Show IN LESS THAN I TEN MIUTE Two Great Ships Collide and Go to the Bottom of the Sea A MIDNIGHT DISASTER Prince Oscar Crashes Into an Unknown Entire Crew of the Strangcr Lost and Xot a Stick or Rag Left to Identify Her or Them Seventeen Survivors Imic Some Terrible Kxiicricitcu2 ami Xarrovr Escapes 7 ut Are Finally Rescued in the sick of Time PHILADELPHIA Aug SThe British ship Prince Oscar from Liverpool Captain Cap-tain Henderson collided in midocean July 13 with an unknown sailing vessel Both ships sank in less than trn minutes Six members of tho crew of the Prince Oscar and all on board the unknown vessel were lost The survivors seventeen in number were rescued by the ship Dhar war after being confined in an open boat with neither food nor water for three days They were transferred to the Brit ish steamship Capac from Pisaqua and brought to this port tonight The names of the lost are William Knight cook of South Shields Oscar Neilson seaman of Christiana E Peterson seaman of Denmark August Carton deck boy of Ostend I Relap of Douglas Isle of Man J Anderson steward of Liverpool The entire crew of the unknown vessel rhe Crash The disaster occurred shortly after midnight in latitude 030 south longitude 220 west The Prince Oscar was bound from Shields where she left May 9th for Iqueque laden with coal and was going at a clipper gait on the port tack before a brisk wind and all canvas set It Is estimated es-timated by the crew that she was making about 61h knots an hour when suddenly there loomed up directly under their bow a four master vessel The mate asserts that the stranger had no lights burning and after she was sighted it was impossible impos-sible to alter the course of the Prince Oscar Os-car The iron hull of the latter struck the unknown full amidsh ps knocking nr almost on her beam cnas and crashing through the woodwork until her prow was more than half buried The stranger Went oveiralmost on her beam end s s the Prince Oscar backed away from the rebound As the crew of the Prince Oscar Os-car stood peering through the darkness they saw the stranger partly right herself her-self and then she rapidly began to sink They listened in vain for some signs of life but not a cry for help nor a word of command came from the stricken ves sol In less than four minutes from the time she was struck the stranger keeled over and plunged stern first into the depths IMow Captain Henderson of the Prince Oscar who was below in his berth rushed on deck just Ip time to discover dis-cover that his ship was also sinking Xo Hope The pumps were manned but in less time than it takes to tell It was discovered discover-ed that there was no hope from that source Life boats were ordered cut adrift and the men were told to jump and swim for their lives They all went overboard and with exception of two unfortunates un-fortunates reached the small boats Captain Henderson who was the last man to leave the ship went over in his night garments and swam fully two miles before he was pickol up Both boats hovered about the srene of the wreck until un-til daylight in an effort to rescue tho two missing members of the Prince Oscars crew and any members of the crew of the stranger who might have been fortunate enough to have kept afloat They found no one however and nothing to indicate the name home or destination of their companion in misfortune Finally they left the scene and headed they knew not exactly where Twentyfour hours later a heavy sea strucK the bos Tommanded by Mate Lynch and capsized i The occupants oc-cupants eight in number were thrown into the sea and the already overcrowded craft which Captain Henderson commanded com-manded put quickly to the rescue They were successful in getting four of the men on board the rest wcr drowned I There were now seventeen men in the small lifeboat with nothing to eat nothing I noth-ing to drink and barely room to stretch their limbs Towards evening o the second I sec-ond day one of the crew discovered a small cask of fish oil stowed away in the boat This was lealt out to the survivors in small doses and they used it to moisten mois-ten their parched lips and tongues Most of the men were partially nalco having no time to secure clothes In the Nick of Time For three days raid nights they floated and just a they were about to abandon hope they sighted a ship near Oharwar from London bound to Melbourne They succeeded in attracting the attention those on board and were soon on her decks Four days latei in latitude 163S south longitude 3731 west they were put aboard the Capac bound for this port All of the survivors still bear evidences of l the sufferings which they endured Captain Henderson was reticent preferring prefer-ring not to give the full avails of the disaster dis-aster until he had reported to the British consul which official will Oc asked to Institute In-stitute a naval court of inquiry and hear the full details of the disaster After somo persuasion however Captain I Cap-tain Henderson said On the night of July 13 when the collision occurred I had just turned in leaving the deck in charge of the chief officer The wind was southwest south-west and squally and there was considerable consid-erable sea We were going along possibly possi-bly 6J knots an hour with everything set The mate saw nothing of the approaching ap-proaching vessel until she was almost on top of us and ho positively asserts sho was without side lights She had every stitch of canvas set and was jumping through the water at lively rate consequently Con-sequently when both vessels came together I togeth-er the erash was terrific and the damage was sufficient to canst both to go to the bottom within ten minutes Not a sound came from those on board the unknown ship and at the expiration of five minutes I the tops of her masts were seen sinking beneath tho surface of the water Captain Henderson is well advanced in years and has followed the sea since a mero boy this being his first accident |