May 29: ON THIS DAY in 1914, Empress of Ireland sinks

May 29, 2019 Brooklyn Eagle

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ON THIS DAY IN 1868, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The Impeachment Managers have achieved a triumph worthy of their leaders Bingham and Butler — they have punished a woman. Under pretense of providing a suitable room for the confinement of contumacious witnesses, the House, on motion of Bingham, ordered the police to take possession of rooms A and B in the basement of the Capitol, to be used as a guard-room. These rooms have been occupied by Miss Vinnie Ream, the sculptor, as a studio. Miss Ream has been accused of lobbying against impeachment, and threats were made that it would cost her the free quarters she held in the Capitol. The threat has been carried out. The Managers are like the boy who said if he couldn’t lick his playmate he could make mouths at his sister. They didn’t succeed in deposing the president, but they have ousted Vinnie Ream.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1914, the Eagle reported, “Rimouski, Quebec — The twin-screw Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland, carrying 1,437 persons, passengers and crew, sank in the darkness before dawn today in the St. Lawrence River, near here, with a loss of perhaps 1,000 lives. Early estimates of the dead varied from 678 to more than 1,100. The vessel, bound from Quebec for Liverpool, with 77 first, 206 second and 504 third-class passengers, was cut wide open by the collier Storstad, and sank within twenty minutes in nineteen fathoms of water. Of those saved, the majority appeared to be members of the crew or from the steerage. Many were badly injured and twenty-two died after being picked up … The crash occurred about 2 o’clock this morning off Father Point, Quebec, a village brought into prominence when Dr. Crippen, the London murderer, was caught.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1921, the Eagle reported, “The Rev. Richard Kennedy will soon take title to the large plot of ground at Fort Hamilton Ave. and 75th, where will be built a modern Roman Catholic church that will rank among the finest in the boro. Father Kennedy recently was designated rector of the new Bay Ridge Parish of St. Ephrem. Services are now being conducted in an old mansion, which is far too small. Nearly enough money has been obtained for the plot, which will cost about $45,000.”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1939, the Eagle reported, “Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, World War draft-dodger, said today he had returned to serve his prison term to escape the stigma of ‘a man without a country’ and to become a worthy citizen of a free country. Bergdoll, the former Philadelphia playboy who refused to fight for the United States against Germany, issued a formal statement to clarify his status in the eyes of the American people. He described the suffering he had endured in being separated from his aged mother, his wife and his five children. He said he wanted to take his punishment as a prisoner and therefore had returned to serve out his five-year term. He based his plea for tolerance and understanding on the American epic of Edward Everett Hale, ‘The Man Without a Country.’ Bergdoll is confined in the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Jay, Governor’s Island, to serve out the draft-dodging sentence imposed by an Army Court Martial in 1920. Bergdoll said he had returned to serve his time because he now ‘appreciated what a free country really means.’”

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ON THIS DAY IN 1963, the Eagle reported, “A group of more than 100 physicians, who take a scholarly interest in good food, wine and spirits, have given President [John] Kennedy a keg of 46-year-old cognac for his 46th birthday today. The physicians’ Wine Appreciation Society of New York sent the keg Monday for Kennedy’s ‘health and pleasure.’ President Kennedy plans to celebrate his 46th birthday with a quiet dinner party tonight at the White House. The White House said Mrs. Kennedy is giving the dinner for the president and members of the Kennedy family, and would not release details because of ‘family tradition.’”