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Show LIE HUMAN CMS (Of ICE WERE HEN SAVEDJfROH SHIP Number of Victims of Block Island Sound Collision Estimated to Be Between 150 and ISO; Heroism in Midst of Wild Panic on Decks. r 9 The number of victims of the collision of the steamer Larchmont with the schooner Harry Knowlton Monday night, was estimated this morning at between 150 and 180. Many of the refugees, when rescued, resembled living cakes of ice. A large number of persons known to have been on the Larchmont are still missing. Stories told by the survivors are hair-raising. A wild panic followed the crash of the two vessels. BLOCK ISLAND, FEB. 13.TUST HOW MANY PERSONS LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE SINKING LATE MONDAY NIGHT IN BLOCK ISLAND SOUND OF THE JOY LINE ITEAMSHIP LARCHMONT, BY COL-X COL-X SPION WITH THE THREE MASTED VpHOONER HARRY KNOWLTON, MAY NEVER BE ACCURATELY KNOWN. NINETEEN EXHAUSTED AND NEARLY FROZEN PERSONS FROM THE WRECK REACHED BLOCK ISLAND AFTER A LONG DRIFT IN AN OPEN BOAT, UNDER THE MOST CRUEL CONDITIONS OF WIND AND WEATHER. AT AN EARLY HOUR TODAY NEARLY FIFTY BODIES HAD BEEN WASHED ASHORE ON THE SAME BEACH WHERE THE SURVIVORS HAD LANDED, BUT THE LIST OF PASSENGERS ON THE BOAT WAS LOST. AND THE COMPANY HAD ONLY THE HAZY RECOLLECTION " OF ITS PURSER WHOSE MIND LATE LAST NIGHT SHOWED THE EFFECT B OF THE AWFUL EXPERIENCE EX-PERIENCE THROUGH WHICH HE HAD PASSED. That any one shonld have been able to go through those terrible hours of Tuesday morning, when the temperature tem-perature was at zero, and a wept gale was hurling frozen spray into the little boats, was perhaps one of the mopt surprising features of the disaster. The Larchmont left Providence well laden with freight and a crew estimated esti-mated at about fifty, and a passenger list of about 110, but an accurate count is impossible at present. Tities and towns in southern New England have alreadv contributed a list of missing inhabitants thought to have been on the steamer that totals nearly seventy. A conservative estimate, therefore, of the number who lost their lives was placed early today at 150. feodies Caked In Ice. Early today forty-eight bodies, many J them inerusted in ice cakes, had Teplaced on the beach near the lighthouse light-house to await the permission of the authorities for their removal. Eleven of the bodies have thus far been identified. These are.- JAMES B. HARRISON, steward. Brooklyn. lower the captain's lng boat. Men were climbing in. but mv husband and 1 some man I don't know lifted me in. Sings a Gospel Hymn. "All mv life I can never forget those criep of anguiph and terror that arope from those who sank with the ship that dipappcared like magic under the wavep. Ap the pteamer sank I could hear pome pweet voiced woman pinging j a gospel hymn it was 'Onward, Chris I tian Soldiers. ' "Oh. .iupt as we got away from the lost ship the waves began to break over up. and we were drenched to the skin. The salt water froze on us. and I began to prav that T might die. But Ood was very merciful to me. My husband and another man would plap me and keep rubbing my arms and body. I think it paved their livep ap well as my own, for it kept our blood in circulation. cir-culation. After untold pufferings we finally got ashore at daybreak." Purser Tells His Story. Purser Young can tell only, a dip jointed story. He stated he was belpw in his room going over the freight bills when the shock, came. He hurried to the deck, only to be caught in indescribable inde-scribable confusion. Running below again he found nearly all the rooms filled with steam from the broken pipes. Paspengers ruphed out of their ptaterooms half dressed or with onlv th eir night clothep on. The water was rising rapidly and poon the hed upon the saloon deck were afloat. The rising water caught many of the passengers who were unable un-able fn force their way up the already crowded stairs. Block Island's two life saving pta tions were turned into morgues and hospitals last night and the dead crowded the living. The boatroom floors were lined with the dead, each bodv frozen as stiff as the boards on which it rested. In the living and sleeping rooms the survivors rested on cots and bed, racked with the pain of froren limbs and shuddering with the recollection recol-lection of the horror of their experiences. experi-ences. Many were denied the merciful unconsciousness un-consciousness of sleep and throughout the long dreary night they tossed and cried and sobbed and the howling wind outside only served to keep fresh in their minds the terrors of the storm through which they had fought their way to the island. It is feared that none of these survivers will escape unscathed. un-scathed. The frost penetrated too deep. Oliver Janiver, 24 years old, of Providence, came ashore with nine dead mm in a small boat. He was more dead than alive when he landed, waist deep in the surf near Sandy Point lighthouse. He was aided by the life-guardsmen, life-guardsmen, who applied oils and other remedies to relieve his sufferings. His feet and hands were badly frozen. Janiver showed remarkable recuperative recupera-tive powers, and last evening he was able to describe his eiperience. Wouldn't Save Woman. "I got into a boat with nine men. After we started from the sinking boat,' - he stated, "a woman floated by. crying. 