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Taken from the next day's newspaper
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LOSS OF IDLER TO BE PROBED |
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The Corrigan's Are Determined to Place the
Responsibility. |
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Crew to be Called Upon to Give Reason for
Disaster. |
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Mate Admits No Preparations Were Made for Heavy
Gale. |
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Holmes, Yacht's Master, is Very Ill. |
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Yesterday the Weather Was Altogether Too Rough
to Admit of an Investigation of the Sunken Craft--
Today Diver Walter Metcalf Will Search for the Bodies
of the Lost if the Weather Proves Satisfactory |
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| Capts. James and John Corrigan are determined
to place the responsibility for the loss of the yacht Idler. At
8:30 o'clock this morning the crew of the Idler will be examined.
The examination will take place in the office of Goulder, Holding
& Masten, attorneys at law and proctors in admiralty. Nos.
816-818 Perry-Payne building. The examination will partake of the
nature of an inquest and will be conducted by Mr. Harvey D.
Goulder, representing the Corrigans. He said last evening that he
had been instructed to take the formal statements of the men
regarding the accident.
Mr. Goulder was asked if Capt. James Corrigan or
his brother intended prosecuting the men. He said he did not know.
He was also asked if he had determined whether or not the crew or
the captain, Holmes, could be prosecuted. He said he had given
that phase of the question no consideration. It is said that had
Capt. Holmes been in command of a steam vessel instead of a
sailing vessel when the accident occurred the government would be
called upon to make an investigation to decide whether or not he
was entitled to longer hold a license. Until a year ago the
government licensing of captains was confined to men sailing steam
vessels. At the last session of congress an amendment was added to
this law which requires all masters of sailing vessels of 700 tons
burden or over to take out a license. No applications for
license of this kind have been made in Cleveland, for the reason
that no sailing vessel of so great a burden sails from this port.
With the exception of Capt. Holmes the
entire crew of the Idler called at the office of Corrigan,
Mckinney & Co. yesterday morning and asked for assistance. All
of their belongings went down with the yacht. Their request was
complied with.
The condition of Mrs. John Corrigan yesterday was
said to be improved. She said that Mate Biggan of the Idler was
the only one of the crew to do anything for the women. She stated
that he did all he could. mrs. Corrigan asserted that Capt. Holmes
did not enter the cabin after the squall struck. He yelled
something, she said, but it could not be understood. |
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LAKE WAS TOO ROUGH
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Search for the Victims of the Disaster Was Not
Begun as Was Expected. |
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| The heavy sea which prevailed all yesterday
morning and until late yesterday afternoon effectually prevented
any attempt being made to recover the bodies of the women who went
down to death in the yacht Idler last Saturday afternoon.
Submarine Diver Walter Metcalf waited all morning and much of the
afternoon for the lake to become calm, but as it did not, he would
not go out. However, he will make the effort today.
Between 2 and 3 o'clock this morning one of
the Great Lakes Towing Co.'s tugs - probably the Lutz - will leave
the dock at the foot of Main street with the diver and his
assistant aboard. Capt. James corrigan and Mr. Charles Reiley will
accompany the party. Capt. Motley and members of the life saving
crew will also go along to lend assistance
Capt. Motley is of the opinion that the bodies of
Miss Ida May Corrigan and Miss Jane Corrigan will be washed ashore
between Cleveland and Fairport. Members of the life saving crew
and men in the employ of Capt. James Corrigan patrolled the beach
between Rocky River and Fairport yesterday on the lookout for the
bodies. Capt. Morley's men were stationed between this port and
Fairport.
The tug Joe Harris visited the wreck
yesterday afternoon. The tug left the dock at 3 o'clock and
returned at 6:10 o'clock. In addition to the regular crew of the
tug there were three members of the life saving crew. The latter
took with them a small surfboat. The experience of the men on the
tug on the way out was far from pleasant. Huge waves rolled over
the bow of the boat and drenched all on deck. So heave was the sea
that considerable water found its way into the fire hold. The men
were in danger several times of being pitched overboard. As it
was, a member of the crew came near losing his life. He was on the
front part of the boat, when an unusually big roller swept over
the deck and knocked him down. He was in danger of being
carried into the water, when another member of the crew grabbed
him, and just in the nick of time.
The yacht, according to the lifesavers
and the crew of the Harris, remains just where she went down. She
lies with her head to the north and a little to the east. They say
she has not moved at all. The waves and wind had blown away and
torn off all the sails above water, with the exception of the gaff
topsail which was still standing, but quite tattered. When the
wreck was reached the tug came to a standstill and the life savers
put off to the Idler in the surfboat and attached lamps to her
rigging to warn vessels of her position.
But few tugs ventured far outside the
breakwater yesterday because of the choppy sea. Mr. Metcalf
considered it foolhardy to make the attempt to recover the bodies
under those conditions. He said that smooth, or comparatively
smooth water, was necessary in diving for the bodies. |
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EXPECTED LIGHT GALE
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Mate Biggan Says the Idler's Crew Did Not Look
for a Frightful Gale. |
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| Regarding the loss of the yacht Idler, the
mate, Samuel Biggan, said yesterday:
"About five minutes before the squall
struck up Capt. Holmes asked me what I thought it was going to be,
and I told him I thought it would blow about thirty or thirty-five
miles an hour.He then remarked that he thought it wouldn't be any
more than that. At that time we had the topsails and jib topsails
off her. I started to take in the foresail and had it about three
parts down. The jib and staysails were down when the squall struck
her. The mainsail was up. The storm struck the yacht right abeam
and after that she was powerless.
