STORSTAD DEFENDED
Divers opinions, which put the blame on the captain of the Storstad for not keeping the bow of his vessel hard against the Empress of Ireland, that her passengers might clamber abroad, aroused Captain A. J. Elliott, head of the marine department of the Canadian Pacific, to a statement in defense of Captain Andersen.
“It has been said that the Storstad backed out of the hole in the Empress’ side and did not give her passengers an opportunity to crawl over her sides,” said Captain Elliott. “That is not true. The Storstad kept her engines ahead after the collision and attempted to keep her nose in the breach of the other’s side. It did for a few moments, or may be minutes, but the momentum of the Empress of Ireland still carried the greater ship ahead and drew the smaller vessel around with her. Consequently the lighter vessel was pushed out of the hole and could be of no assistance. As to a difference between signals, those for port and those for starboard are always the same, of course, and would not be misinterpreted if heard. But as to signals for fog and for clear weather, there is a difference. The fog signals are blasts prescribed by law of a duration of not less than three seconds, but they still are different from the port and starboard signals.”
Statements made by various passengers seem to agree that there was clear weather some time before the accident, but that one of the fogs for which the Gulf and St. Lawrence River are noted, lowered suddenly upon the two ships soon after they had exchanged warning blasts. The pilot of the Empress of Ireland had been put out in his boat and to all appearances the coast was clear. Then came obscurity and a confusion of signals. One passenger described the situation thus:
“The Empress had been whistling and signaling to a ship ahead. From the signals I thought there must be a vessel approaching us. Then I suddenly realized from my long experience at sea that something was wrong. I looked out and listened to the signals, and it seemed to me that the other vessel was taking a chance of crossing our bow. A moment later I realized that they had lost this chance, and the collier instead of crossing our bow had struck us square amidships.”