TRAGEDIES AT SEA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9462, 3 June 1909, Page 2

TRAGEDIES AT SEA.

LADY PASSENGERS'SHOT IN THEIR* BUNKS.

Two sensational tragedies, aboot which there is considerable mystery, occurred on board the Oanard liner Lnoania daring her passage across the Atlantic, the victims in both oases being young women. The couple, who had jointly occupied a cabin, took their owh lives with revolvers, and were buried at sea. They had given the names o| Miss Margaret Olarke and Miss Helen Miller, bat the latter, in a note found after her death, stated that she had been a widow for over two years. The couple travelled secondclass, and both appear to have been in . straitened circumstances, for upon one of them only six shillings were found, whilst the other had merely one shilling in her possession. Up to the present nothing is known of the antecedents of the couple, or the reasons which led them to end their lives. Both women chose the same method o£ suicide—they shot themselves—but they did not die on the same day. It was the. one known as Miss Olarke who committed suicide first, and her death took place when the vessel had been at sea nearly twentyfour hours. She occupied the upper berth in the cabin, and when her non-appearance on deckled people to inquire about her from her companion, “Mias Miller” replied that she thought she must be ill, as she could not rouse her. Upon this a,stewardess went to the cabin and found Mias Olatke dead. There was a pistol in one of her hands, and a mirror in the other, and there seemed every indication that the fatal shot wound in her head had been self-inflicted. It was not until three days after the first suicide that “Miss Miller” took her life. She was present when the body of her companion was committed to the deep," and appeared greatly distressed. When her friend’s death was discovered she declared that she fiad

HEARD NO SOUND OF A SHOT, and that so fair as she knew, Miss Olarke was all right on the previous night. After the burial, “Miss Miller” was accommodated in another oabiq, but it is to be feared that she wds ; unstrung by what had happened, for in,a note found after her death she said she was much worried over Miss Olarke’s death, that she was a widow, and wanted to end her troubles by being buried at sea like her companion. The covery of the / second was made through the anxiety of two young girla who were unable to obtain admission to “MissjMiller’s” cabin, or get any reply tc inquiries. They had, it appears, invited her to join them on deck, but she said she preferred to rest. Next day, when they went again, aha told them she was unwell, and towards evening their knocks at the cabin door met no response. Becoming anxious they got the door,:so far open as to see “Miss Miller” lying bleeding on the floor. The girls were almost overcome by the shook, and in response to an alarm which they raised, some of the ship’s staff went into the cabin, and found the passenger shot dead. Like her companion, she was buried at sea the day before port was reached, the last rites being conducted, as in the first case, by a clergyman who was among the passengers. As both bodies were buried at sea, there can be no inquest, as in the case of such occurrences ashore. The motive for the double suicide is, of course, a mystery. The Ounard officials suggest that|there was no connection between the occurrences. It would appear that the two women’s acquaintance was neither very intimate noi of long standing, for when questioned after Miss Olarke’s death, “Miss. Miller” btated that all she could say was that she knew nothing of her except that she came from Brooklyn or New York.