Evening star., 1898-09-19
LIFE SAVED BY A JACkkNIFE
Remarkable Escape Made by Pas
senEer on the VILE De Havre.

from lie New YORK Press.
| BY the sinking of La Bourgogne and the
awful loss of life is recalled the accident to
| the Vile Dc Havre of the same line in
| 1872, when the latter named ship was
struck at night and went down at once
| carrying almost al on board. Pitifully few
were those who were saved from the
Havre, but among them was the prominent
New York lawyer Witthaus, and the way
in which he escaped is so extraordinary
that it sounds like a well-concocted tale
| instead of the plain fact that Mr.. Witthaus
Iouches 1t to be.
The afternoon preceding the accident to
the Havre Mr.. Witthaus, with another
man, was on deck, and Mr. Witthaus was
leaning against the taffrail under the flag
staff at the stern. As the two men stood
there talking the friend put his hand on
the large life buoy that was hanging over
the side and called Mr.. Witthaus' attention
to it.
Look he said. these life buoys are
simply screaming farces. This one here is
so stiff and hard with coats of paint that
you couldn't get it free except by cutting
it with knife"
Mr. Witthaus attempted to move it, but
found it glued hard and fast. The friend
took out his knife and began idly sticking
it into the soft pine of the flagstaff, and
amused himself so the rest of the time that
they talked before they were interrupted
by the dinner gong. Then they both went
below.
Early the next morning while the passen-
gers were still asleep the collision occurred,
and in the mad panic that at once followed
Mr.. Witthaus did what he could to get the
women and children into the nfeboats.
From the first he regarded himself as
doomed for there were not nearly boats
enough for all the passengers and 1t was
evident that the ship would Hcat only a
few minutes. Several women whom he
knew on board he found places for at once
only to see the boat overturned as soon
as it was launched, and all go down, one
of them with her two little children In her
arms.
Horrified and sickened by the sight he
went back to the stern of the ship, whlch
was higher out of the water than the DOW,
to wait until he, too, went down, ana STOOD
leaning again on the taffrail AS he did so
in a flash he recollected the conversation
of the afternoon before and looked over
the rail There still hung the life buoy,
stiff and immovable, and the instinct OF
self-preservation sprang to life once more
knife to free the buoy and he might be
saved but he had none with him. and TO
find one was impossible with the ship la
Bile to go DOWN at any second
At the same moment his eye caught the
flagstaff and there, where his friend had
evidently forgotten 1t the Afternoon before,
stuck the knife. With the haste of life and
death Mr.. Witthaus pulled 1t out and be-
gan to saw away at the buoy, end he freed
it and threw himseIf off the deck into the
sea just in time to get beyond the vortex
that came as the great ship went down,
sucking hundreds of victims with IL. Mr..
Witthaus foated about for some time ana
was at last picked up by small boat that
was waiting about for chance SURVIVORS,
and was brought back to New York to tell
of one of the most awful catastrophes that
ever happened at sea.