The Bismarck Tribune

San Juan Carrying
116 Persons, Check
Of Lists Discloses

(Continued from page one)

Suit for $100,000 and for $300,000 against the owners
of the Dodd, declaring the crash
resulted from failure of officers of
the tanker to keep adequate watch.

Charge San Juan Negligence

Captain H. C. Bleumchen of the
Dodd, in newspaper statements and
in testimony late yesterday before a
hastily-called hearing by United
States steamboat inspectors, declared
the collision resulted from failure of
the San Juan to maneuver properly
in response to signals from the Dodd's
whistle.

O. V. Saunders, third officer of the
Dodd, was on the bridge when the
accident occurred.

"I saw the masthead lights of a
steamer coming toward us. She was
about three quarters of a point off
the starboard bow, and three quarters
of a mile to a mile away.

"If the San Juan had held to her
course, he would have passed us with-
out trouble, on our right side. We
held to our course.

Ran Full Speed Astern

"The next thing I saw was the San
Juan's port light the light on the
left side of the ship. That meant that
the ship had made almost a full
swing, right across our bow. When I
saw this, I ran full speed astern.

"With the engines reversed, I blew
the proper signal, three blasts on the
whistle, to show we were in full speed
astern. I signaled three times be-
fore I heard the answering whistle
from the San Juan. She had re-
versed her engines by that time, but
we were almost together. If she had
not reversed her engines we could
have missed her.

"The Dodd hit the San Juan on an
angle, just aft of the middle of the
ship."

Witnesses said the steel prow of the
Dodd sliced through the iron sides of
the old ship with a splintering crash.

Oil Suffocates

Pandemonium followed. The lights
of the passenger vessel were cut
off as if by a switch, she sank. Life-
boats went unlaunched; life preserv-
ers in most cases never were donned.
One woman, Mrs. Marjorie Pifer of
Los Angeles, half pushed, half lifted
her six-year-old son to the forecastle
head of the big tanker as its prow
wedged in the side of the passenger
ship. A 14-year-old boy, Sol Kar-
ansky of Los Angeles, and one man
also climbed across in safety before
the vessels drifted apart.

Thickening fog enveloped wreck
and victims. Oil from the wreck
coated the ocean surface, clogging the
throats of those thrown free of the
wreckage, drowning those last cries
which might have brought rescuers.