The herald., 1898-07-15
HAVE BEEN MALIGNfD
OFFICERS AND CREW OF THE
BoURGoGNE DEFENDED
Acts of Cruelty, Murder and Brutality
Denied-But Three of Eighteen
Officers Escaped

NEW YORK. July 1.-THE Times today
says:
Paul FAUCET, acting agent for the United
States and Canada for the Companie Cen
erale Transatlantique, has given out for
publication statement concerning the
charges made in relation to the conduct of
the crew of La Bourgogne at the time of
the recent disaster. Among other things,
Mr.. Faguet says:
1T would be useless for me to defend the
captain and subordinate officers Of La
Bourgogne. They showed themselves he
roes by remaining at their posts and dying
with those they could not save. OF the
eighteen officers of the deck and engine de-
partments only three saved themselves, and
they did not leave the ship until they had
done their whole duty.
Immediately after the collision officers
and men alike went to the posts assigned to
them. Several starboard lifeboats were
dashed to pieces, while the lifeboats on the
port side had been rendered useless by the
heavy list of the steamer to starboard. The
crew, aided by some of the passengers, sue
ceeded, however, in lowering two of them,
in which women and children took their
places. Unfortunately these boats had to
be slipped along the hull of the steamer to
be lowered and they capsized. 1t was only
at the last minute, when all efforts were of
no avail and the steamer was about to dis
appear, that the sailors, by order of their
chiefs, jumped into the sea and So of the 80
were lost.
1.-THE three life boats that had been
launched, after having unloaded their pas
sengers in safety on board the Cromarty-
shire, made three more trips and brought
all the survivors. Captain Henderson of the
Cromartyshre has made to the Consul of
Halifax a statement declaring that the crit
icisms attributed to him by writers in the
newspapers are untrue.
"The firemen and coal passers were
down in the engine room until the end striv-
ing against the water which was invading
it to secure the good working of the pumps
1t was only five or six minutes before the
steamer sank that the chief engineer, who
died at his post of duty, gave at two diff
ferent times two blows Of his whistle, sig
Mailing the crew to cease the work Of res
cue and hasten away.
1.-TWO occurrences brought to my atten-
ton may have started the reports Of brutal
treatment on the part of our crew. One of
the passengers, a young man, showed me
a scar which he said he had received from
a blow inflicted by an oar in the hands of
some one, whether passenger or a sailor
he did not know. But he added that the
man who did strike him was justified in do
ing so because there were eighteen or TWEEN
|ty on the raft he was trying to climb on
and II he had not been repulsed the raft
would have capsized and the whole party
lost.
1.-THE other incident was related to me
by one of the passengers. A friend of his
while trying to climb upon an already over
loaded raft, was knocked back by blow
from an oar in a sailors hands, and thus
the lives of the fifteen or twenty men on the
raft were saved. What was the duty in
these two cases of those who had charge OF
the RATS, repulse one man who might have
been able to find succor elsewhere, or let
twenty perish?
"All of these facts were reported to me
by passengers. Several relatives Of unfor-
tunate victims, by questioning the cabin
and dining room walters who were saved
have learned few incidents in the lives Of
their lost relatives just before the ship went
down, and have been convinced that the
charges Of stabbing and other barbarismi
are untrue"