Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-03-25
IA MODERN SEA HORROR.
Loss Of the French Line Steamer
Vile De St. Nazairie.
or EIGhfy-TWO Persons on Board Fher
She Left New York, Only Four Sur
viVe-A Horrible Story of
Suffering.

capt Jacquena, which sailed from this
port on March 6, bound for the West
Indies, foundered at sea. OF her So pas
sengers and crew only four are known
10 besayed- These arrived Wednesday
ON the schooner Hilda, after a weeks
drifting about the Atlantic il. an open
boat, during which "a of the 50 oc-
cupants went mad or died of starvation
The saved are:
Berry, inspector of Compaigne GEN
>Grale, Transatlantique.
Maria, the ships doctor.
Stsuts, third engineer.
Tagado, San DOMINICAN.
Among the lost are:
DAndrew, first lieutenant
Herbert, second lieutenant
AeJuene, purser.
Nicolay, second captain
Mariana, chief engineer
Mrs Tagado and four children,
starved to death.
Pitiful and tragic is the stor- Of the
sad disaster. It tells of brav, steam
ship stamping in a turmoil of Hat
6eras; OF four boats being crushed
against the sides in that midnight hor-
ror; of the launch of four boats that
were left and the crowding into them
of passengers and crew. The survivors
of this ocean tragedy are hardly yet
able to give a connected story of the
Hast II days Capt Berry, the in
sPector general of the French line, is
confined to his room in the Hotel
Martin His story is a narrative
of privation and hardship, such as is
seldom heard in modern annals of the
he hra 4
the Normandie and the Vile de Brest,
a sister ship of the Inflated vessel.
They are emaciated from hunger and
their nerves are completely unstrung
by their sufferings-
THE RESCUE.
Mate Collins of the Hilda, now lying at
Perth Amboy. was interviewed on
board that vessel yesterday. In telling
of the rescue of the survivors of the
wreck in the steamship St. Nazaire, he
said that never in his long experience
on the sea had he seen such an awful
sight as was presented By the small
boat and its occupants when the Hilda
came alongside. The four men yet
alive were trying to stand erect, but
their legs refused to support them and
time and again they sank to the bot
tom of the boat. where four of their
companions were lying cold in death.
Not one of them had the strength nee
essary to catch the line thrown to
them, and not one could utter a word
plainly enough to be understood.
The small boat containing the sur
vivors, he continued, was sighted at
D. IN Sunday. The schooner, which
SEs&S then about ten miles off shore in
the neighborhood of Fenwick islands,
<vas brought around and directed to-
ward the boat A very high sea was
cumming at the time, and it took al
most an hour to reach her.
After some maneuvring the Hilda
was brought so close to the small boat
that her crew could see its interior.
Half standing, half kneeling in her
were four men, hollow checked and
wild eyed. Their lips, swollen and
rparched, moved slowly, but not sound
came forth other than a gasp like
that coming from the lips of dying
9nan- Their tongues, covered with
sores and ciotted blood, protruded from
between their teeth, too much swollen
10 be longer retained in their mouths.
The eyes protruded as if the men
were being choked. In the stern of
the boat sat a man half dressed and
apparently laughing. His mouth and
eyes were wide open and he seemed to
nod his head to the men of the Hilda
who leaned over her side, half afraid
TO go into the tossing craft
On the bottom of the boat lay three
other men. They rolled about as the
waves passed, but none of them rose.
They were dead; so was the man who
sat in the stern with that CHASTITY
smile on his face-dead of exposure
and starvation. The four live men
were insane and weak as men could
get who had gone for week with al
most nothing to eat and no water.
They were alive and that was all.
The men on the Hilda threw line
20 them and while it fell over their
shoulders none of them had the
strength to hold it or to tie it around
their bodies So far as they depended
upon their own efforts. safety might
have been a thousand miles away.
FseDeatedly line was thrown to them,
and repeatedly il trailed across their
faces while they knelt there in the
boat moving their lips as if they were
laughing, yet unable to move their
arms or close their stiffened fingers
Finding that the men in the boat
vsxere helpless, two of the Hilda's crew
climbed down her sides. and when a
wave lifted the boat within reach.
stepped aboard. One of the four men,
attracting their attention by groans,
managed to carry his hand to his mouth
and pointed down his throat Quickly
the four men were passed up to the
4IiIda's deck
Then the rescuers turned their at
IGNITION to the man in the stern and
the three lying on the bottom. They
were all dead. The bodies were re-
moved in a few minutes, but none too
quickly. The small boat. hurled
against the Hilda's sides by the waves.
was splintered so that it began to leak,
and, as the two men from the Hilda
left IL, filed and sank. The bodies
were sewed in canvas bags and buried
IN thesea-
Then the Hilda's crew turned their
attention to the four survivors. Ex-
ucsure to the salt water had blistered
their skin in great blotcheS and their
,Ilands were raw from pulling at the
oars. A little coffee was given to them
and all four were put to bed. They
quickly went to sleep. and the next
On olning were greatly improved.
erGkY or ERL SURVIVORS.
The Vile de -. NazaIrc encountered
....4T,a- On March = while off