McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1914-06-05
Empress Of ireland Sunk in Col
lisi0n in the st. Lawrence
River.
ONLY 20 WOMEN ARE SAVED
Craft Goes Through Center Of Vessel
and Rips 1t Open From MIdships
to stern--Men, Women and
Children Struggle for Life
While Waiting to Be
Rescued.

Quebec, May 3o.--A train with 39s
survivors of the lost Canadian Pacific
steamship Empress of Ireland arrived
here from Rimouski shortly before
eight o'clock last Thursday night.
Thirty-seven wounded were left at
Rimouski.
These are all that live Of the 1875
who sailed from here Thursday after
noon bound for Liverpool on the queen
vessel Of q famous feet. The ship
sailed out of a 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 grinly,
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 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
ters or to drag themselves to the list
ing deck, where panic reigned, where
shrieks Of terror and of pain made an
inferno under the shrouding mist. The
bGttle 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
ares tell 1t. They alone can.
One Of the matters on which the
rescued agree is that Captain Ander-
son Of the 6torstad 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.
As the collier backed away the wa
ter rush listed the Empress SO that
all her lifeboats on the portside were
useless.
The Storstad, moreover. having no
mortal damage and lying In river
that was ruffled 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
at Rimouski.
II was the government mail steam
or Evelyn and the pilot boat Eureka,
which had to run all the way from Fa-
ther Point, that did the big work of
rescue.
A strict investigation is to be imme-
aiately 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 we're lifeboats to
launch, panic to contend with. In
that time the wireless must fash Its
calls for help.
The IS. o. s." picked up by many
ships near and far brought response
too late to save even third Of the hui
man cargo.
Captain Kendall, one of the most
able and trusted shippers Of the line
IA man who had captured Doctor
Crippen, the murderer, and had served
for many years without mishap at
sea--stood on the bridge during those
10 minutes.
Gathered piecemeal from survivors
the horrors Of this wreck grows with
the telling
The doomed ones had little time
even to pray. They were engulfed by
the onrushing waters that swallowed
the big Ship
The wireless operators on the EN-
press. sticking to their posts to the
last, had time only to send few IS.
0. S." calls for help when the rising
waters silenced their instruments