The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-02-04
STEAMER STRUCK AMIDSHIPS
FRIDAY SINKS IMMEDIATELY
Went down like A SHOT
Men and Women Scream in Whirhng
Vortex of the Sinking Ship
SearchIight Sweeps Ghastly Sea
Aiding Rescue Work While Wire
less Calls for Help.

Forty-one persons lost their lives
In the icy waters of the Atlantic at 2
o'clock Friday morning when the Old
Dominion liner Monroe, bound for
New York from Norfolk, Va, was
rammed amidships, practically cut in
two and sunk within ten minutes, 25
miles southeast of Hog Island, by the
Merchants and Miners steamer Nan
tucket.
The forty-one lost comprised 1s
passengers and % members Of the
crew, as yet unidentified, according to
official wireless reports to the Old
Dominion line Offices at Norfolk.
Thirty-nine passengers and sixty
Of the crew were saved. Captain
Johnson Of the sunken Monroe and
all his officers but one were among
the saved. the lost officer was Sec
ond Engineer Gately.
Ninety-nine survivors picked from
the sea and huddled on the Nantuck-
ct, which was proceeding slowly with
a crumpled bow toward Norfolk Fri
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 Quarter Shoal Lightship.
Fragments Of the wreck narrative
that reached Norfolk by wireless told
how the Nantucket, backed of, low
cred boats and began sweeping the
misty sea with her searthlights, 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
Monroe went down so quickly that
there was little time for launching
boats and It's believed that the only
ones saved were those picked up at
once by the Nantucket.
OF the 5S passengers and 81 sailors
aboard the Monroe, 80 were rescued
and were on the Nantucket, which
with crumpled bow, was expected to
reach Norfolk Friday afternoon. A
dense fog that 'enveloped the sea and
the panic that followed the collision
made rescue work hazardous. With
water pouring into the doomed liner
Monroe, her frightened passengers
rushed to the decks and groped help
lessly about in the dense fog.
Many hurled themselves overheard.
The Nantucket's boats had been low
cred almost Immediately after the
collision, and guided by the cries Of
the Monroe's passengers and crew
who had taken the desperate chance
Of leaping into the icy sea, they press
ed the work Of rescue. Searchlights
that were aimed through the wall Of
fog were of feeble help.
Meanwhile the wireless began hiss
ing out it's call for aid. The revenue
cutter Onondaga, cruising of the Vir-
ginia capes, heard, and under forced
drafts sped northward. From her
Norfolk berth the wrecking tug I. j.
Merritt soon was under way. The
Old Dominion liner Hamilton, not far
from where the Monroe went down,
was headed for the Nantucket and
other ships turned their prows to
the rescue.
". H. Ingram Of Sumter, S. c.,
was among the list Of passengers lost
In the sea disaster of the Virginia
coast early Friday. He was State
agent for the Georgia-Carolina In
vestment company, with offices In
Columbia. His widow and an adopt
ed daughter, Of Sumter, survive him.
him.