Birmingham age-herald., 1895-02-12
Over Their Deliveranee From the Perils of the
 Deep.
Continuous. BreakdoWnS De- tain Her-Strong Mon Weep Over Her
 Arrival.

cOgne IS sale. The Erencn liner, e1ent days overdue, dropped anchor at the bar just at mi dnight with all we'll on board, and sigh of relief goes up from two con- tinents. The delay was due to broken piston rod and to the terrific gales which have swept the north Atlantic for the past week or more and brought disaster to many staunch craft. Captain Battledon and officers and crew of La Gascogne brought ship and passengers through the gales and made port without help. From the time they left Havre, on January 26, until yesterday they spoke no transatlantic steamer and saw only four masted schooner, the one which reported at St. Pierre Miquelon, N. B.. as having seen a large steamer off the banks, apparently In distress, last Satur- day.
 with representatives of the Times, Tribune and Recorder on board, was the first tug to reach La Gascogne. The disabled steamer left Fire island twenty five miles astern and was eight miles to the eastward of Sandy Hook light ship. It was 9:45 p. m. The big liner was limping into port at half speed with two big red lights, signals of distress, at the foremast. The tug lay alongside half an hour and the following story of the trip was obtained:
 STORY OF HE TRIP.
 The steamer left HI te January 2s. On l the first day out 449 les was logged, on the second day 4O7 mil on the third day. after travelling 3s0 miles, the piston rod broke and eighteen hours were spent in making repairs. When they were com pleted the ship steamed at nine miles an hour, making in all sixty-six miles on the 29th instant. On the 30lh, 31st and Feb- ruary 215, 2l5 and 2S0 miles a day were made respectively. On February the pis- r0d hrnka a down a fpha hreak vVn a more serious this time. Sea anchors were put out and for forty one hours the ship was hove to, making repairs. On the 4th the first severe weather was experienced, and the ship was blown 150 miles out of her course.
 On the 9th, the repairs having been com pleted, 103 miles were travelled. The ship WAS then close off the northward of the track of the trans- Al tlantio steamers, and was therefore not seen by the many steam CTS which passed over the regular track. On February sixteen miles we're made. On the 7lh the machinery broke down for on this day and the ship hove 10, with sea anchors ont all day. No headway was made owing to the motion of the ship and repairs were ditfi- cult. On the next day the chief engineer, who had been at bis post day and night, completed the repairs and tue ship pro- ceeded 131 miles. On the 9th, for the fourth time, the machinery brokes down and only seventy four miles were made. On the 10th 150 miles were made, aud to. day to the great rejoicing of all on board, Fire island vas sighted and the ship crept upto her anchorage off the bar.
 RECEIVED WITH CHEER.
 The United Press tug was received with a cheer by the anxious passengers. They crowded to the rail, yelled aud clapped their hands win all the enthusiasm of The inc French race. 1 he officers refused to allow any one on board and would not come 10 >sthe rail to talk. The passengers were more obliging.
 PASSENGER TALKS.
 Julius Matringin, a representative oi tue glove firm of Perrin, Freres Co.,, of Paris and New York, was interviewed over the side of the ship. lie said: "We broke down on the third day out. We did not become alarmed, as we did not know very much about what was the matter. The captain said it was all right, and we had confidence in him. Our first experi- ence with gales was on February 4. We had a terrible blow then and one of the boats was badly damaged.'
 'WasanythIng carried away?''
 'No; the ship stood it well. We had plenty of provisions and fared first rate. We were blown away of cur course and spoke no steamers until yesterday, when we saw an American bound for Pbiladels pbia.'
 ALL PARED WELL.
 Other passe n gers said that they had bean given plenty to eat, and except for ths number of times the sun rose and set they would not have known that anything was wrong. All particulars of the accidents to the machinery were kept from the passen- gers, but the daily bulletins of the knots made told the story.
 Beyond tediousness of the voyage the passengers positively suffered no incon- veniencs. Although the arrangement oi the machinery occurred on the third day, it was not till the ninth day that the steamer ran into bad weather, and then the slow tune which she was making was only that which some of the ocean greyhounds would have made under similar circum. stances, for the fastest and staunchest steamers slow down before such gale, the Teutonic aud Umbria being cases in point. h fact from the time La 0ascogue struck the clycione < she was little worse off than if she was in 1her prime running order. The Teutonie naR two days of the lightship before she
 make Sandy Hook. therefore La Gas
 whole delays. so far as it would be
 kpn of alarm to her passen gers, oc-
 naehe encou utered bad weather, l,