Evening star., 1949-09-19
"a Unaccounted For
On Noronic, Known
Death Tolls Now 121
By The Associated Press

TORONTO. Ontario, Sept. 10.
The known dead pulled from
the fiame-swept S. S. Noronic
stood at 121 today as divers
groped below the sunken decks of
the charred cruise ship in search
of "a passengers still reported
missing.
Red Cross officials expressed the
belief that many of those unac-
counted for after the panic
spreading blaze Saturday had
gone to their. homes without re-
porting their survival. Canadian
authorities had feared the death
toll might reach 205.
Hope that first death estimates
might have been high rose when
divers reported yesterday they had
not found the 80 or 60" bodies
firemen said they believed were
trapped in the burned-out cabins.
The ship settled to TIE bottom Of
her dock slip after the blaze.
3 Bodies in Submerged Cabins.
Three charred bodies were taken
out of the submerged cabins last
night. bringing the known dead
in an emergency morgue to 121.
Dr. w. S. Stanbury, national
commissioner of the Canadian
Red Cross. expressed his personal
belief that 80 per cent of the "a
passengers still unaccounted for
would be found safe at home in
the United States" Most of the
ships 511 passengers were Ameri-
cans.
Long lines of grief stricken rel
atives sought. meanwhile, to make
identifications among the black
ened corpses laid out in an i'm
proyised omorgue. 60.
BY early today only 80 bodies
had been identified.
No Mass Funeral Planned.
There will be no mass funeral.
A requiem mass was arranged to-
day at St. Michael's Cathedral,
with James Cardinal McGuigan,
Catholic Archbishop of Toronto,
taking part. Next Sunday an in
terdenominational service will be
held in the Coliseum in Toronto
under the auspices of the Minis
terial Association. It will be led
by DR.. Willard Brewing, mod
orator of the United Church of
Canada.
All Toronto was deeply stirred
by the catastrophe. Volunteers
toiled laboriously at the task of
identifying the dead, ministering
to the injured and consoling the
stricken relatives. Volunteer
groups served food and coffee to
the sad lines of waiting relatives.
Taxi drivers turned off their
meters and put their cabs at the
disposal of the survivors who were
trying to gather up the scattered
members of their parties. Hotels
fed and sheltered the dazed sur
vivors.
Even as the divers searched
last night. flames flared up again
in the charred hull of the $5,000,-
900 Noronic. Firemen with chem
ical extinguishers boarded the
vessel and reported a few minutes
later that the smoldering blaze
had been put down.
May Pump Ship Out.
The hunt for the missing was
complicated by the fact that many
bodies may be in the water around
the ship where fear-crazed pas
sengers jumped or fell in their
panic to escape the roaring flame
and smoke that billowed through
staterooms and passageways.
Divers were concentrating their
hunt on the submerged cabins and
passageways of ID" deck, below
&C" deck where the fire started.
Other divers sought to examine
the condition of the ships plates
from the outside to determine
whether 1t will be possible to pump
the ship dry.
Relatives of survivors continued
to pour into the city by train, car
and plane, clinging to the hope
that their loved ones might not
be among those who died in the
worst Great Lakes ship fire in a
century.
Already at least one of the holi-
dayers who had been thought
dead has been found alive.
Identification has been made
difficult because Of the condition