Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1905 — MEET DEATH IN HUGE WAVE. [ARTICLE]

MEET DEATH IN HUGE WAVE.

Six Killed and Thirty-six Injured in Canard Line’s Campania. Five persons swept overboard, one dead after an operation and thirtysix injured Is the roster of victims of the tremendous wave that descended upon the Cunard line steamship Campania off the great banks of Newfoundland Wednesday. So sudden was the coming of the disaster and so great the confusion which attended and followed It, that even the officers of the steamer themselves were unable upon the vessel’s arrival in New York to estimate the full extent of the tragedy. The Campania was plowing along under full headway. A heavy quartering sea was running, but the weather conditions were far from unpleasant and the big boat’s decks were crowded with passengers. The steerage deck was covered with merry-makers and there was nothing to indicate the approaching disaster, when suddenly the big steamer lurched to port and scooped up an enormous sea. The wave boarded the steamer about midships on the port side and swept clear across the steerage deck, completely fill|ng the space between that deck and the deck above, carrying everything with it. So deep was the steamer’s side buried that the passengers on the deck above the steerage were submerged to their waists as the Immense volume of water rolled aft and then surged forward. Others, dashed against the rails and other like obstructions, escaped death, but many of them received severe injuries. One young woman had both legs broken at the thigh and several persons suffered broken arms and ribs, while more than a score were bruised and battered.

All the cabin passengers on the upper deck succeeded In clinging to supports, while the waters surged around them, and were saved, but the unfortunates on the steerage deck found themselves utterly helpless. The irresistible rush of waters, sweeping toward the forward part of the ship, carried everything before it. So great was the volume and force of the rushing waters that a door in the rail was smashed and through this opening five of the helpless ones were swept to their death.