Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1914-06-05
934 BURIED BENEATH WAVES.
Go Down With Steamship Empress Of Ireland in the
St. Lawrence River.

Rimouski, Que, May 30-Nine hun
dred and thirty-four persons lost their
lives when the great Canadian Pacific
twin screw liner Empress of Ireland
was rammed amidships In thick fog
off Father Point in the st. Lawrence
and sunk by the Norwegian collier
Storstad.
Four hundred and three survivors
were picked up from floating wreck
age and two lifeboats.
And only IL of the saved are wom-
en-.
Gathered piecemeal from survivors
the horror 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 inside of 10 minutes from
the time she was struck
The wireless operators on the En-
press. sticking to their posts to the
last, had time only to send few IS.
O. S." calls for help when the rising
waters silence their instruments.
That silence told the rescuers miles
away more potently than a bugle that
doom had overtaken the ship.
Only six hours before this fateful
collision the passengers sang as a
goodnight hymn God Be With You
Till We Meet Again." played by the
Salvation army band on board.
The members of that band and most
of the 165 Salvationists were among
the lost.
Survivors Tell Of Fog.
1t was foggy, according TO survivors,
when the Empress of Ireland. steel
hulled, steel-bulkheaded ship of more
than 5000 tons, left Montreal at 4:o0
in the afternoon in command of H. G..
Kendall of the Royal Naval reserve.
one of the most skilled of transatlan-
tic navigators.
Forest fires also obscured the atmos-
phere and the big ship In charge of
a pilot, proceeded slowly on her way
to sea. At midnight the pilot aid left
near Father Point, shouting a merry
Bon Voyage" as he went down their
ladder to his waiting boat.
The darkness at this time was In
tense and the ship under the slowest
speed possible with steerageway held
her course Her decks were deserted
The passengers had all sought their
berths with no thought of impending
death.
Out of the darkness, on the port
side, soon after $3.50 in the morning
there doomed the little Norwegian col
lier, not half the size of the Empress
but fated to be her destroyer.
Not until the collier was almost
abeam of the big liner was the danger
known on either ship. The fog had
blotted out the lights as well as the
port and starboard lights of both
ships.
Quick orders trumpeted on both YES
sells were heard. But they came al
too late.
Strikes ship Amidshlp.
The steelpointed prov OF the Stor
stad struck the liner amidships ant
then forged aft, ripping and tearing
its way through the Empress OF Ire
land.
Clear to the stern of the Empress o.
ireland was this great steel shaving
cut from her side, from the top OF the
hull far below the water line. Into thai
rent the water poured with force Of 6
Niagara
The bow of the Storstad smashed
its way through berths on that side
OF the ship, killing passengers sleeping
in their berths and grinding bodies Il
pieces.
Reaching the stern of the big liner
thexStorstad staggered off in the dark
ness, her bow crumpled by the impact
Her commander was ready few min
utes later, when he found his shil
would float, to aid the crippled ant
sinking Empress, but he was too lat'
TO save the majority of those on board
Carried to Bottom.
The Empress of Ireland recoiled al
most on her starboard beam ends from
the blow of the collier and passenger
were flung from their berths agains
the walls of their staterooms.
Many were stunned and before the,
had time to recover were carried {,
the bottom with the ship.
The vast torrents pouring into tn
great cash on the port side. aft, file
the corridors and flooded every state
room abaft the midship section insid
OF soyr minutes
There was never a chance for tn
helpless ones in the after cabins an
stateroom of the liner. With her por
side laid open for half Its length fror
the midship section to the stern,
seive had more chance to float tha
the Empress of Ireland. and tn
trapped passengers in that after SCI
ton were doomed from the momen
the Storstad struck.
Keeling from the blow the ship b.
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