New-York tribune., 1873-12-20
THE VILE DU HAVRE.
A SURVIVORS STORY.

| The following letter has been received by MI Is.
A. Witthaus of this city from his SOD, who was
passenger the ill-fated Vile du Havre:
HOTEL LIVERPOOL, PARIS, Dec. 8.
| MY DEAR FATHER arrived here the night be-
fore last, very much tired but in perfect health
after having witnessed scenes which shall renem-
Der until my death, and after having been saved in
almost q miraculous manner from ocean grave
by the mercy of God | have much to say that
hardly know where tolcommence and as you Will
have bad more OF less accurate newspaper accounts
of the loss Of the steamer Vile du Havre, shall
coniine myself to my own personal experience.
Very soon after leaving New-York we ran into
fog which did not leave us definitely until the 10th
of November; on the second day out we lost one
blade of the screw which Of course diminished our
speed so that notwithstanding the favorable winds
which we had we were only on the sixth day ont at
noon about halfway of our journey. 1 had made
but few acquaintance on board aad spent most OF
my time reading On Friday afternoon the 2lst Of
November, the fog cleared off definitely and we
had fine sunset At about 10i l went
l'on the deck: the night was the most
magnificent starli ight one 8 which 1 have
ever seen at sea. A pleasant breeze was blowing; /;
we had great deal of sail set and were going along
finely through tolerably smooth sea; the weather
was 30 glorious that remained on deck until about
a quarter past 12 o'clock, when l went below and
turned in. had been asleep but short time, when
/ was suddenly awakened by tremendous shock
and loud grinding noise, which lasted only few
eecOnds. Jumped out of bed and, without attempt
ing to explain to myself what had happened, pulled
on q pair of trowsers, boots, Ulster over
coat and hat, and hurried on deck. 1
was one of the first of the passengers TO
reach the deck. The engines stopped and there was
Al, I.ol- 1nnt- LINZ
upwards observed that but little of this had come
down from our rigging, and then ran to the star
board side and saw bulwarks driven in for
length of fully 80 feet and all the rigging of the
starboard side cut away while was looking over
the side saw that the steamer was settling in the
water and the men were working at boats. then
made I'D nv mind for the worst, and went aft to
see what chance there was for me- in the boats for
two of these were already in the water; and as
came aft saw them put off to the ship which had
rln us down, and which fortunately had kept aioat
and hove 70 about one half of q mile under our
stern. These two boats were filed entirely with
French .ailors and fremen! Some 40 men were
making frantic and useless efforts to get another
boat over the side, and half Of these cowardly
rascals were already in the boat.
Seeing that the crew was entirely demoralized,
gave up ell hopes of being saved from the steamer
by a boat and looked around me for some means OF
keeping afoat when she should go down. Then
saw man near me, hammeriDg at the tafirail with
a capstsn bar, and on looking closer saw he was
irving to get e-preserver loose. then recol-
Iected having that very day seen sailors knife
sticking in sheath in the flagstaff; to run and get
this was the work or q few seconds, and with two
cuts loosened the life preserver for the man whom
l had seen bammerng at il, and whom recognized
as Monsieur Burbanson. then went at the next
one. which j secured for myself: then gave the
knife TO a Mr.. Belknap. who had broken all the
blades of his pocket-knfe in trying to cut life
preserver loose remained at the extreme stern of
the ship for two reasons-irst, because there was
little or no nggng over my head to drag me down
in case the should sink suddenly; and, sec
ondly. because had noticed that the bow was lower
in the water than the stern, from which judged
that she would not sink vertically, but go down at
An angle. bow first, and therefore cause
more suction forward than aft, which
proved to be the case. After I had secured
INV Ife-preserver, turned to see what going on
around me: as looked forward saw the mainmast
lean over TO leeward first slowly and then suddenly
fall over the side with a terrific crash from the
screams and gTOans which accompanied and followed
the fall of this mast and the mlzzen-mast, whlch
was dragged along with ii, knew that many per-
sons had been killed or crushed more OF less Sc
verely under the wreck. 1t then occurred to me,
".
until she went down, that would lind myself IN the
water among a crowd of others, some OF whom might
seize and drag me down 20 took of my shoes coat
and hat put my hfepreserver. got upon the rail-,
committed myself to the mercy OF God Almighty,
and Jumped over the stern.
sank of course at first and then came 10 the surface
again then after getting the water out OF my eyes,
turned around and Just saw the stern and mast OF
the steamer gong under: ut short distance from
Pe tsncs saw sailors e'efe pushed forward until got hold
of this, and shortly afterwards Mr.. Belknap swan
up and got hold Of it also. We remained In the
water they say an hour or more-to me It seemed
an eternity, with the black water around us, the
cold stars above, the shreks all around; and once
our piece of wreck got entanRled with noatlng
ting rid of. After time nv trowsers, being
soaked with water, got too heavy for me-, 80
] loosened them and kicked them of; so that when
was finally dragged into boat had only my
night and undershrts on, and was nearly frozen:
When got on board the English ship l obtained
some clothing. from the sailors. and swallowed
stout drink of brandy which revived me sufficiently
to enable me 10 patch mp some of the many persons
who were scratched or bruised in. various ways; as
for myself had not as much as pln'scratcn. 10
describe the narrowing scenes which occurred on
the ship Loeb Earn, "a boat after boat brought IN
some half drowned sufferers is impossble men and
women, but alas! only one child, were brought IN,
naked or nearly so almost frozen, half drowned,
and all bnt three having lost some dear one whose
dying screams still sounded in their ears One man
had received bad wound IN the head, wnicn had,
hope but temporarily, destroyed his reason; his
proans and hOws were dreadful to hear. In the
midst of all this, o bow thankful was and espe-
pecally for the fact OF having been the only one
of our family ON this ill-fated steamer
Owing to he bad hole in the bow Of the Loeb Earn
(which was only kept af1oat by water tight bulk
head false bow we were transferred to the Amer
ican ship Trimountain. Capt. Urquhart and after
eight days landed at Cardiff at o'clock last Monday
morning From there 1 telegraphed to you in New
YORK and dear mother IN Paris. The agent OF the
French steamship company furnished us with
clothing enough to cover our nakedness, and gave
us &c sterling each. We reached London Monday
our cousin Gabriel l. Wltthaus got from him ESQ
sterling and ON reaching Paris on Wednesday
found already q note from the Messrs. Munroe q
Co saving hat they had received q cable credit for
me FROM their New York house many THANKS to