Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1891 — OVER TWO HUNDRED PERIS. [ARTICLE]

OVER TWO HUNDRED PERIS.

StMßir, -with 700 Itallsna Aboard, Sunk bj a British Mun.nbVTar. The British steamship [Utopia, from Italian ports, bonnd to New York, with 700 Italian immigrants on board, collided on the 17th with the British ironclad Rodney anchored m wibralter Day, ana sudk booh after off Raggedstaff. A southwest gale was blowing at the time of the collision Many women and children were drowned. A large number clinging to the rigging were rescued by boats from the channel squadron. i On entering the bay the Utopia, before colliding with the Rodney, ran into the British ironclad Anson. The Utopia sank within a few minutes. Boats were imme dlately lowered from the British ironclad' and also from the Swedish man-of-war Freya. These boats rescued 180 persons who are now on board the various vessels, Many others who were rescued are lodged n government buildings on shore. It is reported that the crew of the Utopia was saved, but that over two hundred paasen gers perished. On the 19th it was announced that,the official report of the numter of persons on board the Utopia shows that when she left Naples the steamship had 880 souls on board, including passengers and crew. Of this number only 311 have been saved. Thus 569 of her passengera and : crew are either drowned or missing. One account of the disaster attributes it to the fact that the British warship Anson was drifts ing before the gale, and that in so doing she rammed the Utopia abaft the funnel. After ramming the Utopia, the An-* son is said to have reversed her ens gines, which caused her to back away from ~nh:eUtopia,whlchvesg6nwair'practically impaled on the spur of the Anson’s ram, and the Utopia immediately afterward sank beneath the waves. Everything possible was done by the officers and seamen of the British warships in their efforts to save the lives of the unfortunate people on board the Utopia, so much so that four seas men were washed overboard and drowned from one of the warship’s steam launches while taking part in the work of resoue.