
tion Army, stood on the deck of the
doomed vessel trying to persuade the
people to keep cool and lending help
ing hand to many. When the ship was
almost under water one Of his men
shouted to him to jump for his life.
He replied he would stand by his wife.
and children and sank with the words,
''Oh, God. Thy will be done," on his.
lips.
One Of the touching sights on the
survivors train was that presented by
Philip Lawler. With his wife and son
he had left his home in Brantford,
Ont, where they had lived for the last
seven years, to visit their old home at
Keightly. Yorkshire England.
Mother Went Down.
The mother went down with the
ship, while the father, after desper-
ate struggle, managed to save his son
Herbert and himself He was in
jured when the explosion occurred,
and, with his head swathed in band
ages and bowed with grief, he sat
disconsolate figure at his sons side
The boy, who is about IL years old,
when asked about the wreck, said
II was awakened by shouts and
water rushing into the third-class
quarters. ! jumped up, dressed and
took a life belt.
Mother is gone. for in the rush
which occurred after the plunge
father was swimming beside me. He
helped me to reach a spar, to which
we both clung until rescued by a
boat"
Only % women and two children Of
the many who boarded the steamer at
Montreal and Quebec appear to have
been saved.
One little girl, Helen O'Hara, swan
until she was picked up, as also did
Miss Thompson, from New Zealand.
One woman, Mrs. Greenaway. bride
of week, was separated from her hus,
band and thought she had lost him.
but the two had happy reunion later
at Rimouski.
Probably the chief cause of confu-
sion on the steamer after the impact
was the fact that the water. rushing
into the engineers room and flooding
the dynamos, threw the ship into COM
plete darkness. The struggles of the
terrified passengers to escape can be
imagined.
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