Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1881 — APPALLING CATASTROPHE. [ARTICLE]

APPALLING CATASTROPHE.

A terrible calamity, involving the loss of nearly 200 lives, occurred to the steamer Victoria at London, Ontario. “The ill-fated vessel,” says a dispatch from London, “ with over 600 excursionists on board, was returning from Spring Bank, and, when near the Cove railway bridge, one mile below the city, the boat suddenly collapsed like an egg flhell and became a total wreck, level With the water’s edge. All the passengers were instantly plunged into the stream, more than half of them being underneath the debris. The first nows which reached the city was brought by survivors, who struggled through the streets wet and weary. The news fell like a thunderbolt, and a stamped? took place for the spot. Arriving there, a terrible sight met the view. Fifty or sixty bodies had already been recovered and were lying on the green sward some distance up the bank. Those arriving from the city from every direction crowded around, anxious to see if any relatives were on board. Several hundred families were represented on the excursion, and the wail at the sight of the victims was heartrending. Fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters rushed about panic-stricken, endeavoring to identify relatives. By 7 o’clock about eighty bodies were recovered from under the wreck, where the water was twelve feet in depth. Almost every minute some victim was brought to the surface and conveyed to the boat. The steamer Princess Louise was early brought to the spot and the victims placed on the upper decks. Fires were lit on the bank overlooking the river, and petroleum torches were brought and the search continued. Up to the present hour about 150 corpses have been secured. Among the dead are James Robertson. Manager of the Bank of British North America; J. C. Meredith, Clerk of the Division Court; Win. Mcßride, Assessor and Secretary of the Western Fair Association; Mrs. Wm. Ashbury, Wm. Millman, Montreal, commercial agent, and two sons of J. Rogers, plumber. Mr. Matthews, night editor of the Advertiser, lost his wife and two cliildren. Harry Smart, of the Free Press, lost wife, two children and a sister-in-law.

The whole city seems almost demented tonight. The accident was entirely due to gross carelessness. The boat was overcrowded to a disgraceful extent. The manager, George Parish, was expostulated with by several at Spring Bank, and urged not to let the boat go out in that overcrowded condition, but he is reported to have replied, “All right, I know my business,” or something of that sort

Tlie Story of the Disaster, from Beginning to End. [London Telegram to Chicago Tribune.] Tuesday, the day of the horrible catastrophe, was the anniversary of Queen Victoria’s birthday, and the great bulk of the people closed up their houses and went off for a day of innocent enjoyment Several train loads took their departure for the lake shore at Port Stanley, others to Windsor and Sarnia, and about 2,000 went to Springbank, being carried thither by the three excursion steamers owned by the Thames Navigation Company. The day was pleasantly enjoyed in the customary recreations of a rural picnic, and, toward 5 o’clock, the homeward rush began. The rotten Victoria was the first boat up, and the rush to get on board and reach the city before supper-time was tremendous. Several people protested against the Captain of the craft allowing so many people to board her, but he was deaf to all entreaty, and allowed all who could finds place whereon to hang to come along. Groaning under th* weight of some GOO people, who kept moving in masses from one side to another.- the boat had a hard time of it The main deck was packed so tightly that it was with difficulty that one could elbow his way ; yet at times the mass of humanity would, as it were, congeal together, so as to leave a small vacant space, sometimes on one and’ sometimes on the other side of the deck. The hurricane deck also was crowded, but here there was none of that swaying back and forth, which marked the crowd below. A few adventurous spnits sought the seclusion of the boiler-deck and the engine-room, where they smoked their cigars and watched the movement of the machinery. All went well, or, at least, presumably, until a bend in the river was reached, about 200 yards below the Cove railroad bridge, and there the day of pleasure turned into a dies irro. About 7 o’clock some persons arrived in the city with a wet and generally used-up appearance and spread the intelligence of what had befallen the Victoria. Rumors of all kinds began to spread like wildfire, but it was not for some minutes that the full significance of the news was realized. Then the general stampede for the river banks, in which the entire city seemed to join. Every road leading to the fated spot had its line of people of both sexes, hurrying thither in a state of frenzied anxiety, some sobbing hysterically and questioning every one in their flight as to the fate of friends and relatives, whom they knew Jo have gone down the river. As each one .arrived on the river bank overlooking the* wreck and saw the ghastly upturned faces of the dead who had been taken Out and laid-upon the sod, or looked out upon the shattered huljf lay in fragments on the wafer, they gave vent to piteous exclamations of grief: “My God! such a sight I have never looked upon!” said one. “This is a dark day, indeed, for London!” exclaimed another. ‘ ‘My wife and child! ,7V here are they?” “Oh, God, restore my little' one*!” were prayers heard on all sides. Oh'the wreck brave men, streaming with- perkpiration, and strong in their noble purpose, were working like herpes in recovering the bodies which lay underneath the shattered boards and tiffibers, and, as one after another were brought to the surface and carried tenderly to the green sward to add to the ghastly row, the crowds pressed forward eagerly ta scan

the ftetures. Their face* •« with $ strange anxiety. Here was some bereaved father or brother, clasping the limp form of a beloved daughter or sister, giving vent to thait emotions in wailflof anguish; there some mother or sistar lamenting over the corpse of a soft ot brother, like Rachel weeping because they were nbt. Here and there, knots of men worked vigorously to restore to life some beloved relative, practicing all the arts known to them, rubbing the hand* and applying clothes heated at a neighboring fire, but all to BP purpose. Vitality would not return, and the sorrowing friends gave up in despair. Meantime the work of rescuing went on, and the list swelled and swelled until it seemed as if the end would never come. As dusk deepened mto the flight the scene became more weird and terrible. Fite* were lit Upon the bank, shedding a lurid And fitful glare over the water, ana showing the dreadful outlines in their most sinister aspect. The work of recovering the bodies was entered into with a heroic spirit by those who arrived early on the scene. Merchants, lawyers, workmen and all classes plunged into the water, and, borne up by rafts, began to hand the lifeless forms of the drowned ones out to those on the shore. Resuscitation was tried with all who were rescued within one-half hour, but only in one or two instances were the efforts successful. During the silent watches of the-night, and by the lurid glare of wood-fires and petroleum torches, the work of rescuing the bodies of the drowned was carried on.