The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1898-07-15
The French Liner La Bourgogne
Sunk by a Collision.
LESS THAN 200 ARE SAVED,
Morning-Only One Woman Rescued
Many Passengers Murdered by
the Crew-The Most HorrI-
BILE Tales Are Told by
the Survivors.

HALIFAX, July THE French trans
Atlantic steamer La Bourgogne, with
725 souls on board, was sunk by col
lision with the iron sailing ship Gro
martyshire during dense fog sixty
miles off Sable island on the morning
of July 4. Only about 100 of the pas,
sengers and crew were rescued.
In the panic that followed the col.
lision the weaker were trampled upon
by the stronger in the wild scramble
for places in the life boats and RATS.
In some instances murder was COM
mitted in order to obtain the coveted
places of safety. Only one woman
was among those rescued, all the rest
being abandoned to their fate. All
the ships high officials were lost, from
commander to chief surgeon.
Hardly any of the large cities es-
capped loss on the Inflated vessel.
In one of the thick fogs which, at
this time of the year, hang like a pail
over the Grand banks and Sable island
in the North Atlantic, occurred on the
early morning of July one of the
most appalling ocean disasters in the
annals of transatlantic commerce
and, in fact, in the history Of
steam sailing of the world.
Without a moments warning al
most, the great French liner La
Bourgogne, with 725 souls on board,
was run diwn by the iron sailing ship
Cromatyshire and sank within half an
hour, carrying with her to the oceans
bottom over 500 of her passengers and
crew, while the balance, who were not
drawn down by the fearful suction,
struggled and fought for life until 163
were at length rescued by the crew of
the Cromatyshire, which ship survived
the collision.
The story of the fearful disaster
from the few officers and members Of
the crew who were saved is yet to be
told, but if the words of the passen-
gers who were dragged aboard the
Cromartyshire and later brought into
this port by the steamer Grecian are
to be believed, the last few minutes on
board the Bourgogne witnessed the
most terrible scenes of horror and
cruelty that have blotted the history
of civilized race.
Instead of the heroic discipline
which so often has been the one bright
feature of such awful moments, the
crew of the steamer fought like de-
mons for the few lifeboats and RATS,
battering the helpless passengers
away from their only means of saliva
ton, with the result that the strong
overcome the weak, and the list of 1853
saved contains the name of but one
woman. The disaster occurred at 5
o'clock in the morning of Monday,
July 4, about sixty miles south of
Sable island, which lies nearly 100
miles off this port.
AS the ship sank beneath the surface
the vortex of the waters sucked down
everything on the surface within a
certain radius. When the suction
ceased those still alive saw about 200
bodies come out of the water with a
rush, as if the sea were giving up the
dead after having swallowed the ship.
But the struggle for life still continued
after the ship went down. Hundreds
still foated about grasping for RATS,
boats and wreckage in frantic endeav-
or to keep above water. Even then
many of those in the boats, if the
stories told are to be believed, showed
their brutality by beating off those
who attempted to climb aboard.
By this time the small boats of the
Cromartyshire had come up and the
work of rescue began. The crew of
the ship worked heroically and saved
everyone who had managed to keep
above water, but even then scores fell
away from boats, RATS and wreckage,
exhausted, and were drowned. 1t
was all over in an hour, although
for some time after great pieces OF
wreckage came shooting up fl ON the
bottom, marking the spot where the
great liner had gone down. But little
attempt was made to recover the
bodies of any of the Inflated passen-
gers or crew, and the battered hulk at
the bottom of the ocean will probably
be their tomb.
9 In the afternoon the steamer Gre
clan was sighted coming from the
westward and few hours afterward
the Cromartyshire was in tow and ar
rived here this morning.
The Bourgogne had left New York,
bound for Havre, on the previous Sat
urday, while the Cromartyrshire was
on her way over from Glasgow with a
crew of twenty-one men. Although
the transatlantic steamships all have
a definite course, the Bourgogne was,
by all accounts, forty miles or more tc
the north of these lines.
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