Evening star., 1898-07-06
Loss of the BOurgOgDe.

Another steamship. racing through the
fog off the Newfoundland banks, has gone
to the bottom, carrying hundreds of men,
women and children to dea tn. La Bour-
gogne, a magnificent vessel, carrying a
large passenger list, has been swallowed
up by the sea as a result of the faithful
following of the theory that it is safer for
these great liners to be driven through the
fog banks at top speed than to creep
through them slowly, on the assumption
that if a collision occurs the vessel that
has the greatest headway escapes with the
least damage. The theory is disproved by
this event. The French liner was going at
from II TO 10 knots hour, while the
steamer that she struck was travelling
much more slowly and is aaoat today,
while the Bourgogpe is beneath the waves.
This disaster makes men for the time
forget the horrors of war in contemplation
OF the horrors of peaceful commerce. Tie
lives destroyed exceed in number the total
death list on the American side in the war
with Spain. The record of maritime dis
asters is long and includes some tragedies
that are monumental in their proportions.
In the sinking of the Elbe in the North
Sea few years ago the ratio of the lost to
the saved was much larger than in this
latest case, but the absolute loss in the
Bourgogne disaster is so large as to mark 1t
as the most destructive wreck of many
years.
Washington suffers and laneats the loss of
an estimable citizen and his wife, There is
no hope left that Mrs. Pollok was saved,
nor is there much chance that her husband
was among those who found places on the
RATS and boats. Washingtonians went
down with the Elbe and now again with
the Bourgogne in this sudden and startling
accident.
1t is particularly distressing to find that
only one woman of all those on board was
saved from the sea. This fact doubtless re-
suited from the early hour at which the
collision occurred, the passengers being at
that time asleep. The record of recent
wrecks at sea is such as to warrant the be-
lief that if there had been opportunity the
women on the doomed ship would have
been saved. 1t is apparent that the officers
OF the Bourgogne stood heroicaIiy to their
posts of duty. and that they lost their lives
IN an effort to rescue their charges when it
Ccame certain that the ship was lost. The
calamity is an International tragedy and
will carry grief and suffering to hundreds
OF homes and thousands of hearts in va
rious parts of the world.
The fog is a terrifying feature of the
transatlantic voyage. Hiding everything
from sight beyond narrow range, dis
torting and DETECTING sounds, it prevents
confident navigation and puts a high prem
ium upon the most cautious management.
Even with the exercise of the utmost care
collisions are often inevitable, but 1t is
plain from this disaster that there is a
grave need for some form of international
regulation governing the speed of passen-
ger ships at sea when the air is filed with
fog From the accounts now in hand it
appears that the Bourgogne was going so
fast that after the collision she sped far
away from the ship which she had struck
and that the latter was thus unable to
render her any assistance whatever or to
appreciate the deadly nature of her hurt.