Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-07-24
FOUR MEET DEATH
~" H'@Ha HHi'i
As SHIPS COLLIDE; .
BOO ARE RESCUED
Coast Steamer Boston, Bad
Iy Crippled, lowed Into
Newport and Beached
j CEI%Ao "A COPY,
81 A YEAR.

NEW YORK, July 22.-Eight hun
dred and seventy-two lives were saw
ed early today by a rescue fleet
that fastened to pick up lifeboats
from sinking steamer during a
Long Island sound fog. OF those
saved 692 were passengers.
! A few hours after the new sound
steamer Boston had been rammed by
the tanker Swift Arrow off Point
Judith, r. l., four sound steamers
and the tanker had gathered up the
passengers awakened from their
sleep, and sailed for New York, Fall
River, Mass, and Newport, r. I.
Three passengers were killed In
the crash and an injured passenger
died later in a Newport hospital.
The Boston was beached off New;
port but the tanker escaped serious
injury.
NEWPORT, r. l., July 22.-(By
the Associated Press.) - Three pas4
sengers-two men and one woman,
are known to have been killed and
a fourth was fatally injured wheg
the oil tanker Swift Arrow crashed
into the Eastern steamship linef
Boston off Point Judith late last
night. Their bodies were pinioned
in the wreckage of two stateroom4
IyyI1 4
Newport harbor and beached there
today, and later were brought ashore
on a navy tug.
Identification of the bodies was
impossible here. They were caught
behind ships plates that had beef
crushed in, and it was necessary ia
cut the plates with gas torches be-
fore the bodies could be extricated.
Several passengers are known Il
have been injured. C. Copeland, o
Brookline, Mass, was rushed to thii
port on board the coast guard cuttet
Acushnet. and taken to a hospital
where he died few hours later.
The woman killed in her state
room was probably Mrs. c. Cope
land, of Brookline, Mass, wife q
the passenger who died from i'm
juries in the hospital here today
The coroner said that while identifj
cation was not absolute he believed
the woman was Mrs. Copeland.
Passengers Taken Off
Passengers and crew were taket
off in lifeboats and transferred tt
rescuing steamers and naval vessel
; which hurried to the scene afte,
receiving the Boston's radio calf
for help. A few were landed he'll
by the steamer Commonwealth,
which proceeded to Fall River witt
other survivors. A large nunnbd
went aboard the Fall River line,
Priscilla due in New York this after
noon. Among those on the Priscilli
is the purser Of the Boston, whit
Z took with him the only availabH
passenger list.
The Swift Arrow, apparently UNI
damaged, stood by the Boston until
/ daylight. Then she proceeded to an
1 anchorage outside Newport, whenct
she sent ashore nine boats contains
ing passengers from the Boston. Thu
Swift Arrow was bound from Tux
pam, Mexico, for Fall River, will
oil.
The collision came in dense fog
The tanker struck the Boston amid
ships on the port side, cutting a
feet high, three feet above the watei
line. Several state rooms vert
crushed in, and it was there that the
casualties occurred.
Passenger Describes Wreck
Half an hour afterwards thu
steamer appeared to be ~c.tling with
her engine room filled with Watef
and her power and lights gone.
"The work Of lowering the boat4
was begun then" said James F;
Rooney, Maiden, Macs, one of the
passengers who landed here. "Wom
ell and children went first in acI
cordance with the law of the seal
and then the men passengers and
afterwards the crew. Captain A. w.
| Call and radio operator were the
only persons remaining aboard. The
ships officers did everything pos
sible for us. There was some diff
| ficulty in lowering the boats, but as
the sea was calm, there was no
! danger"
The circumstances of the collision
were described briefly by E. I. Corr
veil, Boston, another OF the passen-
| gers, landed here by the Commons
wealth.
II was just about to retire for
! the night" he said. For half an
! hour I had heard 2notner steamer
whistling in the fog. Suddenly
there was crash and the Boston
listed sharply to starboard.
StaterOOms Crushed
II found that the Swift Arrow
had cut right through the Boston's
engine room and also had crushed
in several staterooms. The engine
room soon filled with water and
within an hour all lights'on the Bos-
ton went out.
"Life5oats were lowered and pas
sengers and crew put off in them,
[ helped disentangle some Of the
ropes on these boats"
A narrow escape was related by
A. w. Raynor, of Newton Centre,
Mass.
Il had been lying down." he said,
"but hardly two minutes before the
collision I got up. 1 was just out
side my stateroom when the crash
came, and my room was filled with
Wreckage." n
The Boston, only two months from
her builders hands on the Eastern
Steamship company's Boston-New
York run, was off Point Judith short
ly after midnight, poking through
the fog on her way to New York.
when the Swift Arrow sunk her nose
in the Boston's side. The passenger
liner was grievously wounded. Sink
ing seemed certain. The whale
boats were lowered over the side,
passengers placed aboard, and turn
ed loose from the supposedly sinking
liner, while only her captain and ra-