The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-12

fore not seen by the many steamers
 which passed through the regular track. February 6 169 miles were made On
 the Eth the machinery broke down for
 the third time. The heavy cyclone
 struck her on that day and the ship lay hove-to with sea anchors out all day. No headway was made and owing
 to the motion of the ship repairs were
 difficult. On the next day the chief en-
 gineer, who had been at his post day
 and night, completed the repairs and
 the ship proceeded 131 miles. On the
 9th, for the fourth time, the machinery
 broke down and only seventy-four miles
 were made. On the 10th 150 miles were
 made and yesterday, to the great re
 joicing of all on board Fire Island was
 sighted and the ship crept up to her an- chorage off the bar.
 The United Press tug was received with cheer by the anxious passengers. They crowded to the rail, yened and clapped their hands with all the en- thusiasm of the French race. The officers refused to allow anyone on board and would not come to the rail to talk. The passengers were more obilging.
 Julius Matrigan. a representative of l the glove firm of Perine Freres & Co.,, was interviewed over the side of the l ship. He said:
 "We broke down the third day out We did not become alarmed, as we knew little as to what was the matter The captain said it was all right and we had confidence in him. Our first experience with gales was on February A.. We had a terrible blow then and one of the boats was badly damaged"
 Was anything carried away?"
 "No. Tbe ship stood it well. We had plenty of provisions and fared first-rate. We were bound off our course and spoke to no steamers until yesterday, when we saw an American liner bound for Philadelphia"
 So eager were the passengers for news from shore that it was difficult to secure answers to the questions that were hurled at them from the tug. A copy of one of the United Press morn ing papers was thrown aboard, and in nowledgment Jules Matagran threw his card, weighed to a heavy sub stance, aboard the tug. On it was a copy of the log.
 The passengers said that they had been given plenty to eat, and except for the number of times the sun rose and set they would not have known any thing was wrong. All particulars to the accidents to the machinery were kept from the passengers, but the daily bulletin Of knots told the story. Be- yond the tediousness of the voyage the passengers positively suffered no in- sI ment of the machinery occurred on the third day it was not till the 9th thar the steamer ran into bad weather, and then the slow time she was making was only that which some ocean grey hounds would have made under similar circumstances.
 The passengers all united in saying that they were not alarmed and had a good time aboard The ship was out sixteen days in all, and both coal and provisions held out to the end.
 The repairs to the piston-rod were made by splicing it with steel bands. These worked loose or broke after day or two and had to be made over again.
 The Compagnie General Transatlan- tique sent the tug Louis Pulver down to | the ship. La Gascogne did not accept l the aid of the company's tug, but pro- | ceeded under her own steam to her an- | off the Sandy Hook lightship. | The steamer looked very little the worse | for wear after her protracted voyage.
 One of her boats was damaged but | all the deck gear was in place. There | was fleet of seven tugs lowering | around the steamer just before she l dropped anchor. They were the conpa- ny's tug and tugs bearing representa- tives of the New York papers. The United Press tug led the others up the bay and was the first to arrive at the Battery.
 The Gascogne will start up the bay early in the morning and the passen- gers will be landed before noon.
 In fact, from the time the La Gas cogne struck the cyclone the passen- gers were little worse off than if she was in prime running order. The Ecu tonic was two days off the Iightship before she could make Sandy Hook. therefore La G+ascognes whole delay, so far as it would be an occasion of alarm to her passengers, occurred be- ore she encountered bad weather, md they were at no time really fear Tul for their safety. She was not coated with ice as was other steamers which nave reached port in the last few days md there were none of the evidences which ordinarily caused anxiety.