Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-07-09

1 thar hA6 been ~ 1ble n ~
tim6 betWeen their Arrival II Helif1x
and their departure FOR New oXrk, dur
ing the trip to Boston had Opporfun-
ity to come in contact with very many
| OF those who escaped. Their stories
OF experience were thrilling, and many
of them gave horrifying details OF
brutality If not of murder, possibly
never eQualled in the history OF the
merchant marine.
Among the survivors there were a
few who could speak English well, but
most of them could communicate with
| the correspondent only through an In
terpreter. There were Swiss, French,
Germans, Belgians, Italians and Ara
bians Some Of them showed the
marks and bruises received during the
terrible struggle for life.>
Among those on board the Halifx
not one could be found who was on
deck at, the time the collision occurred.
The only man saved from La Bour-
gogne WHO was on deck when the ships
struck way Mr.. La Case, who left
Halifax byA rail, saying he har had
enough Of he sea. Mrs. La Case, the
only woman saved, accompanied her
husband on the train.
The survivors agree that when the
La BourgognSw struck by the Gro
martyshire the shock was not great.
Therefore itVis believed that many
passengers nev0 awoke The state
ments as to the$time intervening be-
TWEEN the collisionTand the sinking OF
La Bourgogne vary greatly. Some say
ten or fifteen minutes and Others say
thirty-ive minutes, while one man was
certain it was a full hour. The blow
struck La Bourgogne was, one that
could never be provided against by
water tight doors. ~
Among the remarkable escapes were
those OF three stokers of La Bourgogne.
Louis LIE Julien, Jean Alvany and
Francois Emilio, are the stokers. They
were in the stoke hole when the accl-
dent occurred. Their story in sub
stance is as. follows:
The engines were stopped after the
collision and subsequently were started
in yhe hope of Bleaching the steamer on
lSable Island. About five minutes at
I ter the crash the water began to come
into the boiler room and soon it rush
ed in in great volumes. The pumps
were tried but to no avail. The water
put the fires out and the engines stop
ped. The chief engineer gave orders
to close The water tight doris, but even
when they were closed the water came
in almost as fast as before. Then all
hope was abandoned and the engineer
blew twice on the whistle, the signal
for ali to escape who could do so. There
was a rush, but about fifteen men were
drowned in the stoke holes and engine
room. Three men who succeeded In
getting out found that all the boats
had left and they at once plunged into
the sea- They were picked up later
and taken on board the CromaMyshire.
From the testimony of three persons,
Otto Zeiser, of New York; Mr.. Achard,
of Baltimore, and Charles Liebra, chief
cook Of the Stafford Hotel, Philadel-
phia, it appears that the fourth engineer
of La Bourgogne, who was saved, acted
in the most brutal manner toward the
passengers. The three men agree in
the statement that after the collision
when every one was surrounding the
boats, the fourth engineer said:
Damn the passengers. Let them save
themselves; we save ourselves first"
HE also said that If he had a revolver
Mr. EiebTa spoHe I'M Is l ssaysi ...
the captain Of the Bourgogne, although
that officer did not think that the col
lsion was serious and informed those
of the saloon who inquired that there
was no danger. This is thought to be
one reason that none of the seventyfive
first-class passengers were saved.
On the voyage Liebra became &C
quainted with YousOuf, the wrestler,
who was a passenger. After the COL
lision Zebra said he saw Yousouf
struggling in crowd of drowning pas
sengers, beating them off with a sti-
letto and showing them aside, trying to
reach boat. He failed, however, and
went down.
l.. Tarlaud, of New York, and Mons
Lucas, from Northern France, the lat
ter being a waiter on the steamer La
Bourgogne, was being driven away
from a boat containing Austrians arm
ed with knives.
While the ship was entering Boston
harbor this morning eight persons gave
their names as witnesses to the fact that
the Austrians used knives to keep peo-
pie out of their boats.
| One of the crew, steward who spoke
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 appointed
to each, 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,
including a lot of women. AS the, Bour-
| gogne was sinking the boat caught and
| upset, throwing every one into the water.
He 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.
| f. Achard, a Frenchman, who has been
| some years in Baltimore, was on his way
to France with his wife and two children.
His family was drowned, but he managed
| to get hold of a raft, to which he chung
for eight hours. Mr.. Achard had $4,000
on his person at the time of the wreck.
and it was saved with him.