The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-09-09
SAVED BY A POCKET KNIFE.

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4 Survivor Of ths vills Dc Havrs Tells
Of Remarkable Ksoaps.
BY the sinking Of La Bourgogne and
The awful loss Of life Is recalled the
accident to the Vile de- Havre Of the
same line in 1872, when the latter
uamsd ship was struck at night and
went down at once, carrying almost all
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 10 80 extraordinary
that 1t sounds like a well-concocted
tale, instead of the plain fact that Mr..
Witthaus vouches 1t to be.
The afternoon preceding the accident
to the Havre Mr.. Watthaus, with an
other man, was on deck, and Mr.. Witt
haus was leaning against the taffrail
under the Flagstaff In 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 1t free ex-
cept by cutting 1t with a knife"
Mr.. Witthaus attempted to move It,
but found 1t glued hard and fast. The
friend took out his knife and began
Idly sticking 1t into the soft pine Of
the flagstaff, and amused himself Sc
the rest Of the time that they talked
before they were Interrupted by the
dinner gong. Then they both went be-
low. co.
Early the next morning while the
passengers were still asleep the COL
lision occurred, and in the mad panic
that at once followed Mr.. Witthaus
did what he could to get the women
and children into the lifeboats. From
the first he regarded himself as DOOM
ed, for there were not nearly boats
enough for all the passengers, and it
was evident that the ship would float
only few minutes. Several women
whom he knew on board he found
places for at once, only to see the boat
overturn as soon as it was launched,
and all go down, one Of them with her
two little children In her arms.
Mortified and sickened by the sight,
he went back to the stern of the ship,
which was higher out of the water
than the bow, to wait until he, too,
went down, and stood leaning again on
the taffrail. As he did SO in a fash he
recollected the conversation of the af-
ternoon before, and looked over the
rail. There still hung the life buoy
stiff and immoyable, and the instinct Of
Eelf-preservation sprang to life once
more. A 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 liable 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.. Witt
haus pulled 1t out and began to saw
away at the buoy, and he freed 1t and
threw himself 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 it.
Mr.. Witthaus foated all ut for some
time, and 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,