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Show SKIP-WRECK TESTIMONY MEN AT SEA IS BEING KEPT SECRET fitnesses Declare Captain of Ill-fatted Monroe Had Stopped Engines on Hearing Nantucket's Answering Signal and That Lost Ship Was Standing Still -at Time i ' Crash Came. 1 LOOKOUT SIGHTED LIGHTS TOO LATE Collision Occurred Within Two Minutes After Speeding -Vessel Loomed Up in Darkness and Fog andXCould Not : Have Been Avoided; Survivors "Tell of Death at Sea. - I '.Norfolk. Va Jan. 31Tcstlmony or officers of both shlpssomo of It taken while the Nantucket was bringing bring-ing In the survivors, Is being kept secret today. It still is in tho form of stcn6gra pliers' notes ami. will make ' fifty or sixty typo written No official statement could be ob talned today but It is said that witnesses wit-nesses testified Captain Johnson stopped stop-ped Jhe .-Monroe's engines when ho heard, the Nantucket's answering si-ron si-ron signal, .and the lost ship was practically standing still when tho Nantucket rammed her araldshlp3 and broke her In two. Oljjer witnesses testified, It is said, tbatAYho Nantucket continued to steam toward the'iMonroe after tho latter had blown two whistles three Mt is said that the testimony shows that. .Captain Berry, Ihe- second officer offi-cer and the quartermaster. ' of the Nantucket were all In thc.pilot house of their ship when tho two vessels came together s$d that the lockout, on theMonroc saw the Hgbts dir'the wastoftftbeNantucket aljout two ini'ii.es'bomre tho crash. v v n0 Monroe- mot light fogs Inter- mittently after passing out of the capes and lTah , stopped frequently while tbey surrounded Urn' ship. The Monroo was equipped with an automatic auto-matic time "whistle and thnt $a blown at intervals ,ot one minute. When tho heavy Jfog wrapped the vessel -near Winterquartcr Lightship. after blowing her fog born every minute, gave two blasts, to which the Nantucket ploughed its way Into the Monroe's starboard just above amidships amid-ships at an angle of about 45 degrees. The Nantucket then backed away. The Monroe began to list and in ten minutes had sunk. Survivors In Norfolk. New York, Jan. 31. Six survivors of the disaster to the steamship Monroe Mon-roe reached here today from Norfolk. Among them was Thomas Harrington of Bridgeport, Conn., accompanying the body of bis wife, who died after being taken aboard the rescue ship Nantucket Harrington was the passenger who swam In the cold water, supporting his wife by holding her hair in his teeth. His father and his brother met him here. "Tell them what happened, Tom." said tho father. "We all want to know and It will get it off your Then In a dull monotone, the young man told his story. Harrington and his wife had a state room on tho side where the Monroe was rammed. "When the shock came," he said, "we got up and dressed and wasted tlmo that might have savod the poor girl's life." By tho time they reached the main saloon the ship bad keeled so that the side wall was their floor. She Wanted to Die. "There was a lurch," continued Harrington, "and Margaret was thrown twenty feet and lodged under the bench built along tho sides of the cabin. I slid and scrambled after af-ter her. When 1 took hold of her she screamed and pointed to her poor right arm. It was broken and hanging hang-ing limp. "'Don't touch me!' she screamed. 'For God's sake let mo die!' "I told her she would have to come and she would feel better about It later. Oh, God! She was right and 1 didn't know It. But I got her loose. "Then tho ship sagged back again and there was a rush of "water that washed us out to the deck. I managed man-aged to get off our outer clothes. Then we let go and the ship went away from under us." Swam Holding Hair by Teeth, Harrington told how he tried to swim holding his wlfo by the broken arm, but this pained her so that finally fi-nally ho twisted hor long hair Into a rope closo to hor head and, taking It In his teeth, floated on his back, keeping the woman's bead on his Ono life boat passed within ten feet, he said, and lguored their calls for help. After nearly two hours another an-other boat came. "I held Margaret up to them," continued con-tinued Harrington, "and a sailor said: 'Let her go; she is dead.' "'She is not dead 1 said to him, 'and you tako her aboard If you don't want to go to hell with murder on your soul.' "So they took her in And she opened her eyes and smiled at me. "When they got me aboard the Ehlp they put her in ono state room and left" her and put me in another. I believe that If a doctor bad been with her right away with stimulants she might be alive now. But they were all mbced up and when I found where she was lying all alone, she I ' llti ,a dead" |
