DEATH LIST NOW 138

Bodies of 73 Sound Disaster Victims Recovered.

ALL SURVIVORS INJURED

One Is Insane and Limbs of Some May be Amputated.

Survivor of Larchmont Charges Captain and Crew with Cowardice in Deserting
Ship While Many Helpless Passengers Were on Board - Company's President
Absolves Crew, Praises Their Courage, And Asserts Schooner Was to Blame

Identified dead 38
Unidentified dead and missing 100
Survivors 19
Total on board the ship 157

Providence, R. I. Feb 14. - A careful compilation of figures in this city early to-day shows that 138 lives are known to have been lost as a result of the collision Monday night between the Joy Line steamer Larchmont and the schooner Harry Knowlton.
It is known that there were not less than 157 persons on board the steamer. Of that number only nineteen survived. Seventy-tree bodies have been recovered, thirty-eight bodies have been recovered, thirty-eight of them having been identified. There are still 100 passengers who are either missing or unidentified.

Funeral Ship Arrives.
With her flag at half mast, the steamer Kentucky, of the Joy Line, reached this city at 6 o'clock this evening from Block Island, bearing eighteen of the survivors of the steamer Larchmont, which went down in Block Island Sound night before last, and forty-nine bodies of the victims of the disaster. One survivor of the wreck, Miss Sadie Galup, of Boston, was left on Block Island. There was one body left there when the Kentucky sailed from there this afternoon, but later fishing boats brought to the island twenty-two more bodies, making the total list of known dead not stand at seventy-three. Of the total number of persons aboard the steamer it is now almost certain that only nineteen have been saved, and of those only two are women.
All day fishing boats and tugs have scoured Block Island Sound in the hope that a boat or raft might be discovered that might contain some sign of life.

No Survivors Found
They failed to find anything but bodies to bear back to Block Island. Only a few bodies were washed ashore on the island during the day. After the tide turned the natural course for them would have been out to sea. It is therefore doubtful whether many more bodies will be recovered, and in all probability it will never be know how many lost their lives in this disaster.

Terrible tales of suffering were brought here to-night [sic] by some of the survivors, and one of the passengers asserted that in that awful hour of peril helpless women were thrust aside by men who cared only for their own safety. The charge of cowardice was make by Fred Hiergelsee, an eighteen-year-old lad of Brooklyn, N. Y. He said that not only were women left to their fate, but that Capt. McVey left the sinking ship in the very first lifeboat, that some of the ship's employes [sic] filled the boats to the exclusion of the passengers, and that at least one boat was without oars when it was put over the side.

Tells Another Version.
Louis MacFarland, a negro waiter on the Larchmont, gave a version of the departure of the captain's boat which was entirely different from that given by Hiergesell. He said that when re reached the captain's boat, to which he was assigned, he found Capt McVey there. The captain ordered that the boat be swung outboard, ready to lower, calling to the passengers at the same time to step into the boat The passengers, MacFarland said, seemed afraid to do so, and as the steamer was going down fast, Capt McVey ordered that the boat be lowered. When it reached the water, however, a rope, fastened to the ring bolt and attached to the davit above, became caught, and those in the boat were in danger of being dragged down with the steamer, when Boatswain Andrew Tobesen, who was on the deck, saved their lives by cutting the rope.

Hiergesell's statement was confirmed by other survivors of the terrible tradedy, but, notwithstanding the fact that there was none to corrobarate him, he held steadfastly to his statement.

Official Blames Schooner.
President Dunbaugh issued a statement to-night [sic], in which he said:
"The schooner was responsible for the collision. The officers and crew of the Larchmont are not to blame in any way. In view of the horrible conditions which prevailed immediately after the accident, I am satisfied the men did all in their power to meet the situation as conscientious and honorable men. It appears from my investigation that the schooner luffed right into the Larchmont and caused the accident which resulted in such great loss of life.

"The fact that the steamer sank so soon after the crash; the fact that so many were unable to reach the boats even after they were put out, is, to my mind, sufficient proof that the crew acted bravely and did all it its power to aid the passengers who were able to reach the deck."

Saw Both Sides' Lights.
The story brought in by the Kentucky to-night [sic] was a story of tradedy such as is difficult for the imagination to picture as occurring in a comparatively narrow strait, through which vessels are constantly passing. The light from Block Island and from the Rhode Island mainland were visible when the ship went down, carrying with her many of the passengers undoubtedly. The same light could be seen by the others who had managed to get into the boats, only to succumb in the icy sea.

So quickly did the vessel go down that there was no time for a single signal of distress to be given which might have told the life-savers on both shores of the tragedy that was happening so near to them.

The survivors who reached here told stories of what happened aboard after the ship received her death blow from the schooner, that make the picture even a more terrible one. Men, women, and children, it appears, fought to get up the stairs from the main deck to the hurricane deck, where the boats and rafts were. Some had to give it up, apparently. One of the survivors, failing to get up by the stairway, where men were fighting for their lives, succeeded in climbing through a port hole and up on the outside of the steamer. How many failed to get up the stairs and reach the deck before the ship went down will never be known. All of the stories agree that the boat sank not more than ten minutes after the collision. This was about six minutes after the captain's boat had left the ship.

The Washington Post, Washington, DC 14 Feb 1907

Continued in part 2, below