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Show t t . .......... r sensation, in view ef the fact that ten of the survivors were employees upon the ship, or, in other words, that while 20 per cent of the crew-was saved, only $ per cent of the psseengera but-vived. but-vived. . , . . 8ays IZa Didn't Desert. Capt. MeYey explained that while his boat may have been the first ia the water, it was because he had a good erew, and that he remained by the ship -intil it went down. He said that he made no move to get. into his boat until un-til he had given orders to his men to lower all the boats and dear away the rafts. While his boat was in the water, it was fastened to the ship by a rope ia the rnnaing gear that had been caught and this waa eat by Boatswain Tobeson, who saw that, with the ship settling rapidly, the boat and its occupants would be caught in the whirlpool and sucked beneath the surface. ' PEOVTDSNCS, S. U Teh. IL A. new element was Injected into tht terror ter-ror attending- the loss of t&o . steamer Larebmont tn Blockr Island norm! lion-' day, ; thronh a ' collision - with the schooner Harry Enowlelon, when Capt.. McVey of tlie steamer early today admitted ad-mitted that Lis lifeboat was one of the first, if not the first, to leave tha sinking sink-ing ship. ' -. ' This statement was made in reply to charges by Pred Hiergsell,' an eighteen-year-old lad of Brooklyn, one of the survivors, that the passengers were left to shift for themselves; that the ship's crew crowded the boats without attempting at-tempting .to provide for the passengers, and that 'Capt. McVey was the first to desert the ehip. The statement of the boy created a The captain's boat waa on the windward wind-ward side, and he said he called to the passengers to jump to the boat, which would hold about twenty-two persons in all, but the electric lights had been extinguished, and in the darkness and confusion none heeded his summons. Everybody was on the leeward side, and he ordered his men to row around there, he claims, but the gale balked his plan and, as the boat was driven away from the steamer, his men had to give up their task and crouch in the bottom of the boat out of the way of the piercing wind. Latest Death Estimates. At 8 o'clock this morning the number of known lost in the frightful calamity stood at 188. At least 157 person were known to be upon the steamer, and there is every indication that the number num-ber was nearer 200. Seventy-one bodies had been recovered up to 8 o'clock, and forty-nine of these are in the morgue awaiting identification. The stream of persons passing through the morgue looking for missing relatives or friends did not cease until after midnight, and at that time thirty-eight of the dead had been identified. Many persona were earlv on hand to file once more between the long lines of deed, and every train brought more persons upon the mournful quest. The survivors at Block Island are reported re-ported "as well as could be expected." The weather has moderated this morning and was clear and mild. Under these conditions there was little expectation expec-tation of more bodies washing ashore today. |
