The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-08-31
AZ Rescued From Wreck in
Pacific; SorroWfuI
Scenes at Dock.
SINKS LIKE A STONE
Aged Steamer CrumpIeS
Like Cardboard When
Hit by Tanker.
BY GEORGE d. CRIssEY.

UnlLeQ RreSS stan COrTeSDOn0enL
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31.-Fed-
eral authorities concentrated today
on the greWsome task of finding the
bodies Of seventy persons who are
believed to have died when the
coastal liner San Juan sank Friday
after colliding with the S. G. T.
Dodd, oil tanker.
Latest figures of the tragedy of
the Pacific, which took place fifty
miles south of here, almost on the
stroke of midnight, list forty-two
persons as rescued, with seventy
dead.
There ere many widows and Or
phas here as a result of the COL
lision by the 47-year-old San Juan,
used as a low-fare passenger boat
to Los Angeles, and the big tanker.
The bodies of two women were
recovered last night before the coast
guard cutter Tahoe moved from the
steamer lane dozen miles off
Pigeon Point. Neither body was
identified. The hunt for victims Of
the collision was resumed today,
when the first rays of dawn broke
through the fog along the barren bit
of coast line.
Survivors Brought in
The forty-two survivors were
brought to San Francisco Friday.
Eleven of those snatched from the
sea by the lumber carrier Munami's
lifeboats came here aboard the coast
cutter Shawnee, to which they had
been transferred.
Thirty-one persons were rescued
by the Dodd, which, although dis
abled by the terrific impact, was
seawortIly. Friends and relatives
watched the arrival of the rescue
ships and searched faces of sur
vivors in the hope of seeing loved
one.
Joyful shouts filled the air, but
they were drowned out by frantic
and frenzied cries of a greater num-
ber doomed to disappointment.
ooh, Johnnie, Johnnie, where are
you?" one aged woman screamed.
But Johnnie did not answer.
Figures made available by the Los
Angeles-San Francisco Navigation
Company, owners of the White
Flyer line, which operated the San
Juan, list twenty-nine members of
the crew and forty-one passengers
as missing.
Captain Is Victim
Among the dead is Captain
Adolph F. Asplund, IS, a veteran of
fifty years on the seven seas.
After survivors arrived it was
learned how sudden and drastic the
tragedy was.
AS the tanker collided, the plates
of the San Juan buckled like paper
and its aged tinbers crumpled. The
crash occurred at 1859 p. m. and
within five minutes sea filled with
terror stricken people, and bits of
floating ,wreckage, were the only
signs left of the San Juan.
Evidence gathered today indi-
Gated that terrific hole was torn
in the side of the San Juan by the
impact and that she started settling
at once. When the waters reached
the engine room the boiler exploded,
shatterihg the ship.
Owner of the San Juan placed
blame on the tanker Dodd, listing
the heavy blanket of fog that COW
cred the Pacific as a contributing
cause.
Defends His Course
Just as insistent was Captain H.
o. Pleumchen of the tanker. His
report declared that lights were
visible, but that the San Juan sud-
denly changed her course and cut
across the pathway of the Dodd.
Charges of cowardice on the
part of the crew here voiced by
Theodore Grandstedt of Mountain
View, Cal, father of Greta Grand
stedt, motion picture actress.
"The law of the sea, women and
children first, was ignored" he said.
TIE generally accepted view, how
ever, is that crew had little chance
to help any one. Captain Asplund
bawled out: Lower the boats" but
the San Juan was down before the
order could have been carried out.