Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1918-03-01
WIRELESS ROOM
WRECK REFUGE

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GIANT WALLS OF WATER SWEEP
! SCORES TO DEATH AS FLORl-
EEL BROKE UP
st. Johns, N. F., Feb 26.-Graphi,
stories Of rescues from the wrecked
Red Cross liner F4orizel and further
details Of Sundays disaster were re
lated today by survivors who are re
covering here from the terrible hard
ships they endured before they were
saved by small boats from the New
Foundland steamer Prospero.
| When Captain Martin of the Florize
reached here he was in such state
OF collapse that he could make nc
statement.
SNOW CAUSE OF WRECK
Members of the crew said the mis-
take in reckoning which brought the
Florizel head on to the coast twenty
miles north of Cape Race, when all
hands thought she was we'll out to
sea, as she turned westward for Hall
fax. was due to running without the
patent log. The heavy snow, forming
an icy crust, or what the natives
! term 'Slob' as it struck the sea made
1T impossible to use the log to reg.
lister the steamers passage against
the storm. The steamship therefore
was navigated by dead reckoning and
as frequently happens in this region
of shifting currents of battling winds
the calculations were off, and the
F1orizel went the way of other brave
ships in this grave yard Of the north
Atlantic.
WAVE KILLS THIRTY
Many Of the passengers were swept
to death, half clad, in less than fifteen
minutes after the steamer struck the
rocks. Dozens of passengers trapped
below the decks were drowned in
their berths or at the foot of the
companionways by casting seas
which filled the saloon. Directed by
officers and crew who never for g
moment forgot the best traditions Of
the sea in looking after their passen-
gers, those who escaped from the sa-
loon sought safety on the bridge deck.
Two hours later a giant wall Of water
Numbered upon them, wrenching the
structure bodily from it's base and en-
quilting thirty men and women.
WIRELESS HOUSE is REFUGE
A short while later twenty persons
clinging desperately to the roof of the
smoking room met similar fate
The stout construction of the wire
less house saved most of the survivors.
Thirty-two persons piled into the
wireless room, packed so closely they
could neither sit nor lie down. They
were without food water or adequate
clothing. They were often engulfed
by boarding seas. Some Of them, bad.
ly injured by flying timbers and other
wreckage, died as they stood.
The pitiful manner in which mem
bers of families died one by one was
graphically described by survivors.
FAMILIES WIPED OUT
Three year old Betty Mum, daugh-
ter of John S. Mum, managing direc-
tor of the line, was swept overheard
before his eyes. The childs nurse
had been drowned in her berth. Mum
was swept to death with a group on
the bridge deck. Fred Butler, an
architect Of this city. who was going
to Florida with his wife. was support
ing her against the rush Of water
when one comber, towering about all
the others, snatche1 her from his
arms. He was carried along helpless
ly in the torrent, bringing up in
tangle Of wreckage. Bruised and
enmeshed he was unable to extricate
himself and persisted miserably.
SOLDIERS FIGHT BACK DEATH
One Of the most remarkable tales
Of survival by the strongest relates
the way in which Major Michael Sulli-
van. commander of the New Found.
land forestry battalion, and Ralph
Burnham, cadet of the Royal Flying
corps, fought back death literally with
their bare fists and brought with them
a naked Spanish stoker. Major Sulli-
van and the young subaItern contrived
a shelter in the vessels superstructurc
bunker through which ashes from the
stokehold are emptied into the sea.
There for twenty-six hours they main
tanned themselves. They nearly per
ished from the cold and kept warmth
in their bodies heating each other
Justify with their fists. Into their
precarious retreat crept one Of the
Spanish stokers, stark naked and
nearly dead from the shock of icy
water after the terrific heat Of the
fireroom. He was too numb to fight
for himself. So the major and the
corporal fought for him. From pun
melting themselves they took to pun
melting the stoker. They brought the
stoker through but he lies at hospi-
al here seriously ill. Burnham was
painfully frost bitten and Major Sui
ivan was seriously crippled when
Tying wreckage crushed one of his
legs.
TRAPPED in BERTH
Another terrible experience was
that of John Kelly, manager OF al
moving picture theater in this city.
He is the only one OF those trapped
below who lives to tell Of it. The first
rush Of water flooded his state room,
but the air pressure at the top of the
room kept down the water so that by
lying on the upper berth with his nose
to the ceiling he was able to escape
drowning. His greatest fear was that !
life savers might board the ship, take I,
of those on the decks and believing |