"For the past week there had been squalls
going around and threatening but nothing came from them and we
concluded this was like those and would be nothing to speak of,
perhaps a little rain. We never for a moment thought it would be
sixty- five miles an hour. If we had thought so we would have had
all the sails down.
"Now, as for the people saying that
capt. Holmes was neglectful, I want to say that they are very much
mistaken. Capt. Holmes used good judgment and handled the boat
just right according to the indications.
"When the squall struck I went down into the
cabin and tried to get Mrs. James Corrigan and Mrs. Reiley. I
asked Mrs. Reiley to give me the baby so that I could tie it to
the mainmast head, but she would not give it up. The crew did all
they possibly could, and there was not one of them but what risked
his own life in trying to save the women. It was about five
minutes after the squall struck the yacht when she went down. Mrs.
John Corrigan was about ten minutes in the water.
"As for the time when the squall struck
us, I have the time right here. I have not started my watch
since she stopped when I struck the water. It shows 2:12 and I
have a quarter of an hour ahead of Cleveland time.
"As for the yacht, she was thoroughly
seaworthy. |
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DIVER METCALF'S PLANS
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Submarine Worker Tells How He Expects to Find
dead Bodies Today. |
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| For the benefit of Plain Dealer readers
Walter Metcalf yesterday consented to speak of the method he will
employ in his endeavor to get the bodies of the unfortunate women.
He will naturally carry his diving outfit with him on the tug.
When the wreck is reached the tug will be
brought to a standstill and anchored with exceedingly heavy
anchors to hold her as nearly stationary as possible. Then a wire
rope ladder sixty feet in length will be lowered from the side of
the tug and securely fastened to the boat. Down this ladder Mr.
Metcalf will descend to the deck of the yacht. On the tug will be
two men who will remain constantly at the pump to supply him with
air, which will be carried down to him through a hose int his
helmet, or diving cap; In addition to the two men at the pump
there will be F. W. Schwab, also a submarine diver, who will
attend to the signals of Mr. Metcalf. By means of a rope Mr.
Metcalf will signal to Mr. Schwab if he needs more air or less.
Diver Metcalf upon landing on the deck
of the yacht will at one make his way to the companionway of the
yacht and enter the saloon in which the bodies are thought to be.
In the event of finding a body he will fasten a rope to it, and
upon a signal from him Mr. Schwab will draw up the corpse to the
deck of the tug. |
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ROPE AROUND SAILORS ARM
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Was What Caused Miss Ida May Corrigan
to be Wrenched from Rescuer's Grasp |
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| A young man living on the West Side who went out
with the party on the tug Kennedy yesterday, carried with him
three carrier pigeons. It was proposed to send word to the city if
any bodies were discovered. None were found, but the birds were
released and flew back to the city safely.
Louis Reif, the engineer of the tug F. E.
Smith, which was the first to reach the Idler, yesterday related
how Miss Ida May Corrigan was lost. He said that a line had been
thrown to the sailor who was holding Miss corrigan. The sailor, he
said, wound the rope around the arm which held Miss Corrigan, and
when the men on the Smith began to draw it in to pull him and Miss
Corrigan on deck it jerked his arm from around Miss Corrigan and
she disappeared. Engineer Reif said the sailor was, from all
appearances, then too weak to again grasp Miss Corrigan.
The engineer stated that there was little
question that the Idler had been prepared by her crew to weather
the storm. "The squall struck us first," he said,
"we were astern. When it hit the Idler she went down on her
beam ends and although the crew appeared to be trying to get her
nose in the wind she never recovered, for the reason her sails
were not all down. I have no doubt but that when the squall struck
them," continued the engineer, "the crew made every
effort to weather it."
Mr. Reif said that the first question asked
by Mrs. John Corrigan when she was hauled on board the tug was:
"Is the captain saved?" She next asked if her daughter
was alive, but none dared to tell her the truth. He said Mrs.
Corrigan was at one taken into the engine room, where it was warm.
It was said that the crew of the tug Helene,
upon passing the Idler, called out to those on the yacht to take
in their sails. |
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HOLMES SEES NO VISITORS
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Captain of the Idler on the Verge of a Serious
Illness |
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| A reporter who called at he Bethel
hotel last evening to see Capt. Holmes was denied admittance to
him by the clerk. The latter said that Dr. J. R. Smith of Jennings
Avenue, who is attending him, had strictly forbidden anyone seeing
the captain.
Capt. Holmes is prostrated by
the shock and his trying experience, and is thought to be on the
verge of brain fever, earlier in the day, however, he is reported
to have said: "No sailor would take down all his canvas every
time he saw a black cloud. I saw the cloud, but thought there was
nothing but rain in it."
Capt. James Corrigan is bearing up
nobly under his terrible bereavement. Mrs. X. C. Scott, wife of
Dr. Scott, and sister of the late Mrs. James Corrigan, is
prostrated at her home, No. 457 Prospect street.
In the event any of the bodies are
washed ashore within the limits of Cuyahoga County Coroner Simon
will begin an inquest into the tragedy. There is some doubt
whether he may hold and inquest to the event any of the bodies re
recovered in the lake outside the four-mile limit. |
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