Norfolk, Va., Jan. 4.—A wireless message received tonight from the revenue cutter Apache says the British steamer Indrakuala[Pg 124] rescued six of the crew of the steamer Luckenbach, with which she collided in Chesapeake Bay today. One of the men, W. M. McDonald, a coal passer, died from the effects of the long exposure in the Luckenbach’s rigging.

Norfolk, Va., Jan. 4.—With the abatement today of the wind and snowstorm that raged over the eastern states last night, came harrowing tales of shipwrecks at sea, thrilling rescues, increased loss of life and damage to property.

Eight men, the survivors of the crew of twenty-two of the steamer Julia Luckenbach, which was rammed and sunk by the British tramp Indrakuala in Chesapeake bay, arrived in Norfolk late today, and after being revived, started for New York.

The eight men clung to the rigging for six hours until they were taken off by the crew of the steamship Pennsylvania. The Indrakuala was badly damaged and had to be beached. She lies about two miles from the Luckenbach, whose spars alone are visible rising out of forty-five feet of water near Tangiers sound.

The eight survivors of the Luckenbach are George Hunt, first officer; William Bruhn, second officer; George Little, first assistant engineer; George Doyle, third assistant engineer; George Davis, quartermaster; William Hoffman, fireman; and Theodore Losher and P. Anderson, seamen.

Describing his experience Davis said tonight:

“None of us knew what hit us. I was knocked down and when I got up water was pouring over me. I saw men climbing into the rigging and I followed. I saw Capt. Gilbert swimming around the ship and calling for his wife, who was an invalid. Both were lost. Waves that appeared to be two hundred feet high broke over the ship and she sank in a hurry. Lifeboats were lowered from the Indrakuala but none came toward us. The ship turned her nose around and started for the beach.”

“We pleaded and cried for help,” said Theodore Losher, “but were either unheard or ignored. The Indrakuala was less than 100 yards away when she started for the beach. I thought every minute we would be blown into the sea. The wind was terrific. Our chief engineer, Kris Knudson, told me he could not hold on much longer, because his hands were frozen. I told him to stick it out a little longer. When the Danish steamer Pennsylvania hove in sight, I called to him, but he was gone.

“We were six hours in that rigging. But there were men on the Pennsylvania. When they saw our signals of distress they put away in small boats in spite of the tremendous seas. The boats would get near us and then be carried fifty feet in the air on the crest of a wave and lost to sight, but those men stuck and took everyone of us off. First Officer Hunt was unconscious when they reached[Pg 125] him. He had been holding on with one hand and holding an unconscious man on his perch with the other.”

The Indrakuala is commanded by Capt. Smith, but the ship does not carry wireless and no statement from him was obtainable tonight.

According to the survivors, Capt. Gilbert and the first and second officers were standing on the bridge when the collision occurred. There was no opportunity to give alarm to those below.

About 5 o’clock yesterday morning a wagon load of thieves arrived in front of the tenement house at 841 Holton Place. Leaving one of their number to hold the horse, the others went to the roof of the house and thence to the loft building at 837 Holton Place, on the top floor of which are the store and show rooms of the International Jewelry Company, of which Henry Hertel is President. The thieves cut a big hole through the roof of that building and then with the aid of a rope ladder let themselves down into the show room, where they packed a dozen suitcases belonging to traveling salesmen with loot, the value of which Mr. Hertel last night estimated to be about $5,000.

The International Jewelry Company is wired everywhere with burglar alarms, but the directing mind of yesterday’s theft evidently knew where all the wires were, for the hole was cut in one of the few places in the ceiling which had not been wired. After packing the suitcases the thieves retraced their steps over the roofs of 839 to 841 Holton Place, and then proceeding down the stairways of the tenement house, deposited the suitcases in the wagon and drove away.

The theft was discovered when the place was opened for business yesterday morning. An investigation was started, and tenants in 841 Holton Place told of seeing the wagon in front of that house at about 5 A.M. Detectives from the Reynolds Street Station are working on the case. So far they have reported no progress.