The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-05-08
600 WERE SAVED?
Naval and Military Authorities
Rush to SuccOr.
Bodies Fill MOrgues and I'm
dertakerS' Establishments.

Queenstown May s, (via London
The various craft that yesterday af-
ternoon went out from mere TO the
scene of the Lusitania disaster re-
turned to Queenstown last night. All
of them brought survivors in greater
or less numbers. 1t is now estimated
here that 600 will be the outside num-
Der of those saved. No trace has been
found here of either Alfred G. Van
derbilt or Charles Frohman.
The latest rescue boats to arrive are
bringing mostly bodies of the dead
picked up from the water. The dead
now here number 124, many OF them
being woman.
Naval and military authorities of
Queenstown are rendering every as
sistance possible. The manager of
the Cunard line has taken hotel ac-
omnodations as we'll as rooms in
lodging houses, and here the survivors
are being sent.
Scene One of Horror.
Queenstown has never witnessed
such a scene before. The dead are
taking establishments. Numbers OF
motor cars have been brought into
service to take the injured to hospi-
tails. The less seriously injured are
being helped ashore by sailors and
soldiers.
Both men and women rescued, if
they are able to walk, refuse to re-
main in their hotels, haunting the
DOCKS, waiting ana watching LOT
friends and relatives.
Many of the survivors are still be-
wildered from their terrible expert
ences and their accounts of the sink
ing of the Lusitania are not entirely
clear. 1t is to be noted, however, that
all unite in >eulogiZing the manner in
which the ships officers behaved. Five
minutes after the Lusitania was hit
with the second torpedo amidships,
she had listed to such an extent that
he re g
be launched.
The work of getting many per-
sons as possible, for the most part
women and children, into the only
boats that could be got clear, was at
once undertaken by the captain and
officers and men of the Lusitania and
performed efficiently and with hero
ism.
Heartbrealxing Scenes.
The scene as the big liner went
down is described by the survivors as
heartrending beyond words Battling
for life, the passengers called to rela-
tives and friends, bidding each other
goodbye
The small boats, which had gotten
away from the liner, picked up many
survivors who, with life belts or cling
ing to wreckage, were floating on the
surface of the water. Soon the boats
all were crowded.
These boats were in turn picked up
by reScuing steamers coming at full
speed from SnOrS points, DuC IN many
cases four and more hours elapsed
before the -escIers reached the scene.
Often the only work left for the res
cue workers was to collect floating
bodies OF the dead Several passen-
gers were taken aboard trawlers, Sc
verely injured, only to die before they
could be transferred ashore.
Survivors in PrecariOuS State.
Many of the survivors are in a
precarious condition from immersion
and injuries received when the bottom
of the giant ship was almost literally
torn out by the explosion of two tor
pedoes and other explosions within
the vessels hull, presumably among
the ammunition in her cargo. All are
penni1ess and have only the clothing
they stand in. Tender women were
rescued after hours spent in the wa
ter buoyed up by IfebeltS and it is
feared many of them, will die as a
result of their experience.
The scenes in Queenstown are
Among the victims in
the town hall and in the temporary
established in the freight shed |
of the Cunard company, women pre- |
dominate. Some of them still have |
their babies in their arms, mother |
and child together in life as we'll as |
in death. The work of Identification |
is slow many of the victims appear |
to have no relatives among the res |
cued. Officials here say that there is |
no chance of any addi- |
tiona1 persons being rescued.