Show IA A LONG VOYAGE ENDED I I The Umbria Arrived in New I York Yesterday Morning I I I ALL ON BOARD WERE WELL Her Shaft Was Broken ou Friday December De-cember 23 At That Time She Was Five nnndrcd Miles from New York There Was No Panic and Everyone Made the Best of the Situation NEW YORK Dec 31The long over I due Cunard steamer Umbria was sighted at Fire Island shortly after midnight and arrived off Qurantine at 330 this morning morn-ing and after inspection steamed slowly up the bay to the dock She had 375 passengers pas-sengers on board about equally divided between the first and second cabin and steerage All on board are well The gallant Captain McKay has brought the steamer and all on board safely through the terrific gales though disabled and amid the thanks of passengers and the noisy greeting of the steam whistle from the vessels in the harbor he brought her to the dock It is twelve days since she left Queenstown the longest time on record for a crack ocean racer Though the weather was tempestuous most of the time from the beginning of voyage all went well till the afternoon of December 23 when a fracture was discovered I covered in the shaft and the machinery was stopped off the banks of Newfoundland Newfound-land and Engineer Tomlinson set about the difficult task of mending the break After drifting for twelve hours the steamer Bohemia of the HambnrgAmer ican line bound from New York to Bremen hove in sight and in response to signals for tow turned about and attached at-tached a big steel hawser to the Umbria and began to tow her to her destination The weather was extremely rough and in the night after having towed the disabled dis-abled vessel seventyfive miles the hawser haw-ser broke and the vessels parted company in the darkness When the day dawned over the Umbria the Bohemia was no where to be seen After drifting for three days to the southeast south-east she started again with the old machinery ma-chinery and came on in fine weather at half speed to her destination The first intimation the passengers had that there had been an accident was after dinner on Friday although the engineer had been watchingthe shaft with anxiety for fortyeight hours and the machinery had twice been stopped the previous night for inspection of a flaw in the great steel casting The steamer came to a standstill during dinner on Friday and a little later Captain McKay entered the smoking room announcing to the gentlemen the fact of the breakdown and added The ship is in no danger The announcement put a damper on the spirits of the passengers most of whom had been looking forward to spending Christmas in their own homes The vessel lay two hundredmiles from Halifax and five hundred miles from New York There was very little commotion com-motion in the ladies cabin when the information in-formation was given there and in fact everybody decided to make the best of the disagreeable situation The chief danger was that the vessel would drift out of the regular steamer track but the steward gave the information that there were enough provisions on board to last for three weeks without being stinted or even four or five weeks with only deprivations of a few luxuries That night oil was poured on the water and the ship was quieter than when the machinery was in motion Early next morning the Bohemia hove in sight and took the Umbria as above stated On Sunday Christmas Day an unusual large number attended the divine service in the saloon and the prayers were unusually I un-usually hearty JJt at dusk a vessel was sighted to the southwest and proved to be a vessel of the Wilson line bound for Philadelphia She signalled that she could not take the Umbria in tow because be-cause she had not enough coal and proceeded pro-ceeded on her course on Monday The gale continued and the vessel continued to drift Just after luncheon on Monday the steamer Manhaset from Swansea to New York hove in sight but she had I hardly come to a standstill when another much larger vessel bore down upon the drifting Umbria In a few minutes it was close enough to be distinguished as the sister ship Gallia of the Cunard line bound from Boston to Liverpool Captain McKay says At 230 pm Dec 26 we signalled the Gallia bound east We signalled her to lay by and she did so for a time as we also signalled her 0 we were making repairs and expected to I proceed on our way It is evident she took that for assurance that we did not need her and she proceeded on her way I Some passengers expressed disappointment disappoint-ment at the action of the Gallia as she I left us before we tested our machinery after repairs In reference to having 1 another steamer tow us I would say it i was not towing weather when we needed I assistance and when the weather settled I our repairs were completed and we did not need help The weather was very much in our favor after the accident There was no alarm or excitement of any nature among the passengers and aside from a feeling of disappointment at not being able to eat Christmas dinner onshore on-shore the voyage was a pleasant one for all on board The captain of the Umbria signaled the Manhaset that he required no assistance supposing the Gallia would come to his aid and save heavy prize money To the astonishment and disgust of everybody on board the Gallia in response to the signal that the Umbria was disabled and needed assistance answered back Cant stand by carrying mails and steamed off By this time some of the passengers began to show dissatisfaction and the kickers called a meeting to demand that something be done butthe majority of the passengers were satisfied that everything was being done that could be and the meeting came to nothing On Tuesday a notice was posted that the steamer would start that evening About 830 oclock the machinery began to move and from that on till the end of the journey continued to revolve slowly but staunchly bringing the great ship safely to shore Among the passengers on the vessel were J Henry Harper the head of the Treat publishing house Harper Bros Simon Sterne a well known Now York lawyer Thomas Epwith of the British diplomatic service General E Burd Grubb United States minister of Philadelphia Phila-delphia Oliver Herford a well known artist of New York and the son of Rev Brooke Herford Boston The scene at the pier on the arrival of the big liner was exciting A great crowd of eager and anxious friends crowded about and there were many affectionate and some hysterical greetings as the passengers pas-sengers came ashore |