Jackson County journal. (Sylva, N.C.) 19??-19??, 1914-06-05
Empress Of ireland Sunk IN Coz
lision In the st. Lawrence
River.
ONLY 20 WOMEN ARE SAVED
Craft Goes Through center OF Vessel
and Rips Il Open From Mldshlps
60 etern-Men, Women and
Children Struggle for Life
While Waiting to Be
Rescued.


Quebec, May SEA train with S96
survivors Of the lost Canadian Pacific
steamship Empress of Ireland arrived
here from Rmouski shortly before
eight o'clock last Thursday night.
Thirty-seven wounded were left at
Rimoush.
These are all that live of the 1876
who sailed from here Thursday after
noon bound for Liverpool on the queen
vessel OF a famous feet. The ship
sailed out OF sunlit harbor into the
fog OF Father Point, where the rip
ping PROV OF the collier Storstad
struck the death blow In the dark.
The lost number 934.
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 wildly in hard figures than 1t
could ever be in words.
How the hundreds of strong men
Of the crew were saved while the hun
dreds 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 riveh 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
ters or to drag themselves to the list
Ing deck, where panic reigneds 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 fig
ures tell 1t. 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
the wreck.
/ Water Rushes In.
i As the collier backed away the wa
ter rush listed the Empress SO that
all her ufeboats on the portside were
useless.
The Storstad, moreover, having no
mortal damage and lying In river
that was ruf1ed only by the strewn
forms Of the drowning, the wounded
and the dead. picked up but few OF
those who were taken to the hospital
1t Rimeuski.
II was the government mail steam
or Evelyn and the pilot boat Eureka
which had to run all the way from Fa
tier Point, that did the big work OF
rescue.
A strict investigation Is to be imme
diately begun.
e There was no time"
That's the phrase used by every
survivor In trying to tell something o.
what happened. There was TO 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. II
| that time there were Nfeboats t.
, launch, panic to contend with. II
that time the wireless must fash tt
J calls tor help.
) The IS. O. s." picked up by man.
ships near and far brought respons
too late to save sven third OF the hu
!. man cargo.
Captain Kendall, one Of the mos
able and trusted Shippers Of the lin
IA man who had captured Docto
Crippen. the murderer. and had serve
tor many years without a mishap a
sea-stood on the bridge during thos
!. 10 minutes.
Gathered piecemeal from survivor
the horrors OF this wreck grows wit
the telling.
The doomed ones had little tim
even to pray. They were engulfed b
q the onrushing waters that swallowe
/ the big ship.
Q The wireless operators on the En-
press. sticking to their posts to tt
; last, had time only to send few q.
Z 9. S. : calls Tor help when the r1sin
uaters sflerced thei- instrument