Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1914-06-05
934 PERISH
SINKS
Goes Down in IA
Minutes,
1887 SOULS ABOARD
Empress Of Ireland KeelS Over
When Ramm9d by Collier.
LIFEBOATS WERE USELESS

Only 433 Are Known to Have Been
Saved, Only Few Being Passen'
gers-Many Salvation Army Dele.
gates Are Lost--Twenty-one Die At.
ter Being Picked Up.
Carrying to death 934 of her passen.
gers and crew, the steamship Empress
of Ireland was sunk in the ST. Law
renee river twenty miles off Rinlouski,
Quebec, by the Swedish collier Stor'
stad, in collision in dense fog.
There are only 433 known survivors
of the tragedy, which. 1t is feared,
rivals in the toll of death that attend.
ing the sinking of the huge acean
greyhound, the Titanic.
Not more than 159 of the GS7 pas
sengers of the Empress Of Ireland
were saved. Most of the first class
passengers perished, those rescued be-
ing mainly either steerage passengers
or members of the crew. Twenty-one
of those rescued died after they had
been taken from the water. The 399
survivors were taken to Rimouski by
the government vessels Lady Evelyn
and Eureka, whose wireless operators
heard the last despairing IS. o. S."
signal from the ill-fated vessels oper'
ator and dashed to the rescue from
Father Point, where they were lying
at the time.
When the rescuing steamships ar.
rived at the scene of the collision they
found a spectacle somewhat similar
to that which greeted the vessels that
hastened to the aid of the Titanic's
survivors.
The Empress Of Ireland had sunk
within fourteen minutes after being
rammed and only the tops of her fun.
nels and her mastheads were to be
seen above the surface of the st. Law.
renee river.
In the lifeboats were nuddled the
survivors, dazed and moaning, some
of them dying of injuries. Few could
give anything but incoherent, almost
hysterical, accounts of what had hap.
pened.
Crushed by the collision, injured in
their efforts to leap into the lifeboats,
or suffering from immersion in the
Icy water and exposure in the life.
boats in which they escaped, the sur.
vivors presented pitiable condition.
Some had arms or legs broken and
nearly all were clad only in their night
clothes.
The bodies of twenty-one persons,
who died after they were taken from
the water. were sent ashore and were
placed side by side on the wharf, with
their faces covered.
Hundreds of residents of the town
hurried to the quay, and under the dt
rection of the mayor gave aid to the
exhausted and suffering survivors.
Every physician in Rimouski hurried
to the water front. Many of those in
jured were taken to the homes of the
townspeople and provided with food
and clothing.
Carrying seVenty-seven first cabin
passengers, 206 in the second and 5O4
in the steerage, the Empress of Ire
land left Quebec at half-past four
o'clock on Thursday for Liverpool and
at a quarter before two o'clock in the
morning ran into dense fog twenty
miles off Father Point, ITS miles down
the st. Lawrence from Quebec.
lieutenant H. G. Kendall of the
Royal Naval Reserve, commander of
tic Impress of Ireland, reports that
the steamer had stopped when the
Storstad, Swedish collier, bound for
Quebec, struck her amidships on the
port side.
The Storstad literally tore her way
almost to the Empress of lreland's
propeucrs, leaving a rent through
which the water poured in such a
deluge that she sank before many of
the passengers were aware of what
had happened.
The stricken vessel sank as II lead.
An explosion, apparently originating
In her engine room, hastened her end
and those persons who were able to
make their way from their cabins
found themselves on a perilous slant
ing deck. Many leaped and were
drowned. Others were fortunate enough
to grasp driftwood or were picked up
by lifeboats.
The rescued, fighting their way to
the lifeboats from the careening deck
clinging desperately to the rails OF
leaping, overheard, broke their arms
or legs or otherwise injured them
selves so badly that twenty-one died
after being picked up.
Brief wireless calls for help sent out
by the Marconi operator of the EN-
press of Ireland were heard by the
pilot boat Eureka at Rimouski, ter
miles from the scene, and the Eureka.
followed by the Lady Evelyn, NAL
Why not sAii some Of those old
things Won have laid aside Some
l.