The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-07-09
The Loss OF the Bourgogne.

The Loss OF the Bourgogne.
The details Of the wreck Of the Bour-
gogne are the most ghastly, sickening
and ghoulish in the record of maritime
disasters. All the surviving passengers
of the Inflated ship agree in the repres-
entatiOn that the crew behaved in the
most murderous, inhuman and fend-
ish manner possible to conceive. SO
diabolical, in fact, has their conduct
been. pictured that were 1t not that
acts, and that of the seven hundred
and twenty-five souls aboard the ship
the crew compose relatively the larger
proportion Of those rescued. we might
charitably assume that they had sud-
denly became mad, with the delirium
CT pitiless and indiscrimipate slaugh-
ter. There can be no doubt, however,
that very many of the unfortunate
passengers were murdered in cold blood
by these savages: that nearly all the
women ana children were thrown be-
meath the waves by them; that they
turned knives and other lethal weapons
against the men and women alike who
seemed to stand between them AMI
their own worthless lives. There was
little or no attempt made at discipline
much less at rescue. The officers must
have pretty accurately anticipated
what the morals of the crew would be
in such an emergency, for they one and
all calmly submitted to their fate and
went to the bottom rather than at
tempt to maintain the semblance of
discipline during the short time it
might have been possible to enforce it.
passivity.
There is little or no variation in the
personal narrative of the surviving
passengers. They one and all agree
that the sailors on the Bourgogne
stabbed women like sheep, clubhed
with oars and boathooks the men who
managed to keep afoat, and had it not
been for the plucky conduct of the cap
tain and crew of the Cromartyshire,
no one but themselves would have sur
vivcd to tell the tale. From the no
ment the two ships came into collision
until she sank, the Bourgogne became
a pandemonium, and her deck a
slaughter house. The devilish elaugh-
ter continued. apparently, until the fog
lifted and the cowardly Frenchmen
were confronted by the crew Of the
English vessel in their small boats. 1t
Il n
large number of Italians who, with
knives in their hands, had begun
the rush for life. But it is safey to say,
because it has been done before that
one officer, with revolver in hand, could
| have kept the whole cowardly pack at
bay. The women and children might
| then have been ploced in the life boats,
and time enough gained to launch
| them and get them away from the
| ship ere it sank from sight The less
\ of life would have been enormous in
| any case, bat the holocaust would not
| have entaileG such a disgrace on hum
| anity.
That the BourgCgne was navgated
with criminal recSlessness there seems
| now no reason whatever to doubt. She
was going at or nearly full speed, Il
sic was making seventeen knots an
| hour. The Bourgogne was a compara-
| lively old boat, and this was about
her top rate of speed. We have the
| authority OF the skipper of the Crom.
artyshire that he did not hear the fog
! horn of the Bourgogue ard that he was
| first made aware of her proximity
when she loCmed out OF the fog on his
| port bow and the collision became in.
| evitable. That was probably how il
| happened. A sailing vessel has the
right of way at sea. IT is the duty oi
| the steamship to keep ont of her track
rhe fog horn of the Cromartyshire was
sounded every minute: her sails were
shortened and her master could do M
more to secure his own safety or that
of other ships.
The French government owe it <
themselves TO make the strictest in
vestigation into the wreck of the Bour.
| gogne. 1t is true that those who were
entrusted with her navigation are be
yond reach: but the experience mus
yield its lessons to the future.
|