The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-05
VICTIMS OF BLIZZARD
 BROUGHT INTO PORT
69 Dead and 50 Injured Reach St. John After
 Disaster

| St. Johns N. F., April Amid silence
 like q funeral hush the scaling steamer
 Bellsventure steamed slowly up the har- bor at dusk today bearing 69 of the dead
 and 90 of the crippled survivors of the l disaster that overlook hunters from the
 steamer Newfoundland on the ice fioes
 near Belle Isle Straits in last Tuesdays blizzard
 1 Thirteen of the living were removed to a hospital in a critical condition. Several others were seriously i'll and all but one of the remainder bore scars of their S hours exposure in the Arctic gale in which 77 of their companions met death One uniniured survivor was stricken blind
 after being picked up, but it is believed
 he will recover his sight.
 Five thousand persons, many of them relatives of the victims, had lined every vantage point along the harbor front all day waiting for the Bellaventure's ar , rival, and for some news of the missing sealer, Southern Cross. carrying ITO men. | Not word has been heard from the lat ter vessel since she was seen driving be- | fore the storm Tuesday morning. Hope
 aroused by reports that she had made 1 harbors were dashed when iDvestiga tI.n proved an error in identification had been made
 1 There is still faith in many quarters that | tit ooutilciH NlOSS, tht StOul SlediltT LiidI
 Lieutenant Shackleton. the British ex-
 porer, used on one of his Antarctic ex- plorations. weathered the blizzard. No
 wreckagc has been reported.
 1 The Southern Cross is slow ship, able
 to steam only five knots an hour under
 the best conditions, and if driven far | by the gale 1t Is pointed out 1t would
 take her sometime to work back into
 communication with the rest of the fleet.
 Bennett Directs Work l In the absence of Governor Davidson
 and Premier Morris, the acting premier
 Mr. Bennett. directed the work of car ] ing for the dead and wounded Every | physician and nurse in the city volun-
 teered for service. They were aided by | squads from the naval reserve ship Ca- l lypso and various military organizations The new Grenfeil institute was turned | into morgue. The disaster which over took the Newfoundland hunters was un-
 avoidabIe according to cantain Randell
 of the Bellaventure. Tuesday dawned somewhat overcast. but with no hint Of blizzard conditions, he said. so that 1t was 1 quite permissible to put men on the ice after seals. Four ships were within sight of him-the Newfoundland, Stephano F'lorizel and Bonaventure. These had total of 1000 men the ice. His own l hunters had encountered small body l oi oruiS ScOii ditci lco'iHS tHt SIip anu were out for only an hour.
 The storm broke with typical Arctic sud denness. The hunters from the Bona venture and the Florizel were fortunate enough to reach their ships safely The Stephano's men. being near the F1orizel hurried board her. The Stephano,
 meanwhile. steamed toward the spot where her crew had been seen before the snow set in. This took her away from !, the Newfoundland's group, who were far from their own. As soon as the Stephano | was notified by the Florizels wireless of | the safety of her men she headed back
 into the storm to pick up the Newfound- lands hunters.
 Impossible to See Ahead 1 It was impossible to see ships length
 ahead into the snow curtain. and when | the Stephanos captain thought he was
 within mile of the stranded hunters he l lay to and kept his whistle going in the
 hope that they might be guided toward 1 her.
 l As hours passed and not man reported
 he concluded all had reached their own lship. But the Newfoundland had no wire- s---->-~--~>--r >~--. ->- -~ tContinsed on Pare Tweives