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.
ESCORTED BY BRITISH CRUISER ESSEX
On her melancholy journey the Lady Grey was escorted by the British cruiser Essex, which had been cruising 348 miles below Quebec, and received a wireless order from the Admiralty to make all speed to the scene of the collision and render every possible assistance.
The Lady Grey at five minutes past eight proceeded to pier No. 27, where the huge shed was transformed into a mortuary chamber. The entrance was draped with black and purple, while inside three long counters had been constructed to accommodate the bodies.
As the Lady Grey drew up with the Union Jack half-masted at the stern, her bulwarks were lined with a hundred blue-jackets and marines from the Essex, under Commander Tweedie, who had been detailed to remove the coffins from the death ship. This was most fortunate, for the British seamen not only lent the necessary touch of dignity to the scene, as without a word and scarcely a sound they carried the dreadfully long row of bodies ashore, but they did the work with most impressive skill. The men were evidently weighted with this terrible illustration of the dangers of the sea, and worked with solemn intentness during the long hour and a quarter it took to get the dread cargo from the Lady Grey.