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Show COLLIER BLAMED FOR WRECK STORSTAD'S OFFICER HELD RESPONSIBLE RE-SPONSIBLE FOR SINKING OF EMPRESS OF IRELAND. Commission Censures Officer for Failing Fail-ing to Call Captain of His Ship When He Saw Fog Was Coming On and Before Crash Occurred. Quebec. The collier Storstad Is held to blame for the Empress of Ireland disaster, in the findings of the wreck commission handed down June 17. The commission holds that the disaster was due to the Storstad's change of course ordered by the third officer without instructions from the first officer, who was in charge of the collier at the time. The Empress was sunk in the St. Lawrence on Mlay 20 with a loss of more than 1,000 lives. The inquiry into the disaster was begun in Quebec on July 16. The collier's third officer, found responsible, is Alfred Tuftenes. He was on the bridge when the crash occurred oc-curred and the report holds that "he was wrong and malignant in keeping the navigation of the vessel in his own hands and failing to call the captain cap-tain when he saw the fog coming on." The report says the disaster was not due to any special characteristics character-istics of the St. Lawrence. It was a disaster which might have occurred in any river in similar circumstances. The report notes a radical conflict in the testimony of officers of the Empress and of the Storstad. |