The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-01-31
s. REFUGEES REACH
LAND AFTER WRECK
N in e teen Passengers and
Twenty-Four of Monroe's
Crew Lost.
WOMEN ARE FRANTIC
Ship Sinks Ten Minutes Aft
er Nantucket Rams Her
Amidship.
WOMEN ARE FRANTIC

NORFOLK, Va, Jan. 31.-The
e1ghty-f1ve survivors of the steamer
Monroe, which was rammed and sunk
by the liner Nantucket, were brought
to port here last night. They tell the
story Of the forty-three persons who
went to their graves in the cold wat
ers of the Atlantic following the crash.
Nineteen Of the passengers lost their
lives. The other twenty-four were
members of the crew.
From the time the fated steamer
was struck. the survivors agree that
not more than ten minutes elapsed be-
fore the vessel was under the waves
Forget vaIuables.
Baggage, clothing and valuables
forgotten in the fight from the state
rooms of the sinking ship. Pajamas,
nightgowns, bathrobes and blankets
were the common apparel of those
who made the slippery appended deck
before the water trapped them below.
The shivering passengers were
herded into three lifeboats which were
unshipped from the crippled side of
the vessel. Most Of them were women.
trembling and quaking in the wet and
cold in their flimsy nightclothes.
With a chorus of shrieks the I'M
fortunate left the sinking ship and
crawled to the top of the deck in an
effort to keep out of the reach of the
waves.
Captain Johnson, Of the Monroe, and
all of his officers got away from the
sinking vessel and were rescued. All
of the officers and the crew Of both
the Monroe and the Nantucket were
held here to await an investigation Of
the catastrophe, which will be begun
Immediately by the federal steamboat
service.
Mrs. Thomas r. Harrington, Of
Bridgeport, Conn, and Lieutenant Le-
grand B. Curtis, U. 8. A., died on the
steamer Nantucket after their rescue.
Lieutenant Curtis was taken from the
water unconscious and badly injured,
and the only mark of Identification
found on the body was the name Cur
tbs" upon handkerchief taken by the
coroner from the pocket of the army
officers pajamas.
Woman Saved.
Mrs Harrison had been rescued by
her heroic husband, who was SWIM
ming with his wife's hair in his teeth
when picked up by boat from the
Nantucket. Harrington, himself over
come when lifted aboard the Nantuck-
ct, revived to find his wife dead. With
a blanket about him he renamed be-
side her body until it was, in his pres
ence, borne from the Nantucket. Mr..
Harrington will tomorrow accompany
his wifes body to the home of her par
ents in Norwalk, Conn.
Wireless Operator Kuehn gave the
first S. O. S. call, and after adjusting
a life preserver, which would doubt
less have saved his own life, removed
this from his body and put it on girl.
kuehn was lost His assistant, X. l..
Etheridge, was saved, and walked into
the arms OF his wife, who stood TO
greet him as the Nantucket docked
with the rescued this afternoon.
Miss Sally McCombs, a member OF
the Macaria Theatrical Company. was
in a lifeboat with West Indian ne
gro, who lost his head and grabbed
Miss NcComb's hair. He had to be
beaten almost into insensibility before
he would free the woman. c. II. Davis
told how a frenZied negro standing up
on the sinking Monroe asked another
negro for a pocket knife, cut his own
throat from ear to ear, and then fell
into the sea.
Thousands of people crowded the
river front to watch the Nantucket's
arrival at Norfolk. The ships decks
were crowded with survivors wrapped
in blankets. Doctors had been sent on
tugs to meet her, and there were also
aboard United States local steamboat
inspectors as we'll as lawyers repre-
senting both steamship companies.