Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-06-10

Montreal, June 5.-There was an un-
expected development in the Empress
OF Ireland disaster Wednesday when
the Storstad's owners entered a coun-
ter claim against the Canadian Pacific
railroad for $4,000 damages due to
the collision, charging that the EN-
press was at fault and alleging negli-
gent navigation on it's part. This will
make the case still more complicated.
Rimouski, Que, May 31-One thou
said and twenty-seven persons lost
their lives Friday morning when the
great Canadian Pacific twin screw lin
er Empress Of Ireland was rammed
amidships in a thick fog off Father
Point in the ST. Lawrence and sunk
by the Norwegian collier Storstad.
Four hundred and fifty-two survi-
vors were picked up from floating
wreckage and two lifeboats.
The doomed ones had little time
even to pray. They were engulfed by
the onrushing waters that swallowed
the big ship inside of nineteen min
utes from the time she was struck
The wireless operators on the EN-
press, sticking to their posts to the
last, had time only to send few IS.
o. S." calls for help when the rising
waters silenced their instruments.
That silence told the rescuers miles
away more potently than bugle that
doom had overtaken the ship.
Only six hours before this fateful
collision the passengers sang as a
goodnight hymn God Be With You
Till We Meet Again." played by the
Salvation Army band on board.
The members of that band and most
of the los Salvationists were among
the lost.
1t was foggy, according to survivors,
when the Empress of Ireland, a steel
hulled. steel-bulkheaded ship of more
than eight thousand tons, left Mon
treal at 4:30 Thursday afternoon in
command of H. G.. Kendall of the
Royal Naval Reserve, one of the most
skilled of transatlantic navigators.
Forest fires also obscured the at
mosPhere, and the big ship, in charge
of pilot, proceeded slowly on her
way to sea. At midnight the pilot aide
left near Father Point, shouting a
merry Bon Voyage" as he went down
their ladder to his waiting boat.
Not until the collier was almost
abeam OF the big liner was the danger
known on either ship. The fog had
blotted out the lights as we'll as the
port and starboard lights of both ships
Quick orders trumpeted on both YES
shells were heard. But they came all
too late.
The steel-pointed prov of the Stor-
stad struck the liner amidships and
then forged of. ripping and tearing its
way through the Empress of Ireland.
Clear to the stern Of the Empress Of
ireland was the great steel shaving
cut from her side, from the top of the
hull far below the water line. Into
that rent the water poured with the
force of a Niagara
The bow of the Storstad smashed its
way through berths on that side of the
ship, killing passengers sleeping in
their berths and grinding bodies to
pieces.
The Empress of Ireland recoiled al
most on her starboard beam ends from
the blow of the collier and passengers
were flung from their berths.
From the forward cabins, however,
men and women in night attire STUN
bled along the corridors and up the
companion way to the promenade deck.
Men and women, shrieking, praying,
crying for aid that was fated to arrive
too late, fell over ole another in that
last struggle for fife on board the
doomed Empress of Ireland.