'For (iod sake, save me!' I asked two men that I had saved to help her. They were the nearest to her. Thev refused to do so, and continued to row on. Pretty soon some one of the men fell over with a groan and died of cold. The others followed him. and then I was left in the boat with another an-other live man and eight dead men. The other chap looked at me peculiarly and said : " 'My God, this is terrible! I cannot can-not live, and may a well end It now. I am going to cut my throat.' Before I could prevent him he pulled out razor and gashed his throat. He fell on his face in the bottom of the boat and died with an insane laugh on his lips. "Soon after I saw the lighthouse, (Continued on Page 4) JASPER HEST. first assistant engineer. en-gineer. Albany. EDWARD LOGAN, assistant en cineer. Providence. JAOOB ZADMUS. watchman. Pater son, N. J. GEORGE SMITH, waiter. Provi dence. J. H. ECKLES, passenger. Block Island. E. NELSON, second assistant en-jrineer. en-jrineer. Providence. HALL, negro waiter, residence unknown. MOSES FOUNTAIN, negro waiter, residence unknown. HARRY APPLE, farmer, Block Island PATTER, wearing badge S2oo of Protective Disability Insurance company, com-pany, either of Boston, or Providence. A large number of rtio missing passengers pas-sengers were from Providence and cities and towns between that citv and Worcester, Mass.. while there were also passengers on the boat from Boston and other places ia. southern Massachusetts. Massa-chusetts. The crew were about equally divided between New York and Prov! dence. Among those lost is said to have been a little squad of Salvation Army workers from Worcester. Salvationist Meet Death. This band of Salvationists, said to have numbered ten persons, furnished, according to reports, one of the thrill ing incidenta of the disaster. When it was evident that the boat must sink and the frenzied passengers were endeavoring en-deavoring to get into the boats, the Salvationists are said to have fallen on their knees, where thev continued in prayer, invoking the Afmigbtv to save and protect toe shipwrecked people. Onlv one of this little band, a woman, igVid to be among the survivors. Jffelrs. Feldman or Providence, one of I tUk survivors, in describing the awful I cj.'nea following the collision, is 1 ' quoted as followa: "My God. I shall never forget that moment! We all seemed so helpless, to utterly beyond human aid. In the i agonized eriea of frightened women and the shouting of men. I suddenly felt my husband seize mv arm and force m to where they had started, to , SAVED PROM SHIP (Continued from page 1.) and sailed by it. The sea was running too high for' me to land there. I kept bathing my feet and hands in the ice cold water to prevent them freezing. The wind soon c has red snd I was blown to land. I jumped out and waded ashore. " The surf men who cared for Janiver, and who found his companions ia the boat, said that tke bodies were all in-crusted in-crusted with sprav aad resembled ice more than human bodies. The disaster wss one of the most terrible that has occurred on the New England coast since the steamer Port-, land went down with all on board in 1SS3. and it resembles in some respects the sinking of the French steamer La Burgoyne, through a collision with the British ship Cromartyshire on the Grand Basks in 1897. Death List May Beach 180. Purser Oscar A. Young still L Din-tained Din-tained this morning that thereVVere from 15 to 150 passengers on Poard the steamer when she left Providence for New York, and most of the stir-vivors stir-vivors able to express an opinion were inclined to support his figures rather than those of ( apt. McVey, who estimated esti-mated the number at from fifty to seventy sev-enty five. From some of the surviving officers it was learned that the Larch-mont Larch-mont carried a crew of forty-five men, of whom onlv ten are accounted for. This mean's that of a total of 150 to ?00 persons aboard the Larchmont, nine passengers and ten sailors have survived. sur-vived. Their condition is pitiable, but two physicians are almost constantly ia attendance upon the officers snd express ex-press confidence that none of the injured in-jured is likely to succumb. One of the ship's officers stated that the Larchmont carried eight lifeboats , and four life rafts. At 8 o'clock today I it was believed that five of these boats and one raft had been accounted for. ; Two Women Survivor. There are only two women amonz the survivors, Mrs. Harrv Feldman of New York and Miss Sadie Gsllnp of Boston. Nearlv all the surviving passengers agree that the crew and officers behaved be-haved well. With the first shock and the inrush of water and escape of steam from the broken main teampipe. Cant. MeVev realized the scope of the accident. acci-dent. " The crew was called to quarters, each man springing to his station as the call to desert tee ship was made. Panic-stricken passengers, aroused from sound sleep, rushed wildly on deck and mobbed the boats aad rafts, men and women fighting each other, forgetful forget-ful of ail but the primal instinct of self-preservation. self-preservation. Some of the men passengers passen-gers recovered from their first fright and assisted in the work of cartvfor the women and children. Many suffocated below m tliair quarWfVby j the steam, or drowned benesta Iths deck. Within ten minutes the boats wpt- away from the ship side just ss she settled set-tled low in the water. The bitter cold snd high seas coir rleted the work of destruction, and thj little band of persons who got sws from the Larchmont were devimated n i groups and in the helpless drift ia th ' bitter cold it became the old st-ry ot ; the ''survival of the fittest.'' |