The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-02-05
FORTY-SEVEN PERSONS DROWN.
When Two Steamships Collided in
the Heavy Fog Friday Morning.


morning when the Old Dominion lin
er Monroe was rammed amidships,
practically cut in two and sunk with
in ten minutes, 25 miles southeast
of Hog Island, by the Merchants and
Miners steamer Nantucket.
The AZ lost comprised % passen-
gers and "a members Of the crew,
according to official wireless reports
to the Old Dominion Line here.
Thirty-one passengers and 55 of the
crew were saved. Capt. Johnson Of
the sunken Monroe and all his Of
ticers but one we're among the saved.
Eighty-six survivors picked from
the sea and huddled en- the Nam
tucket, which was proceeding slowly
with a crumpled bow toward Nor
folk to-day, are the only ones who
know all the story of how the two
big ships. picking their way through
a blanket of fog-one bound north
and the other bound south-crashed
near the Winter Quartc! shoal light
ship.
FRAGMENTS of the wreck narrative
that reached here by wireless told
how the Nantucket, backed off, low
cred boats and began sweeping the
misty sea with her searcllights; then,
within ten minutes, the Monroe, her
passengers pitched out of berths in
night Clothes, went down.
In the swirling vortex of the sink
ing ship men shouted and women
screamed through the mist. The Mon
roe went down 50 quickly that there
was little time for launching boats,
and it is believed that the only ones
saved were those picked up at once
by the Nantucket.
Had No Chance for Lives.
The lost hadn't chance for their
lives. In the heavy fog that lay like
a blanket over the sea the Monroe
was picking her way northward. She
had left Norfolk at 7.40 last night
and at the time of the crash there
were on deck only those whose duty
kept them at their station. The
passengers were asleep in their state
rooms, except for those awake by the
siren, which blared its warning
through the dense mist.
Bound for Norfolk from Boston,
the Nantucket presented a similar
condition. On her decks were on
ly those whose duty kept them on
watch. On the bridge of the Mon.
roe was Capt. Johnson.
Thus, with the dense fog shutting
them in, their passengers asleep in
their staterooms and most of their
crews below decks, the two steamers
had drawn together during the night,
until the crash.
The shock of the collision galvan-
lied into instant activity the two
sleeping ships. From their sleep pas
sengers and crews were awakened
and rushed to the decks, cropping
their way through a wall of fog that
brought panic and despair to men
and women. They could not see
where to grope their way to boats
that were useless. The Monroe was
sinking like shot.
Sank in Ten Minutes.
Ten minutes from the time when
the Merchants and Miners boat and
the Old Dominion liner collided the
Monroe had disappeared beneath the
waves. There had not been time to
launch lifeboats; not time enough
even to bring a semblance of order
out of disorder, although the captain
and his officers, in that brief space
between the crunch of steel and the
last plunge of the Monroe, had kept
cool heads and had started their we'll
ordered routine for lowering the
boats.
On board the Nantucket no time
was lost in the work o.. rescue. The
Merchants and Miners boat stag
gered like a living thing from the
gaping hole in her bow, uncertain as
to the fate of his own ship, Capt.
Berry ordered out his lifeboats.
Manned by men undaunted, in the
swirling mist that shut them from
the view of their ship as soon as
they had touched the water, these
little craft began task that seemed
almost hopeless, that of picking up,
generally one at a time. the Mon
roe's people.
The Nantucket's searchlight played
in every direction, and by this means
many of those saved we're located;
others shouted to attract the atten-
ton of the rescue boats.
The shock-10 minutes from sleep
to struggle in the cold sea-and the
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