The New York herald., 1922-01-01
SEA TOURISTS FIGHT
RATS AS ship LISTS
Drinking Water Runs Out
in 40 Day Trip From New
York to Naples.
CREW FORMS A MUTINY
One Passenger Commits Sui
eide and Another Dies
From Fright.
ENGINES ARE WRECKED
ENGINES ARE WRECKED
The Pocahontas, Former
Prinzessin Irene, Condemned
Before Her Return.

For forty days the great liner had
been trying to get from New York to
Naples. She had had for weeks such
list that all the passengers had worn
the heels of their shoes down to the
uppers on one side while the other was
as good as new. For days they had
had to drink brackish water. Below
the ships officers stood over q mutt
nous crew with revolvers compelling
them to stick to their posts. The
water had come up so high in the
hold that the rats had fed to the pas
sengers' cabins. The passengers were
forced to manufacture harpoons Of
canes and umbrellas with knitting
needles lashed to their ends to defend
themselves from the rats. One man
committed suicide. Another died from
fright.
Fiction?
Ask Mrs. Belmont Tiffany; ask Mrs.
John Purroy Mitchell; ask G. A. Weld
haas. theatrical scenery artist; ask
Murray Smith, the composer; ask ex-
senator John +. Shafroth of Denver;
ask Raymond Havens of the Boston
Symphony-ask any of the 270 cabin
passengers of the United States Mail
steamship Pocahontas. returning now
from European vacations upon which
that vessel took them last summer.
Fact Versus Fiction.
Ever so often up pops the chain of
events that proves the assertion that
fact is stranger than fiction.
t,N-pnf for the itgilW celebrated long
arm of circumstance passengers of the
Pocahontas believe they probably would
never have lived to tell this tale.
Seven years ago one of the crack
liners of the North German Lloyd was
called the Prinzessin Irene. and for
second engineer she had naturallZed
American of German birth named Fritz
Steinfelder. Steinfelder probably knew
more about the engines of the Prinzessin
Irene than any other man that ever
stepped aboard her. He lived. ate. slept
al had his being with her engines, and
~ nurse the perfection with which they
urged the great vessel through the seas
was the joy OF his life.
Then came the great war. The United
States had not yet entered. and Stein
fielder left his wife and children here
and went to Germany TO fight. He was
assigned TO aviation. When the Crown
Prince made his drive through verdun
for Paris a Frenchman shot down Stein-
felder's plane. and Stelnfelder was taken
prisoner. He spent the rest of the war
In French prison camp in Algiers.
out of Prison PennfIess.
When he stepped from prison at the
end of the conflict he had not a sou.
He had nothing but the clothes on his
back and a determination to return 20
his family In America.
Accordingly he tramped for weeks
along the Mediterranean shore of Africa
and finally was able 10 ship as n sea-
man on sailing vessel TO Naples There
he slowed away on the Princess Ma
toixa for America. Midocean he was
discovered. and at Boston was trans
ferTed. with dozen other stowaways,
TO the Pocahontas, formerly the Prin-
zessin Irene, 20 be returned TO Naples
Half way across the Atlantic the mu-
tinous engine room crew wrecked the
engines. Four engineers were in irons.
Bevolvers kept others at work. but no
one appeared to be able TO repair the
engines and the Pocahontas wallowed
prees rl~7sly. Hope was about aban-
doned. when who should appear but Old
Man Circumstance himself. with his
long arm leading Steinfelder before
CAPTAIN Patterson.
10 make u IOnE SIOIy snort. StclIl-
fielder repaired the engines and went
into Naples in his old lob as second en-
Rineer and with o srr-si fortune in the
nature of a purse presented 70 him by
the passengers.
But all this is ahead OF the story. as
old yesterday by Mr.. Weidhaas. at his
studio, SOS West Twenty-ninth street,
who selected the cruise OF the Pocahon-
tas as a means of celebrating his silver
~~~o1Jfsao wxyfil. a
haas and their young son Teddy.
The Pocahontas sailed from New
York last May. when shipping was ham,
pcred by strikes. She had picked up a
nondescript crew, many OF them sup
posedIy strike breakers. but as de-
veloped, about as troublesome bunch
OF men as ever went over y gang
plank.
'As soon as the rocahontas left her
pier the trouble began" said Mr.. Weld
has. by the time she was In the
middle OF the Hudson River she de-
velopcd an alarming list and engine
trouble began. She anchored for re-
pairs. and the next day had to re-
place a part OF her crew with new men.
after a twenty-four hour delay the
ship got under way, but the next morn
ing the passengers awoke TO find her
standing still. with her engines broken
down and distress signals up. When
some of the crew had been arrested and
the engines were repaired we started
again. but the next morning we found
ourselves anchored Mt Marthas Vine
yard with the engines on the blink
again. Two days later we managed to
get to Boston.
Eight Days I'm Boston.
"All the passengers OF the Pocahontas
ere authorities on Boston now. We
stayed there eight days. Then when
we started we bumped into a pier and
aovn went the anchor for another day.
s-ghey made us do a twenty-miie trial
spin before we could get out clearance
papers. and the engines stopped twice
On that. our list was stil with us. They
lei us go. but why. God only knows.
I'VE were becoming aware by this
lime that the trouble was more with
ne crew than the boat IL was un-
pleasant. Go say the least, but the cap
tain wouldn't hear TO going back.
by the time we were a couple of
fnyp out OF Boston our enriDea had