The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-26
Graphic Stories of Rescue and
Terrible Hardships.
Many Aboard Fated Florizel
Drowned in Berths.
DRENCHED BY TOWERING WAVE
30 on Bridge Deck Hurled Into
Sea by Wall of Water.
Crowded Into Wireless Room,
Many Died in Upright Position.

st. Johns, Feb. 26.-Graphic stories
OF rescues from the wrecked Red
Cross liner Florizel and further details
Of sundays disaster were related to-
day by survivors who are recovering
here from the terrible hardships they
enCured before they were saved by
small boats from the Newfoundland
steamer Prospero.
When Captain Martin Of the Florlzei
reached here he was in such state
OF collapse that he could make no
statement.
Members of the crew said the mis-
take in reckoning which brought the
FIorizel head on into the coast twenty
miles north OF Cape Race when all
hands thought she was well out TO
sea as she turned westward for Hail
fax. was due to running without the
patent log. The heavy snow, FORMING
an icy crust or what the naUVes~terln
.'slob' it struck the sea- nlaoe ~
imuossible to use the log to register
me steamers progress against the
storm.
..Dcad Reckoning Was Fatal
Tn. steamship, therefore. was navi-
gated by dead reckoning, ana as lre-
ouently happens in this region OF
shifting currents and battling Wlnos'
ha
F'lorinel went the way of other brave
ehins in this graveyard of the north
Atlantic"
MANY of the passengers were swept
n death half clad in less than flfteeh
mir utes after she struck the rocks
Doz.rls of passengers trapped oeloW
5ecls were drowned in their berthS
ar al the foot of the companion ways
nv casca ding seas which filled the
saloon.
never for a momnet forgot the oest
tradition of the sea in looking after
their ps ssengers. those VINO escaped
go, the saloon sought safety on the
1~{doe deck Two hours later a giant
wall of water Numbered upon them,
xSrenching the structure bodlly from
its base and engulfing thirty men ana
women
Twenty Swept From RoOf-,
sa,ort while later, twenty person MS
clinging desperately to the ROOF OF the
smoking room, met a similar fate.
The stout construction of the wire
less house saved most of the SUI
,-ix-ors. Thirty-two persons piled into
the wireless room. packed SO closely
they could neither sit nor lie down
They were without food, water or ade-
ouste clothing They were often en-
-,l1fed by boarding seas. Some or
them, badly injured by flying tmbers
and other wreckage. died as they
stood.
The pitifuI manner in which mem
hers of families died, one by one,- was
graphically described by survivors.
Sos Little Daughter Carried Away.
Thre, wear old Betsy Mum. daugh-
ter of !ohn s. Mum, managing direc-
too of the line. was swept overheard
before mis- eyes. The child,s nurse
haG been drowned in her berth. Mum
L. y, n he cprnI n
or the bridge deck. Fred Butler, an
architect of this city, who was going
{, Florida with his wife. was support
in.- her against the rush of water
when one comber. towering above all
the others, 'snatched her from his
arms. - He was carried along help
lessIy in the torrent. bringing up in
a tango of wreckage. Bruised and
enmeshed he was unable to extricate
himself and persisted miserably.
Fought Death Twcnty-Six Hours.
one OF the most remarkable tales of
the survival of the strongest relates
tho way in which Maj. Michael Sulli-
van. commander of the Newfound-
land forestry battalion. and Ralph
Burnham- cadet of the Royal Flying
corps fought back death lily
with their bare fists and brought thru
with. them a naked Spanish stoker.
Major Sullivan and the young subal-
tern contrived to shelter themselves in
the upper section of the bunker thru
which ashes from the stokehold are
sTlptied into the sea. There, for