Evening Star Newspaper, September 18, 1936, Page 32

B—14 NAVEATON ERRR BLANED N WREEY Exploration Ship Off Course Before Disaster, Sur- vivor Says. By the Associated Press. REYKJAVIK, Iceland, September 18.—A mistake in navigation on the part of the experienced officers in| command was blamed today for the foundering of the French exploration ship Pourquoi Pas in which 39 lives were lost, including that of Capt. Jean Charcot. The vessel went on the rocks and sank Wednesday with all hands save one, Eugene Gouildec, a quartermaster, who last night told of the events lead- ng up to the disaster. Partly recovered from exhaustion resulting from four hours in the wild sea before he was cast up on shore, Gouidec said the vessel had got off her course. Officers, he said, were frantically trying to get bearings when the ship piled onto the jagged rocks of Ice- land's bleak coast. Wrong Course Taken. He was on the dog watch, Gouidec #aid, when he was sent below to get charts. An officer, he said, told him navigators had taken the wrong course, mistaking the Akranes Light- house for Seltjarnarnes. Gouidec said he was below when the 449-ton ship struck. He said the bow was cleanly broken off and the foremast snapped off to the deck. | Capt. Le Connait, he said, ordered | all to try and save themselves. One by one the men leaped into the rag- ing waters and all except Gouidec either drowned or were dashed to death on the rocks. The lone survivor said Capt. Le Connait made a heroic effort to save the ship by hoisting sails after water had put the engines out of commis- sion. Crashed Into Rock. The craft only bounced around helplessly, crashing into a rock known #s “Hnokki” which has been the doom of several ships in the past. Gouidec said when he jumped he saw Charcot still standing on the bridge with Capt. Le Connait. He and another sailor climbed on & floating gangway, but the waves soon washed his comrade to his death, Gouidec lost consciousness for about four hours and remembered only that he woke up in a farm house to which he had been carried from the beach where he was cast up. 22 Bodies Recovered. The 22 bodies, including that of Capt. Charcot, already recovered, will be brought to Reykjavik tomor- Tow. The Icelandic explorer Vilhjalmur Btefansson, who hurried here, said of Charcot: “His death is one of the greatest losses that could happen in the field of exploration. Much valuable in- formation obtained on his last voyage probably has been lost.” - A French destroyer was steaming toward Reykjavik last night to re- turn the bodies of the victims to France. It was revealed yesterday that two scientists, Drs. Robert Gessain and Michael Perez, escaped the disaster through their eagerness to return | home after the expedition's seven- week trek across Greenland. When the Pourquoi Pas first touched Iceland, they transferred to a faster ship. Nation Owns Welsh Pass. Aberglaslyn Pass, Wales, at the foot of Mount Cnowdon, has been present- ed to the nation. C. of C. Speaker CORRESPONDENT ON PRO- GRAM OF TRADE BODY. SIR WILLMOTT LEWIS, Washington correspondent of the London Times, who will speak on “International Ajf- Jairs” at the annual Fall rally of the Kensington Chamber of Commerce to be held next Wednesday night at the Ken- sington Elementary School. Dorothy Raynor, American opera star, will sing. INTERNATIONAL CLUB ACTIVITIES TO START Informal Housewarming to Be Held Tonight at Students’ House. The Washington International Club’s activities for the year will be- gin tonight with an informal house- | warming at the International Stu- dents’ House for foreign and American students, members and prospective members of the ciub. The house, a recent gift to the club, is being made available as living quar- ters for a score of students, representa- tive of almost as many nations. it is designed to become a social center for foreign and American students in Washington and a center for promo- tion of cultural relations between the various countries. Mrs. A. Lowry, who has had experience in organiz- ing Friends’ Hostels throughout Eu- rope, is director of the new Inter- national Students’ House. Formal opening of the house will take place Sunday, October 4, ac- cording to Miss Naomi Pekmezian, club president. Other members of the Executive Committee assisting | with arrangements for the occasion |are Dr. Lin Lin, Brookings Institu- tion, vice president of the club; Man- juel Argel, Georgetown University, | treasurer; Miss Tane Sato, Corcoran | Art School, recording secretary, and | Meyer Stolar, membership chairman. ’ @ ESTABLISHED 1865 @ Never Undersold And Never Will Be Quality for quality and workmanship for workman- ship, Barker prices are the lowest in Washington. In- ferior materials ore not cheap . . . they only seem to be! A1 e COMPANY o LUMBER and MILLWORK 649-651 N. Y. Ave. N.W. 1523 7th St. N.W. Na. 1348, “The Lumber Number”’ - Makes $2 Look Like @ SUEDES, SUEDES. SUEDES... in an almost endless variety ... in the newest and .most expen. sive looking styles . . . in every popular eolor for Fall 3. and enly 521 $4 CROSBY SHOES 115 “F* STREET N. W. 414 7th STR EET N. W. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1936. TOMORROW AT Ckamn .... 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