The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-12-26
Loss Of the Vile du Havre-The Pur-
ser's Statement.


The purser of the lost steamer Vile
du Havre has furnished the following
narrative of the disaster
We had been out of New York seven
days when our ship accomplished her
terrible destiny. A thick fog settled
over our course during the first five days
of the voyage, but on the night of the
woeful event the mist had cleared away
and the weather was fine and bright. l
retired to rest at the usual hour, and
was sleeping in my cabin when the col
lision occurred. The shock, of course,
awoke me, and L Immediately hurried
on deck to ascertain the cause of the
unwonted disturbance. / deserted a
sailing ship, and / knew at once that it
had come into collision with our right
side. The rigging of the mainmast was
gone, and five minutes afterward there
broke over me the fearful conviction
that the ship was going down by the
bow. The scene which followed will
ever remain with me as a living men,
DRY, but L cannot attempt to describe it.
Some thirty or forty of the passengers
had managed to get into the long-boat,
lowered by order of the captain, and
the feeble hope which had remained
with them that they might all escape
with dear life grew strong when they
found themselves thus freed from the
sinking ship. Just at that moment,
however, an awful fatality happened.
The mizzen-mast fell on the left side of
the vessel, and either killed or wounded
nearly the whole of the occupants of the
boat. Half minute afterward the main
mast fell on the deck, killing two and
injuring several others. The horrors of
the catastrophe seemed, as it were, to
concentrate at this point, and surely a
more terribly heartrending scene was
never enacted in mid-ocean. / hear
even now the groans of the wounded,
the grievous but unavailing cry OF
Help help :" the heartrending
shrieks which pierced the air as Zone
was taken and the other left" / hear
even now the calmly expressed deter
mination issuing from many a manly
heart to "die nobly, as we must" 1
hear even now the sound of the water
rushing down the windpipe into the
hold with velocity that convinced all
who knew what il meant that the vessel
was sinking, not gradually, but with
wondrous, awful rapidity. undressed,
and, with another, jumped into the wa
ter. We swan toward the English ship
Loeb Earn, which had then hove off a
distance of half mile from the Vile
du Havre. L heard the ship cracking,
and, turning my head around, saw that
the vessel would be under water imme-
diately. L exclaimed to the gentleman
who was swimming by my side, "Look
behind you the ship is going down. J"
As rule. when a vessel sinks she
" shivers, but in this instance the ship
went down forward. For a moment a
mighty shrek rent the air, and the
cries from the vessel were evidently the
outbreak of the last great agony. Then
all was peace where all had been con-
fusion,a death-like calm succeeded noise
and tumult, and / knew that the good
ship and the souls on board her had
sunk into a watery grave / should like
to add that our captain remained on
the bridge during the whole of the
scene, and went down with the vessel.
He was rescued, however, in the course
Of an hour aftelward. All the officers
saved were picked up out of the water,
with one singh exception, VIZ: the
first lieutenant, who left, by command
of the captain, in a boat for the English
ship in order to ascertain whether it was
sinking or able TO receive the passen-
gers. There were fifteen officers in all,
and only six of these remained to tell