BLAZING SHIP.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1279, 1 August 1914, Page 4

BLAZING SHIP.

FATE OP THE COLUMBIAN. The first detailed account of the burning of the steamer Columbian at s< -' a reached Sydney awhile back by the hn - lish mail. The story comes from Halifax, Nova Scotia. , T 1 ~ r It was on May 3rd (says Lloyd s Ga/£ ette) that the third boat, manned by lb seamen, pulled away from the abandoned steamer. On Sunday, when tho U'uUStates revenue cutter Seneca came in toucl with, the boat, only five men _ wore left a In e. and one of these, Peter Brieve, the mtnsroom steward, died before he could bo taken on. to tho rescue ship. f*‘ c - ,ou men saved are Robert Tiere, first officei; Adelard Belanger and Oscar Acmdid l - stumen; and Michael Ludwigsen fireman Mi Tiere is a native of Liverpool, and is onlj 22 years old. Belanger belongs to Shei-tu-ooke, Quebec. The other two a c c,..„,i ’ Mr Tiere is suffering greatlj fmn gangrenous feet, and probably will lose both members. His feet became frozen and so swollen that his sea boots would not come off, and it was necessary to cut Xm ™vav from tho limbs when he was faken aboard tho Seneca. Tho other men are suffenng chielly from exposure and lack of food. A HUBRIEQ DEPARTURE. Mr Tiere graphically describes the catas--1 \ . bcfel the Columbian and the the Sr«plSoi occurred »t|»Cd U mb^ f kl -tal Tl:: [ C -avc thofiro call, rousing all hospital. gcaicoly done so when iuuids, anu nf« m the coal arwhich got 'into £ Wker, and encountered gas in the c °X t followed from 1 MteS and in a few nunutes thectiluihbisn was ablaze forward an .ljX 6 was no time to wait for BiSffifLa only • IS* of trousers °” DRI VEN AWAY TO THE NORTH. ■ strong southerly wind “There was a nortilwar d. There blowing, whwh d navigation inhad been nc hmo boat . As we drove gtruments into realised that we might anyßhips to,** (Wtr W Vb* W oomo”» er’s lights , oßcf I H- rC( { quickly, and frojn . 'X’hcu we foun.4 she was the ol f nU “latches in the boat, there were no di| , irl( j the OlymThere we had to all l )f j ight Wc all Kod"S Si • 3ST.JS! $ «” l “ to “ er hsftf at thas distdnce. { , uoon we saw “Abo.dfc th^ R al X ncon ia, and what; we toftfe in the S<mfrom what 1 reining our first oca wc must have seen her KvfT lifeboat. But she steamed awa y , A TIMELY RESCUE. “We got a little rain f-ome more on Monday, . nff gait water, Of tfee men of them. Gradually and that w&f the ■ Fridav last I cut the rations down,. f ; P . H 'than there were but fire bwcu# W .^ 7iycd> a pint ol water for the five J, 0 «;' j.fjg Then we cut up some boots Xt of dead men, and tried to mix 1, ,[ Hut paste with broken bxsimito l^ h eca 'it wap not palatable. When tno 1^ hove in'sight A, I .T last) the crumbs and wa were painfully ,W r . a P l ?f together to mix with moth n to “Hull, tho oiler, was the first to die. Ho went out last Sunday m th| morning. Then Reiohmann, a stokei,diect

shout 2 o’clock in the morning of Tuesday. Andai'ion, another stoker, died the next day, and *o did tho cook, Sehnmberger. Gustafson was the next to die. All those men want pretty much the same way. They began to drink »ea water, and their suffering* wore frightful. The more they drank tlie more they wanted. All of thorn died singing, completely insane. MADMAN WITH AN AXE. “Margots, tho chief engineer, was tho next to die. He perished from exposure, 'i ken on« of the worst of all our trials happened. Jakob, a, big oiler, a Russian, who stood over Oft, started to drink salt vVater. He went insane and trier! to kill th© whole boat crow. Jakoo was sitting intha bow with an axs and swearing that h© would go ashore for a drink. \V« had a pretty hard light to get him unch-r control, pub «© finally laid him down in the bottom of the boat and lashed him to a thwart, (ht Saturday morning ho died. “When wo sighted the Scnoc* she, was about 7or 8 miles away from us. We got out our oars and started to row towards her. We thought we were making great time, but they tell mo that wo were hardly moving the boat at all. 1 wonder now that we even got a way on her. Then we piw that we were seen from her, for she steamed towards us and we keeled over. 1 never expected to bo alive tc-day, after the experience of yesterday.