Ship Returning to Halifax
Patrick O'Keefe's Story of Rescue
The White Star Line agent at Halifax wired the New York office yesterday that the Captain of the steamship Minia had sent the following message:
["]Returned to position last night during east gale and fog, and searched a11 day; found no bodies; omitted giving you following:
["]Joseph Finney, second class, rubber merchant, Brown Building, Liverpool.
["]Thomas Mullin, Badge 32, steward.
["]Have searched from latitude 49.25 eastward to 48 and north from 41.20 to 41.50. No doubt some single bodies remain; no groups. As they cannot be seen more than half a mile, you will understand how difficult it is to search every square mile for them. Regret must leave Friday night, but will make another search tomorrow. Passed one body during dense fog; unable to find it afterward.["]
Stanton Abbott, an Englishman residing at Providence, R. I., inquired at the White Star Line office yesterday for his two sons, Rosmore Edward, 17 years old, and Eugene Joseph, 13, who were passengers with their mother, Mrs. Rose Abbott, 45 years old, on the Titanic, and were lost. The mother, he said, is in the New York Hospital in a dangerous condition from shock and fever. He was told that the body of the older boy had been recovered, and Mr. Abbott said he would go to Halifax to claim it. The mother was separated from her sons when she was assisted into a lifeboat.
Chief Engineer R. H. Fleming, who was reported lost on the Titanic, is chief engineer on the Olympic. The chief of the Titanic was J. Bell.
The officials of the White Star said yesterday that several persons had called to put in claims for relief alleging that they were survivors of the Titanic, but were discovered to be imposters.
Patrick O'Keefe, an Irishman who sailed on the Titanic as a steerage passenger, after asking aid of the White Star yesterday and being referred to the Red Cross Society and the Irish Immigrant Home, told his experience. He believes he was one of the last to be saved. He swam toward a life raft when the steamship went down, and was hauled aboard. The raft was covered with firemen and other members of the crew.
The raft had as many as it could hold when O'Keefe was dragged aboard, and of the scores struggling and fighting around them, not another man could scramble up to safety.
Comment and discuss