Lincoln County times. (Jerome, Idaho) 1911-1919, 1914-06-04
CANADIAN LINER
SUNK BY COLLIER
PASSENGERS DROWNED IN SIGHT
OF SHORE WITHOUT HAVING
A CHANCE TO ESCAPE.
OF Total of 1887 Persons on Board
But 433 Were Saved, Many of
Those Rescued Suffering Fright
full Injuries.

Rimouski, Quebec-Of a total of l
3S1 persons on board the Canadian
Pacific liner Empress of Ireland whei
she sailed May 2S from Quebec TO
Liverpool. 954 were lost when the lin
er was ramed by the Danish collie
Storstad and sank off Father Point il
the st. Lawrence river before day
light May 49,
OF the eighty-seven first-clas
passengers, the late figures show
Twenty-Five to have been saved. O.
the 159 in the second cabin, twenty
nine were rescued; of the us third
class passengers there are 1O1 sur
vivors, while 237 of the crew of 40:
were brought ashore.
These figures account for the 39f
survivors landed here and taken by
train to Quebec, where they arrived
Friday night. There remained here
thirty-seven rescued passengers. un.
classified, excepting the 433 known
survivors.
So deep was the cash in the strick.
en- liners side inflicted by the sharp
PROV of the heavy laden collier and
so fast was the thrush of the sea, that
although the first rescue steamer
reached the scene within twenty min-
utes after the meeting of the two YES
sells the liner already had gone
down.
The wireless could hardly have
worked to better effect or the re-
Spouse been prompter. Yet within
sight of shore, in land-locked waters.
with help close at hand, nearly LOCO
persons lost their lives when fog OBJ
scured the vision of the river naviga-
tors and the vessels, one virtually at
standst1ll as measure of precau-
ton, and the other, from all accounts.
moving at not more than moderate
speed, crashed together.
Investigation of the cause of the
disaster is to be started promptly.
The story of the Storstad, which, af-
ter picking up few of the survivors
and landing them here, resumed with
crumpled bow her way up the river.
has not been told. From the evidence
OF officers on the Empress. however.
the liner had come to halt in the fog
and was blowing her whistle as a
warning of her presence.
The fate of the smartly equipped
and speedy liner, the queen of her
fleet, seems to have been fastened by
the unintentional withdrawal of the
Storstad's bow from the cash she
had inflicted in the passenger vessels
side. AS the waters rushed in the
liner quickly inclined sidewise ct
sharp angle, the sea enveloped the
boilers and an explosion followed that
ripped apart still further the vessels
sides and sealed her doom.
Passengers who had crowded the
upper works, hoping for rescue. were
blown into the water, many beeing in
stantly killed. Others who had es-
capped death or injury in the splitter
ing of wood and smashing of steel,
met their fate below decks, without
a chance for their lives. Most of the
passengers were asleep when the crash
came. When the warning was sound
ed many could not realize that dan
ger was present, with the steamer still
in river waters, the surface calm and
the shore near at hand.
Some turned over in their berths.
survivors stories indicate, and started
to go to sleep again. But soon the
sudden listing of the steamer arous-
ed them, too late even to get out of
their staterooms, much less to gain
the decks and reach the lifeboats.
When the survivors were brought
ashore here by the rescue craft-the
Eureka and the Lady Evelyn, both
government vessels-the town opened
its arms to receive and succor them.
The French Canadians literally turned
their homes inside out to give every
possible aid to the scantily clad rem
can't OF the liners human cargo.
Captain Kendall of the Inflated
steamer stod on his bridge as the
ship went down. One of the boats
from the liner picked him I'D and
he directed its work of saving others
until the craft was loaded. The can
tain was injured in the crash and suf-
Tered from exposure, but his speedy
recovery is expected.