The herald., 1897-03-18
SAILED BUT CAME NOT BACK
A Fate Of Shipwreck Of Unusual
Horror
OF Eighty People Aboard the st. Ma
xalrre Gold and Hunger Leave
but Four Alive

NEW YORK, March 1.-THE steamer
Vile de st. Nazairre. belonging to the
French line to the West Indies. sailed
from New York on March for Port Au
Prince with 81 persons on board, and has
not since been reported. She was a
bark-rigged' screw steamer.
The World tomorrow will publish the
following:
The schooner Hilda, that plies
along the coast between Perth Amboy
and Savannah, came into port last night
bearing 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 on
Monday ten miles off shore. II was
Captain Reims. 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. Nazairre." A boat
was lowered and the chief mate and
four seamen jumped into and rowed to
the helpless craft. Nearer and nearer
they came, and the faces of the sailors
gradually came into view. At the bow
of the boat, and apparently in charge OF
the party. was an old man, wearing the
uniform OF a ships officer. The mate
presently recognized in the face, hol-
low and sunken with the cold and want
Of many days, the features OF Captain
Jules Berry. one of the best known of the
commanders of the Havre branch of the
French line. and now long transferred
IN ho ~ dio n
on the center seat, were two half dressed,
coatless, hatless men. hugging them
selves with each blast of the cold wind,
and gibbering at the startled faces of the
Hilda's sailors. At their feet was q
fourth man. The old man at the prov
opened his lips as IL to speak, but no
sound came from them. One by one the
four men were liftedi in. In the stern OF
the craft was fifth man.
One of the sailors touched him on the
arm and began to draw him gently for
ward. when he slid quickly Off the seat
ana settled. lifeless. heap, in the bot
tom Of the boat Three more corpses
were in the boat Then the sailors towed
the dreadful freight back to the Hilda.
Nothing could be done but consign the
dead to the sea. Capt. Berry and the
three men were carefully looked after
and partially brought back to life and
reason. All they could tell was that the
Ytlle de st. Nazairre had somehow been
wrecked or abandoned and that these
four men were the survivors of those
who had taken to the boats, but how
many were dead, how many living, re-
mained untold until midnight Tuesday,
khen Capt. Berry. the first to recover.
was able to give out some words Of his
story
Eighty" were his first words in an
swer to question. "Eighty-there were
more than eighty souls on that boat
when we abandoned the st. Nazairrc.
,0f all those persons we four men are
the only ones left The others starved
- froze where they sat. They died in
s'l ways. They sank, dropped on one by
one. except where they went mad and
Jumped into the sea and ended that
way. The captain was the first to 20.
The men were quiet until they saw the
woman die; then they seemed. all at
once. to get raving, stark mad. AN are
here now. One, my comrade. DR.. Marie:
etants, our engineer. and Tagardi. the
Arst mate. That's all can tell now"
But with the hours the old man grad
uably grew stronger and BILE to talk with
something like coherency and clearness.
DR.: Marie, too, recovered his speech
ana strength enough to talk.