New-York tribune., 1918-10-16
Otranto Death List
Now Numbers 527:
356 Are Americans
One Officer of u. S. Army
Among the Victims of
Transport Disaster

ISLAY, Scotland, Oct. 13 (By The
Associated Press ).-According to fig
ures compiled here to-day and care
fully checked with army records, the
total loss of life as result of the dis
aster to the transport Otraato is sgt.
these figures represent one American
officer, Second Lieutenant Eernie H.
Coffmann, of Robinson, ILL.,; ;;56 Amer
lean troops, 164 of the Otr anto's Of
hcers and crew and six members of the
crew of a French fishing boat.
Up to tonight 266 bodies had been
recovered. Only two were found to-
day as the result of a change in the
wind, which now is blowing strongly
Oft shore, and, according to .seafaring
men, may sweep the bodies far out to
sea. The two bodies found to-day were
of an American soldier and a chief
petty officer of the Otranto. The un-
identified dead include two Asiatics.
The work Of recovering the remain
ing bodies of victims of the disaster
washed up on the shore of Islay Sound
is extremely difficult, owing to the
rugged coast and the tons of wreckage
which fills every crevice in the rocks.
Kelp Imprisons Bodies
A British army labor battalion has
begun to remove the Otranto wreckage,
piled in enormous masses in many deep
gullies on this savage shore. Only by
much laborious and systematic work
can the bodies believed to be buried
under the wreckage be recovered, and
it may possibly be several weeks be-
fore the task is completed. Other bod
les are imprisoned in rocky inlets and
great beds of kelp or tanglewced as
the islanders term it.
The Otranto went to pieces on
great rock a mile out, almost at the
very entrance to Machir Bay, whose
sandy beach might have offered haven
to the disabled transport. A year ago
small steamer stranded in a storm
on that beach intact, without the loss
of single life. Here over a hundred
bodies came ashore and were recovered
easily.
The storm that ragged at the time Of
the loss Of the Otranto was so terrific
that wreckage was carried by huge
waves over the cliffs a quarter of a
mile inland
Illinois Boy Saved
OCA CA6C0HC 4tAoS0Oucluy NuShy 1llluOlS
boy, was hurled by giant comber into
one of the deepest rocky ravines among
grinding timbers, broken boxes and
portions of the Otranto's cargo He
climbed out with scarcely a scratch and
with strength so unimpaired that he
was able to help two others get beyond
the reach of the pursuing waves.
Private Robert F. Shawd, of Leba-
non, Penn, had still more remark
able experience. According to Shawd
two of his brothers were on the Tus-
cania and both were saved. They wrote
urging him to learn to swim. "If had
not taken their advice" Shawd said, II
would not be alive to-day" He tried
to jump from the Otranto to the de-
stroyer, but fell into the sea. Event
ually he was thrown up on Islay.
Several survivors say the cotton
padded collar of their life preservers
saved them from fatal blows by pieces
of wreckage, and they believe if the
heads of the swimmers had been sim
ilarly protected many others probably
would have escaped. This theory is
supported by the bodies found. The
consensus of opinion is that far more
were killed by timbers than were
drowned.