Mexico Missouri message., 1914-06-04
Empress OF ireland Sunk In COL
IisIon In the ST. Lawrence
River.
ONLY 20 WOMEN ARE SAVED
Craft Goes Through Center OF Vessel
and Ripe II open From mIdshIps
10 stern-Men, Women and
Children etrugeIe for Life
While Waiting TO Be
Rescued.

Quebec, May S0.--A train with 1896
survivors Of the lost Canadian Pacific
steamship Empress OF Ireland arrived
here from Rimouski shortly before
eight o'clock last Thursday night.
Thirtyeeyen wounded were left OF
fRimouski
These are all that live OF the 1875
VINO called from hero Thursday after
noon bound for Liverpool on the queen
vessel OF a famous feet The ship
sailed out OF q sunlit harbor into the
fog on Father Point, where the rip
ping PROV OF the collier Storstad
struck the death blow In the dark.
The lost number 1874.
237 Of Crew Are Saved.
OF the living 237 are members OF
the crew.
OF the living only 20 are women;
two are children.
Thus the story Of the most terrible
disaster In the history Of Canadian
navigation is written more grimly,
more vividly in hard figures than 1t
could ever be in words.
How the hundreds Of strong men
of the crew were saved while the hun
freds Of weak women and children
persisted only the imagination can
fathom now.
Not even the survivors can fully
picture the 19-minute death throe OF
the riven ship-the passengers wax
ened IN the dead OF night either to be
crushed by the invading prov of the
Storstad, drowned in the rush OF wa
tiers or TO drag themselves to the list
Eng deck, where panic reigned, where
shrieks Of terror and of pain made an
inferno under the shrouding mist. The
battle that surged about the life
boats that had not been shattered In
the crash, the cruel triumph Of the
strong over the weak--let the hard fg-
ures tell II. They alone can.
One of the matters on which the
rescued agree Is that Captain Ander-
son Of the Storstad backed his vessel
out Of the hole she had dug into the
Empress side, nursing her own bent
prov despite the shouted pleas of
Captain Kendall that he hold fast TO
lhe wreck.
Water Rushes In.
As the collier backed away the wa
ssr rush listed the Empress 80 that
all her ufeboats on the portside were
useless.
The SsorstAd, moreover, having no
mortal damage and lying in a river
that was rufled only by the strewn
forms Of the drowning, the wounded
and the dead. picked up but few Of
those who we're taken to the hospital
at Rimoush.
IT, was the government mali steam
er Evelyn and the pilot boat Eureka,
which had 70 run all the way from Fa-
tler Point that did the big work OF
rescue.
a strict investigation is TO be imme-
distely begun.
There was no time"
That is the phrase used by every
survivor in trying TO tell something OF
what happened. There was no time
TO rouse the people; no time TO cry:
Women and children first"
Ninenteen minutes was the time be
tween the crash and the sinking. In
that time there were lifeboats TO
launch, q panic TO contend with. In
that time the wireless must fash It's
calls tor help
The g. o. s." picked up by many
ships near and far brought response
too late TO save even a third OF the hu
man cargo.
Captain Kendall, one OF the most
able and trusted shippers OF the line
"A man who had captured Doctor
Crippen, the murderer, and had served
for many years without a mishap al
Bea-stood en- the bridge during those
1e minutes.
Gathered piecemeal from survivors
the horrors OF this wreck grows Will
the telling.
The doomed ones had little tim,
even TO pray. They were engulfed b!
the onrushing waters that swallowed
the big ship.
The wireless operators on the EN-
press. sticking TO their posts TO III,
last, had time only TO send a few "S
o. s." calls for help when the RISING
waters silenced their instruments
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