The Forrest City times., 1914-06-05
BURIED BENEATH WAVES
Go Down With Steamship Empress of Ireland in the
 St. Lawrence River.

gan to settie almost immediately as the water rushed into the big rent.
 From the forward cabin, however, men and women in night attire stum- bled along the corridors and up the companion way to the promenade deck-the deck below, the one on which the boats rested
 Swarm to Deck.
 Up they swarmed on deck in their night clothing to find the ship heeling away to port and the deck slanting at a degree that made 1t almost impos- sible to stand even clinging to rail. ings.
 Men and women, shrieking. praying. crying for aid that was fated to arrive too late, fell over one another Tn that last struggle for life on board the doomed Empress of Ireland
 Frenzied mothers leaped overheard with their babies in their arms. Oth- CTS knelt on deck and tried to pray in the few moments left to them Some were flung overheard by the heeling of the sinking ship and some broke their legs or arms in trying to reach the lifeboats.
 Above the din of the struggle on the great promenade deck could be heard Captain Kendall shouting commands for the launching of the lifeboats. Sev- eral were laun shed in the 19 minutes that the ship floated There was no time to observe tho rule Women first" in this disaster, for those nearest the boats scrambled to places in them.
 But even as they were being launched, while the wireless still was calling "S o. S." there came terrific explosion that almost rent the ship in twain
 Ships Boilers Explode. It was the explosion of the boilers | struck by the cold water. A .geyser of | water shot upward fro.n the midship section, mingled with fragments of | wreckage, that showered down upon | the passengers still clingng to the rails forward and upon those strug- | gling In the water.
 The explosion destroyed the last hope of the ships floating until succor l could arrive, for the shock had | smashed the forward steel bulkhead walls that had up to then shut out the torrents invading the after part. | The water rushed forward and the Empress of Ireland went swiftly to her doom, carrying down with her hun dreds of passengers who stood on her slanting deck, their arms stretched up- ward and their last cries choked in the engulfng waters. Intense darkness covered the waters when the Empress of Ireland made that final plunge, but the fog lifted few minutes later and then came tho first faint streaks of dawn.
 It lighted waters strewed with wreckage and struggling passengers. who strove to keep afioat
 The crippled Storstad, which had wrought this tragedy of the waters. had lifeboats out picking up as many survivors as possible.
 The gray dawn revealed the govern ment steamers Lady Evelyn and Eureka near the scene of the disaster and hastening to aid
 Some of those in the water tride to swim to the Eureka as she neared tho point where the Empress had gone down. One woman, wearing only an undervest. swan to the Lady Evelyn, and was helped on board, but died of exhaustion soon afterwards
 The Work of Rescue
 The work of rescue still was going on when the sun arose in cloudless sky
 Men and women were clinging to spars and bits of broken blanks. Many of the survivors were injured. Some had broken legs, others fractured arms and still others had been injured internally in that last mad rush to get away from the sinking liner
 Women clinging with one hand to little ones, while with the other they tried to keep clutch on pieces of wreckage. were picked up by the l:fe- boats and carried on board the res cuing vessels.
 Captain Kendall, dazed and unable to give any coherent account of tho loss of his ship, was found cltnging to a broken spar.
 The Empress of Ireland was twin screw steamer of S,208 tons burden. She was 45s feet long and equipped with modern apparatus not only for wireless work but for submarine sig mailing. The liner was built in 19o3 and three years later set irecord on a run from Quebec to Liverpool.
 The steamer was one of the most popular vessels in the service of the Canadian Pacific railway and always carried large number of passengers. She has piled for several years be- tween St. John and Quebec and LjvAN mol