AN APPALLING DISASTER

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2164, 1 June 1914, Page 6

AN APPALLING DISASTER

The shocking story of the ramming and sinking of ths bis mail and passenger steamer Empress of Ireland during a fog oti the St. Lawrp.sce River is told ill detail in onr cablu news this morning. . To the average citizen wi.w knows little ef t!;.o. ways of thi; He.a s the calamitous collision must appear well-nigh inexcusable, if; n®fe entirely so.. Thi 1 facts so far disclosed go to show that, the great passenger steamer had tine-'. nroKcdinp down the river on her way to Lngland when she cneountered a dense iog ; and 'her capt:u aotaftg with, oaut.ton and prudence, hovc-io and lay waiting for tlio fog to lift. Aji bcosning collier, cousiderably smaller in -size tha,n the vftssgl, undeterred by fog, was steaming' up the river when she crash'id into the side iu" the biß- ■ ger steamer, which in a few minute' sink t-a the bottoiu with more t.ha-.

three-fourths of the large aurnbei' o. jj« nplc oh buanj of her._ No waTradfiji aeems to have been given, and the damage sustained by the Empress of Jrc-3tm siieh, thu-t iii <1 few 1 ijiin-r utossho canted over and disappeared .ifoffl sight. _ In such circnrastftnccs, on a tin rk night ana in a thick fog, !t Y as inevitable tliiji there should bo hs-tivy loss of liife, however admmilik; the life-raving equipment of the vessel might be; hut the toll is an appalling one, ami the full horK>f of the situation is brought. homo to us here by the fact . that wellknown residents of Hew Zealand were amr>npsl the passengers who perishjel. Of a total of 138? persons oii board the vessel onjy 355 are reported to have- been saved—more ■thai! 1000 lives were lost. So fat as can be gathered from the naturally disjointed reports of what followed ptoF the Empress o! Ireland had' t?RCxi strtiCi?) all tliat was possible was dene by the captain and officers of th® stricken steame*,' but that was little enough under Such conditions, am in the short space of time which elapsed between „ the striking and sinkixjfc oi the vessel. The fact, that comparatively s.o large a proportion of "the craw was saved may be accounted for. by many of them having boeii at their stations on deck at the tiniii of the accident, while the re rnainrlor might- be expected to make ; their way to the deck more ! fen would the passenger.-:, and Shu's have a ehanec of_ escaping being ! diawii . down with the ■ steamer | when she sank. That ' matter, however, no doubt wall bs investigated. What the public will specially want- to know is how t.hc caliper, which seems to have been responsible for the dreadful disaster, caffie to he steaffliijg through a thick fog at sufeh a speed in suck a piaee. It is possible that the Empress of' Ireland felt, her way into the fogbank, and the captain, thinking the fog extended further than it did, may have hove-to at a spot Bear : its outer edw. In this case the I luroiijing collier would Juvp only just _ entered the fog-bank when it ran into the passenger steamer. This would' account to some extent for the ®eefl at which the vessel appears to have been. travelling, but does ®ot satisfactorily explain the. apparent lack, of proper cate and caution Which ii is to be hoped; will bo made the subigfit of searching imjuirv. Sympnthy with the miffo-rets in this terrible tragedy will he World-wide, trtd . especially Will it be extended* 'rom those countries which. like New ''•aland, hare through it sustained he loss of worthy citizens,