Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-06-04

away unOiS pOLcAtly tAdU q Euk1S luas
doum had overtaken the ship.
Only six hours before this fateful
collision the passengers sang as a
goodnight hymn God Be With You
Tell We Meet Again." played by the
Salvation Army band on board.
Last Call for Aid.
That last IS. o. s." wireless cry for
aid from the crippled and sinking
liner was trumpet call to those
ashore. It was heard by J. McWill-
Jams, the wireless operator at Father
Point, who repeated it along the coast
to point after point after he had tried
in vain to get another message from
the Empress
When he failed he knew that the
wireless was wrecked and the ship
probably sinking.
He repeated his fears to other wire
haste to save the passengers and crew
of the vessel.
On board the steamers Lady Evelyn
and Eureka that cry for aid was heard,
and getting the position of the En-
press of Ireland from Operator Will
their full crews to quarters and began
race TO save life.
That this race ended just too late
to save the majority of those on the
hapless liner is no fault of the Off
GERS and crews of these two rescuing
vessels.
Relief vessels and trains equipped
with doctors and nurses and every
medical and surgical supply we're
rushed to Rfmoush to care for the sur
vivors
Survivors Tell of Fog.
It was foggy, according to survivors,
when the Empress Of Ireland, a steel
hulled, steel-bulkheaded ship Of more
than eight thousand tons left Quebec
at 4:30 Thursday afternoon in com
mand of H. G. Kendall of the Royal
Naval Reserve, one of the most skilled
Of transatlantic navigators.
Forest fires also obscured the at
mosphere and the big ship, IN charge
of a pilot, proceeded slowly on her
way to sea. At midnight the pilot left
near Father Point, shouting q merry
bon voyage" as he went down lad
der 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 2:3O 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 "steaming" lights as
well as the port and starboard lights
of both ships.
Quick orders trumpeted on both
vessels were heard. But they came
all too late.
The steelpointed PROV Of the Stors-
tad struck the liner amidships and
then forged aft, ripping and tearing
its way through the Empress of Ire
land
Clear to the stern of the Empress of
Ireland was this great steel shaving
cut from her side, from the top Of the
hull to far below the water line. Into
that rent the water poured with the
force of Niagara.
The bow of the Storstad smashed
it's way through berths on that side
of the ship, killing passengers sleep
ing in their berths and grinding bodies
to pieces.
Reaching the stern of the big liner,
the Storstad staggered off in the dark
ness, her bow crumpled by the impact.
Her commander was ready few min
utes later, when he found his ship
would float, to aid the crippled and
Sinking Empress, but he was too late
to save the majority of those on
board
The Empress of Ireland recoiled al
most on her starboard beam ends from
the blow of the collier and passengers
were flung from their berths against
the walls of their staterooms.
Many were stunned and before they
had time to recover were carried to
the bottom with the ship.
The vast torrents pouring into the
great cash on the port side, eft, filed
the corridors and flooded every state
room abaft the midship section inside
of four minutes
There was never a chance for the
helpless ones in the after cabins and
staterooms of the liner. With her
port side laid open for half its length
from the midship section to the stern,
q sieve had more chance to float than
the Empress of Ireland, and the
trapped passengers in that section
were doomed from the moment the
Storstad struck.
Keeling from the blow the ship be-
gan to settle almost Immediately as
the water rushed into the big rent.
From the forward cabins, however,
men and women in night attire STUN
bled along the corridors and up the
companionway to the promenade deck
the deck below the one on which
the boats rested
Swarm to Deck.
Up they swarmed on deck in their
| night clothing to find the ship heeling
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