Evening star., 1946-02-05
Snow Hampers
Rescue Of 45O
On Broken Ship
Cutter Tries to Toke
OFF More From Liner
Grounded Off AIusku
BULLETIN.

1AGAS14AkAxAN, xA1dShd N1.-
Three men, rescued after they
were washed overheard from
the wrecked steamship Yu-
= kon, landed at Seward today
in an Army tug and were
quoted by the Ketchikan
Chronicle as saying they be-
lieyed 20 persons were unac-
counted for when they left
the Yukon.
The three men were iden-
titled as Army Sergt. Jack
Reinhold, Charles d. Scriy-
ener, junior purser on the
Yukon, and Robert Bassette,
storekeeper of the Yukon. The
Coast Guard said it had no
confirmation of any casualties
and expressed doubt concern
ing the report.
BY the Associated Press.
SEATTLE, Feb. 5.-Rescue ef-
forts, hampered by a heavy snow
storm, were reported under way
today in an effort to remove
safely several hundred pas
sengers still stranded aboard the
wrecked steamship Yukon.
Coast Guard headquarters re-
ported that at daylight the bow Sec
ton Of the broken Yukon, which ran
aground in Johnstone Bay yester-
day, was still firmly on the rocks,
and that all the survivors were be-
heved to be aboard that part. The
after part earlier was reported to
have houndered free and to be roll
ing to starbeard."
The cutter Cedar was reported by
the Coast Guard to be attempting
the removal Of passengers from the
Yukon while other vessels were
standing by in the gradually subsid-
ing seas awaiting their turn at res
cue attempts.
Seas Subsiding. g..
Coast Guard authorities said
Ketchikan headquarters was opti-
mistic that all of the approximately
500 aboard the broken vessel would
be saved. Wireless messages re-
ported the seas were subsiding, but
rescue efforts were handicapped by
q heavy Snowstorm.
So far the Coast Guard said it had
received no confirmation of any
casualties aboard the wallowing
vessel, but they reported three per-
sons were washed overheard and
were rescued. They vere among the
Al women and children taken off the
liner last night by power boat and
put aboard the Yukonis sister ship,
the Onondaga, to be landed at
Seward.
Meanwhile, a specially equipped
first-aid train was to leave Anchor
age this morning, bound for Seward,
some hours distant. The train
was loaded with Army food, clothing
and medical supplies, with a first
aid crew of some 200 persons aboard.
The train was being rushed to
Seward in the event of arrival of
survivors from the wreck.
In toward the bleak Kenai Pen
insula from many directions came
ships to aid the Onondaga, and the
Army's great aircraft was to wing
in from the extended Aleutian chain
to lend q hand. 1t. Gen. Delos
Emmons at Anchorage ordered all
Bit Flying Fortresses equipped
with power rescue boats to join the
lfe-saving attempt.
In Alaska Service 20 Years.
The 360-foot steamer Yukon, built
in Philadelphia in 1899, had been in
the Alaska service for some 20 years
She went aground on Rocky Shore
40 miles south of Seward, in
yesterdays gale. AS soon as her
distress calls we're heard-about G
am. yesterday-an craft in the vi
cinity were ordered to her aid. The
Onondaga reached her shortly be-
fore 8 pm.
Grim messages came from her
captain, Christ P. Trondsen, who
said at LAS pm. the liner was
breaking up and that her engine
room and No. 3 hold were flooded
She withstood the pounding of the
seas, however, until darkness fell and
until the Onondaga's boats removed
the II.
The attention of all Alaska Gen.
tered on the tragedy. The Army at
Anchorage sent a transport plane
loaded with doctors and nurses tc
Seward to care for survivors.
There were some 185 officers an6
men from Fort Richardson, bound
home for. separation, and a crew o1
125 among the 496 aboard the Yukon
when it left Seward.