Evening star., 1933-05-07

81 lPON arriving ON board the Marine, NJ.
~ Ashby At once applied to the master.
Capt. Burt. urging him to make sail for Ne
ship. and then for the first time learned that
the brig had lost her mainyard and could not
carry any more canvas than she had upon heT.
He then asked for the use of the briggs boat
and was informed that it was in a condition
unfit for use and would not live five minutes
in such a sea.
While converting with the master the boat
swain again left for the ship and MT Ashby
called upon the seanen who had come from
the ship to man one Of the boats with him and
return for passengers. This they positively re-
fused to do declaring that the ship would 60
down before they could get to her. One man
only offered to 60 with the engineer but 1t was
impossible in such q sea to manage the boat.
1t turned out as the seamen had said. for the
ship went down soon after the boatswain's boat
reached her.
In contrast with the above, Capt Badger has
given his opinion. He IS unwilling to express
any opinion TO the cause of the disaster
which shall impute blame to any one He =,
however very emphatic in speaking of the Cen
trail America IS stauch. She was perfectl1
sound. was not strained by the force of the sen
and, in his opinion, did net spring a leak II
seems clear from his statement of the circun-
stances that the engines stopped before these
was any considerable amount of water in the
vessel, and that this could not have been owing,
therefore. to the extinction of the fires by the
water. It seems due rather to the lack Of q
proper supply Of COAL Whether this was The
fault Of the men whose business it was to pass
1t. We have no means of judging: but this fact
certainly ought to be within the knowledge Of
the engineer, as It was his business to see that
coal was supplied to furnish all the steam tha$
was needed"
OF the Anal scenes the statement goes On
to say:
The passengers continued to bail until with
In an hour d The Central Americas dissp-
pearance. Life pgeservers were then given os1e
to them. The ship sank at 8 O'Clock Cant
Herndon stood upon the wheel, and was heard
to say that he would never leave the shin.
No one who knew the gallant commander could
ever imagine that he would. The final scene
took place more suddenly and at an earlier
period than her unfortunate passenger an
.ticpated All at once the ship made plunge
at an angle Of Is degrees. and then tdsap-
peared forever. Simultaneous shrick of a1onv
rose from 500 human threats. and 500 human
beings we're left floating on the bosom Of the
ocean with no hope but death
About 80 O'Clock on the morning of tl,e
18TH the Norwegian bark Ellen came RUNNING
down with . free wind. The cries of distress
from the Central Americas passengers vere
heard, and the Elsen hove-to under short SAIL
And now the task Of rescuing those who had
been able to survive in the water for nearly
nve hours was commenced. BY 9 O'Clock am.
81 men were rescued. - Diligent search vas
made until IL O'Clock, but no more survivors
could be seen. % the Ellen bore away for Nor
folk, where the passengers rescued by her, -
well as those taken OF by the brig Marine,
were placed on board the steamer Empire City.
and conveyed to New York. At the time W
go to press, no others are known to have been
saved, except those picked up by the Mig
No. s~~l A. .p-v
former rescued %, and the latter 81, making
only l24 saved, out of q total in passengers
and crew supposed to have been on board tlne
Central America Of SOS souls"
One of the rescued passengers, speaking q
the bravery and marvellous composure Of ~
other passengers and the crew said:
Suffer me to pause q single instant Ia ~,