Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1874-01-08
A SURVIVORS, Experience.

Mr. II. n. HlttnauS, OF Ne" IOIA,
has received an interesting letter from
his son Rudolph. one of the survivors
of the Villa du Havre disaster. He
declares that the night was beautifully
clear; that the crew. after the collision.
were totally demoralized, and that the
two boats which got away from the Vii
la du Havre were filled with French
sailors and firemen
The following is the most interesting
part of Mr.. Witthaus's letter.
Seeing that the crew was entirely
demoralized, | gave up all hopes Of be
ing saved from the steamer by boat,
and looked around me for some means
of keeping aaoat when she should go
down. Then l saw a man near me
hammering at the taffrail with cap
stan bar. and on looking closer I saw
he was trying to get life preseryer
loose. / then recollected having that
very day seen a sailors knife sticking
in a sheath in the flagstaff; to run and
get this was the work of few seconds,
and with two cuts loosened the life
preserver for the man whom | had seen
hammeEing at it, and whom l recog-
nized as a Monsieur Burbanson. |
then went at the next one, which Sc
cured for myself; then gave the
knife to Mr.. Belknap. who had broken
all the blades of his pocket knife in try
ing to cut life preserver loose | re-
mained at the extreme stern Of the ship
for two reasons--first. because there
was little or no rigging over my head
to drag me down in case the steamer
should sink suddenly; and secondly, be-
cause | had noticed that the bow was
lower in the water than the stern, from
which l-judged that she would not
sink vertically. but 90 down at an an
gle, bow first, and therefore cause more
suction forward. than aft, which proved
to be the case.
"Atter | had secured my life pre-
server, turned to see what was going
on around ME; as | looked forward |
saw the mainmast lean over to leewa ard,
first slowly, and then suddenly fall
over the side, with a terrific crash;
from the screams and groans which
accompanied and followed the fall of
this mast and the mizzen-mast, which
was dragging along with it, | knew
that many persons had been killed or
crushed more or less severely under
the wreck 1t then occurred to me,
that if I remained on board
the steamer until she went down, that |
would find myself in the water with a
crowd of others, some of whom might
seize and drag me down; so | took off
my shoes. coat, and hat, put on my
life preseryer. got upon the rail. com
mitted myself to the mercy of God
Almighty. and jumped over the stern
81 sank. of course at first, and then
came to the surface again; then, after
getting the water out of my eyes, !
turned around and just saw the stern
and mast of the steamer going under;
at a short distance from me | saw a
piece of wreck, upon which were two
French sailors pushed forward un-
til | got hold Of this, and shortly after
wards Mr. Belkrap swan mp and got
hold of it also. We remained in the
water, they say, an hour or more; to
me 1t seemed an eternity, with the
black water around us, the cold stars
above, the sharks all around; and once
our piece of wreck got entangled with
a floating corpse. which We had great
trouble in getting rid of. After time
my trowsers, being soaked with water,
got too heavy for me, so | loosened
them and kicked them off; so that when
| was finally dragged into boat, had
only my night and undershirts on, and
[ was nearly frozen -