WRECKS AND RESCUES 265 



sail and steam. Amongst the smacks was the Wild- 

 flower, whose skipper was William Wright. 



When the Elbe left Bremen for New York, 

 calling at Southampton, the German rivers were frozen 

 and the weather was intensely cold. She sailed from 

 Bremen on the afternoon of 3<Dth January, and began 

 her trip to America. There were, all told, 352 people 

 on board, the passengers including a number of women 

 and children. She carried two pilots, one German and 

 one English, and her captain was a brave and experienced 

 officer. 



All went well until five o'clock on the following 

 morning, when the liner was run into by a small steamer 

 named the Crathie and so badly damaged that within 

 twenty minutes she foundered. 



The Crathie herself could do but little she was a 

 cargo craft with a crew of twelve, bound from Rotterdam 

 to Aberdeen ; and the tackle of the liner's boats was 

 frozen, so that axes had to be used to lower them. 

 When the boats were at last freed and lowered they 

 capsized, with one exception. All those on the star- 

 board side, filled with terrified passengers and crew, were 

 either smashed or swamped before they touched the sea, 

 and the occupants were drowned or killed. A boat on 

 the port side, into which Miss Bocker made her way, 

 capsized as soon as it touched the water, and all who 

 were in it, with the exception of herself, were drowned. 

 She could swim, and managed to seize and hold on to 

 the boat's mast, which was afloat. Within a few 

 minutes she was picked up by another small boat, one 

 which, though meant to carry only fifteen people, already 

 had nineteen packed together. In the bitter darkness 



