Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-03-18
STEAMER VILE DE ST. NAZAIRE
WRECKED on THE ATLANTIC.
ONLY FOUR PERSONS SAVED.
THESE WE'RE FOUND IN A STATE OF
CHEERING INSANITY.
One Recovered Sufficiently to Tell
How Seventy-six Others Starved,
Fruze, Killed Themselves
or Went Mad in
Their Agony.

New York, March 1.-THE steamer. Vile
line to the West Indies, sailed from New
York on March for Port Au Prince,
Mayugez, etc, with eighty persons on
board, and has not since been reported.
She was a. bark-rigged screw steamer of
$50 tons register.
The World tomorrow will publish the fol-
lowing: 1.-The schooner Hilda, that plies
along the coast between Perth Amboy and
Savannah, came into port last night bear
ing with her a story horrible even in the
annals of the Atlantic ocean She carried
in her cabin four passengers whom she had
picked up in a boat Monday, ten miles off
shore. 1t was Captain Riems, skipper of
the Hilda, who first sighted the boat. As
the schooner drew nearer, the outlines of
human figures were made out. Then, on
the PROV of the boat, they saw the words,
Vile De st. Nazaire.'
"A boat was lowered and the chief mate
and four seaman jumped in and rowed out
to the helpless craft. Nearer and nearer
they came, and the faces of the sailors
gradually came into view. At the prov of
the boat, and apparently in charge of the
party,was an old man wearing the uniform
of ships officer. The mate presently rec
ognized in the face, hollow and sunken
with the cold and want of many days, the
features of Captain Jules Berri. one of the
best known of the commanders of the
Havre branch of the French line, and now
long transferred to the West Indian Serv-
ice. Behind him. on the center seat. were
two half dressed. coatless. hatless men,
hugging themselves with each blast of the
cold wind. and sibbering at the startled
faces of the Hilda's sailors. AT their feet
was a fourth man. The old man at the
PROV opened his lips as if to speak, but
no sound came from them.
Zone by one the four men were lifted
in. In the stern of the craft was a fifth
man. One of the sailors touched him on
the arm and began to draw him gently
forward when he slid quickly off the seat
and settled, a lifeless heap, in the bottom
of the boat. Three more corpses were in
the boat. Then the sailors towed the
dreadful freight back to the Hilda. Moth
ing could be done but consign the dead to
the sea. Captain Berri and the three men
were carefully looked after and partially
brought back to life and reason. All they
could tell was that the Vile de ST. Ma
Zaire had somehow been wrecked or aban-
doned. and that these four men were the
survivors of those who had taken to the
nodlS, Dul now many were dead. how
many living, remained untold until mid
night on Tuesday, when Captain Berri. the
first to recover. was able to gasp out some
words of his story.
Eight were his first words in answer
to a question.
'Eight-there were more than eight
there were eighty souls on that boat
when We abandoned the st. Nazaire. OF
all OF those men and women we four are
the only ones left alive The others starved
or froze where they sat. They died in all
ways. They sank. dropped off, one by one.
except where they went mad. and then
some jumped into the sea and ended it in
that way. The captain was the first to
go. The men We're quiet enough till they
saw the women die; then they seemed all
at once to get raving. stark mad. All
are here now. One. my comrade Dr.
Marie: Stants, our engineer. and Tagardi,
first mate. That's all L can tell now
Put with the hours the old man grad
ually grew stronger and able to talk with
something like coherency and ciearness.
DIR. Maire. too. recovered his speech and
strength enough to talk