The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-09

4 descended, throwing the occupants into the
Just at this time the Bo Bon tunnels
| gave way and one of them fell directly
across the boat in which Achard, wife and
children had been placed, crushing and
| knocking all the passengers overheard. One
| of the funnel chains struck Mrs. Achard
across the chest and literally cut her body
| asunder. Achard fell into the water when
the Bourgogne sank. but managed to get
| hold of a raft, to which he chung for eight
| hours. Mr.. Achard had $4,000 on his per-
| son at the time of the wreck and 1t was
| saved with him.
From The testimony of three persons, Otto
Zeiser, of New York; Mr.. Achard, of Bal
timore, and Charles Liebra, chief cook OF
the Stafford Hotel. Philadelphia, it appears
that the fourth engineer of La Bourgogne.
who was saved, acted in the most brutal
men agree in the statement that after the
collision, when every one was surrounding
the passengers Let them save themselves;
we save ourselves first" He also said that
ii he had a revolver he would shoot the pas
SengerS.
Mr.. Zebra spoke in great praise Of the
captain of La Bourgogne, although that Of
fcer did not think the collision was serious
and informed those of the saloon passen-
gers who inquired that there was no dan
ger. This is thought to be one reason that
none out of the first-class passengers were
saved.
On the voyage Zebra became acquainted
with Yousouf the wrestler, who was pas
senger. After the collision Zebra says he
saw Yousouf struggling in q crowd of
drowning passengers beating them off with
a stiletto and showing them aside, trying to
reach boat. He failed, however, and went
down.
L. Tarlaud. of New York, and Mons. Lu-
cas-, from northern France, the latter being
a waiter on board La Bourgogne, each tell
of being driven away from boat contain
ing Austrians armed with knives. While the
Halifax was entering the Boston harbOr
this morning eight persons gave their names
as witnesses to the fact that the AuStrlans
used knives to keep the people out OF their
ox-&O ~w.d rI1nc a
English well, declined to give his name, as
he said it would be bad for him when he
got back. He said he was in bed at the time
of the accident. The shock Weakened him
and he ran up to the spar deck to his boat
There are twenty-five men appointed to each
boat, but there were only seven or eight at
his which was the second mates No. Z.
The second mate was at his post and the
boat was Immediately got ready. There were
about fifty passengers in this boat, includ-
ing a lot of women. AS La Bourgogne was
sinking the boat caught and upset, throw
ing every one into the water. lie came up
in a minute. He was saved two minutes
after by raft. There were women and
children screaming for help, but he turned
his head away as he said he did not like to
see these things.
Fireman Yessa, of the Bourgogne, said:
when the ship began to list the chief en-
gineer and myself came Oil deck. l saw
the captain on the bridge. The officers
seemed to be cool and when they found out
the real danger of the ship they worked
we'll The captain from the bridge, made
a speech to the passengers. He told them
to be calm and he would see that all were
saved. He stood on. the bridge until the last
moment. AS a member of the crew, | wish
to say we did everything possible to save
the lives of passengers. No one can realize
the panic which ensues when an accident
like the one we unfortunately met with
happens. The passengers blocked the way
of the men. 1t was impossible to get at the
boats unless one beat his way through the
mass of humanity Some of the passengers
grasped hold of us and implored US on their
knees to save them. We told them that we
would do our best. We only had a brief
time in which to work. 1t was understood
that we would run for Sable island The
Dominican fathers tried to calm the excited
people as best they could and they gave
them their blessing and conditional absolu-
ton before she ship keeled over"
The assistant purser, Ernest Scol, stated
that the crew acted well and in good order.
The only act of violence he saw was COM
mitted by an Austrian. This man, the rur-
ser declares, jumped into a life boat and
threatened to kill anybody who ventured to
follow.
M. Troyviex, general passenger agert of
the Compagnie General Transatlantique,
who was in Boston to-day, said it was the
consensus of opinion that The reason the
La Bourgogne sank so quickly was her star
board side was torn from the tr;GGe to
amidships by the anchor Of the CIclnarty-
shire, which was probably unsl:lag by the
crash and catching in the breach made by
the first collision tore hole large enough
to let the water into several compartmerts
and pulling the steamship over to the star
board so that the water rushed in in tor
rents. AT the same time most Of the boats
on the StarbOard side were smashed by the
collision and the tunnels of La Bourgogne
topping over crushed Others. The rescued
men were unanimous IN saying there was no
explosion.
The survivors We're met at the wharf by
the representatives of the steamship line
and, after breakfast, served on the boat
special cars carried the passengers and
crew to the Park-square Station, where the
majority took the train to New York A
NUMBER stayed over until the afternoon,
but all had left the city by night. During
the voyage from Halifax to Boston the in
dlgnation among the passengers over their
experiences seemed to be growing and there
was much talk OF lodging complaints with
the proper officials, but no complaint was
made here. .e ~ t'af rs