The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-03-19
EIGHTY PEOPLE LOST.
Wreck of the French Liner Vile
De St. Naisare.
HORRIBLE STORY OF SUFFERING.

Only Four Persons Out of Eighty Supposed
to Have Been saved-They Were Picked
Up at Sea I'm an Almost LifeIess Condi-
tion - The Others Starved or Were
Frozen to Death-Some Went Insane
and Leaped into the Sea.
New York. March 19.-The steamer
Vile de st. Naisare, belonging to the
French line to the West Indies sailed
from New York on March for Port au
Prince. ETC.. with eighty persons on
board and has not since been reported.
The World publishes the following: The
schooner Hilda that plies along the
coast between Perth Amboy and Sa-
vannah, came into port Wednesday
night bearing with her a story terrible
even in the annals of the Atlantic ocean.
She carried four passengers whom she
had picked up in boat Monday, ten
miles off shore. 1t was Captain Riemes,
skipper of the Hilda, who first sighted
the boat AS the schooner drew near
er. the outlines of human figures were
made out. Then, on the Prov OF the
boat, they saw the words "Ville de
st. Naisare." A boat was lowered and
sent to the helpless craft. Nearer and
nearer they came and the faces OF the
sitters 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 a ships officer.
Recognized Captain Berri.
The mate recognized in the face, hol-
low and sunken with the cold and want
of many days, the features of Captain
Jules Berri, one of the best-known COM
manders of the Havre branch or the
French line, now long transferred to the
West Indian service. Behind him were
two half-dressed, coatless men, hug
ging themselves with each blast of the
cold wind and gibbering at the startled
| faces Of the Hida's sailors. At their
| feet was fourth man.
The old man at the prov opened his
| lips as If to speak, but no sound came
from them. One by one the four men
| were lifted in. Four corpses were in the
boat. Then the sailors towed the dread
full freight back to the Hilda. Nothing
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 rea-
son. All that they could tell was that
( the Vile de st. Naisare 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 liv-
ing, remained untold, until midnight on
Tuesday when Captain Berri, the first
to recover, was able to gasp out some
words of his story.
Eighty Souls on Board.
Eight" were his first words in an
swer to question. "Eight-there were
! more than eight-there were eighty
souls on that boat when we abandoned
IL. OF all those men and women we
are the only ones left alive. The 9TH
! ers 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 in that way.
The men were quiet enough mostly, till
they saw the women die; then they
seemed all at once to get raving, stark
mad This is all can tell now"
The Herald contains additional de-
tails of the disaster. There were eighty
two souls passengers and crew, on the
Vile de ST. Naisare. The saved are:
Berri. inspector of the Compagnie Cen
erale Trans-Atlantique; Marie, the
ships doctor; Stauts, third engineer;
Tagado, San DOMINICAN. Among the
lost are: D'Andrews, first lieutenant;
Herbert, second lieutenant; Leujene,
purser; Nicholi, second captain; Mari
ana, chief engineer; Mrs. Tagado and
four children, starved to death.
Vessel Became WaterlOgged.
From stories told by the four surviv-
ors The Herald obtains these particu-
J lars: The steamship encountered Sc
: we're weather on March T. while off Hat
teras. Tremendous seas swept over her
, She rolled and pitched. Great waves
bore away the hatch coverings. Floods
, of water found their way through the
, gratings to the engine room and ex-
tinguished the fires. The vessel was
unable to make any headway. being
, waterlogged. Captain Jacqueneau gave
the order to man the four boats.
: In the haste to leave the vessel Il
was impossible to get provisions ol
, water to last more than day. OF the
four boats, only one had been hearc
from. 1t is believed that the othei
; three were lost. The largest boat con
tained thirty-oight persons. 1t practi
: cally had no provisions. II was tossed
: about on the rough seas for seven day!
and nights, and for six days and nights
the passengers were without food ol
| t..lx