PASSENGERS CAUGHT LIKE RATS
The catastrophe was so sudden that scores never left their bunks. They were caught there like rats in a trap. Added to this was the fact that passengers had been on the ship only a day and were not familiar with their surroundings.
In the confusion and the semi-panic, many could not find their way to the decks, and only a few knew where to reach the boat deck. This was largely responsible for the terrible toll of death.
The survivors were taken on board the Storstad and the Lady Evelyn, which was summoned by wireless. There everything possible was done for them, but in at least five cases the shock and exposure were too severe. Four women perished after they reached the Storstad. In each case I was called and the unfortunates died before anything could be done. The last spark of energy had been exhausted. One other woman died just as she was being taken ashore.
CHAPTER VIII
Ship of Death Reaches Quebec
THE GHASTLY CARGO—ESCORTED BY BRITISH CRUISER ESSEX—SMALL WHITE COFFINS—PATHETIC SEARCH FOR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS—WRETCHED CONDITION OF BODIES—LOST HIS ENTIRE FAMILY—TWO CLAIM SAME BABY—“JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON”—BODIES BRUISED AND MUTILATED
IN the full sunlight of a perfect summer day, with church bells chiming and people trooping to early Mass, the Government steamer Lady Grey slowly steamed into Quebec Sunday morning with the most ghastly cargo ever brought to that port—188 coffined corpses of the victims from the Empress of Ireland wreck.
In spite of every effort sufficient coffins could not be secured at Rimouski, and a score or more victims had to be brought in hastily constructed wooden boxes. The Lady Grey looked like a lumber vessel with a heavy deck load, every inch of deck space being covered with coffins of all sorts piled three and four deep.