The San Francisco Call

VOLUME LXXXIV.-XO. 37. SAX FIIANCISCO, THUBSDAY, JULY 7. 1898. PRICE FIVE CEKTS. MURDER RUNS RIOT ON THE

DECK OF A SINKING SHIPand a whirlpool encircled the spot where a thirst for blood came them. Right and left their flashed and trampled bodies upon weapons the noble craft had been. Everybody marked their course. around the vortex was drawn into It. The water rushed areund, faster and The officers, who died as brave men, were powerless to control their mad passengers and faster, and the unfortunates disap- madder The Bourgogtie a peared v.Ith despairing cries. WRECKS crew. second officer of La did the work of dozen heroes. But his Mrs. La Casse had been on the edga COLLISION of maelstrom, something efforts were almost immediately set at naught by the cowardice of his frenzied crew. the but threw her outside of the whirlpool, and the One raft on which forty women were placed had been made fast to the ship's side. next she knew she was on the- life raft. A boat containing forty women was It was dragged down by the ship and all on it perished. Not one man would pause to cut the capsized and all went down in the LA BOURGOGNE lines and give them life. whirlpool. There was not t-ne man in AND boat, a*~ was left fast this it to the When the ship had gone down the few boats that floated were surrounded by the perishing. davits. Some of the women were try- ing to cut the ropes when the steamer Some women caught the lines of one cockleshell, not endangering the occupants and merely careened and capsized the boat. that a keeping their heads above water. In pure fiendishness the men of the crew cut the ropes and be- Mrs. La Casse says moment SIX PERISH after the steamer was engulfed men, HUNDRED every came murderers. women and children arose on side .of the whirlpool, ami the sight of Inother cases men who struggled to keep themselves above water by clutching the gun- the faces and the arms and the sound of shrieks was so terrible that she will wales were beaten back to death with oars and boathooks. remember them to her dying day. The British ship that had been in stood near by and for hours kept up the work of Mrs. La Casse says that when the Slay Men, collision panic first seized the crew men fought Frenzied Seamen Women and rescue. Then she was towed into Halifax. for positions in the boats like rav- ing maniacs. Women !were forced Marvelous was the endurance displayed by those who had been in the water for hours. back from the boats and trampled The officers of the Bourgogne to a man went down with the ship. One the surface on by men, who made self-preser- Children in a Fi^ht for Possession came to vation their first object. Among and was saved. them were a large number of the lower class of Italians and foreigners, who in their frenzy stopped at nothing that of the Boats. promised safety for themselves. WOMEN SLAIN LIKE The story of the fearful disaster from day, while the Cromartyshire was on . So desperate was the situation that the few officers and members of the her way over from Glasgow with a an Italian passenger drew his knife and SHEEP IN SHAMBLES crew who were saved is yet to be told, crew of twenty-one men. Although made direct at one who, like himself, was endeavoring to — but if the words of the passengers who the transatlantic steamships have a reach the boats. NEW YORK. July 6. The French line steamship La Bourgogne was sunk in collision were dragged Cromarty- Immediately his action was imitated In aboard the definite course the Bourgogne was, by every were nour- HALIFAX,N. July 6.—ln one of brought port direction. Knives with the British iron ship Cromartyshire early on the morning of July 4, sixty miles south of 8.. shire and later into this all accounts, forty miles or more to the ished and used witheffect. Women and the thick fogs which at this time of by the steamer Grecian, are to be be- north of these children were driven back to inevitable Sable on lieved, board lines. Island. Of 725 souls board 535 were drowned, including 207 first and second the year hang like a pall over the the last few minutes on The fog was very dense death at the point of -weapons, the own- the La Bourgogrne witnessed some of and the Cro- ers of which were experts in their use. class cabin All first Grand Banks and Sable Island In the martyshire was calling along re- passengers. the cabin passengers were lost, and of 300 women passengers the Rcenes of horror and with According to stories of the survivors North Atlantic, occurred, on the early most terrible duced canvas and blowing fog many on cruelty have blotted the history the horn. women were stabbed like so the ill-fated vessel only one was saved. morning of July 4. one of the most ap- that Suddenly out of fog sheep. of a civilized race. the rushed a great palling ocean disasters in the annals of steamer and in a moment The scene on the water was even That concisely tells the story of a tragedy that is stained with dishonor. Passengers and and, fact, Instead discipline which so there was a transatlantic commerce, in of heroic | fearful crash, the iron prow worse. Many of the unfortunates who crew were struggle history of sailing the often has been the one bright feature of ship of the struggling in the water attempted alike in the awful for self that turned the deck of the liner into a shambles in the steam of plunging into the port of the were moment's warning, the crew of the side to drag themselves into the boats or on and ocean a world. Without a such awful moments steamer just under bridge. pushed made the scene of deliberate murder of helpless women and men, and by the very fought demons for the few the rafts. Th- were back. almost, the great French liner La steamer like The shock was Here, too, were freely. ones to whom they had intrusted board, life rafts, battering the help- terrific and tore a knives used their lives. Bourgogne, with 725 souls on boats and | tremendous hole in the Not all of the dead met death by drown- run by sailing ship less passengers away fro: 1 their only steamer while ing. Christopher saw a was dr>wn the iron bb°W °f the Ship Brunon sailor The crash came at o'clock in the morning, when, in a dense fog. the ocean greyhound Oromartyshire and sank within a half means of salvation, with the result was demol- belonging to La Bourgogne strike a 5 is^r^The steamer Plunged on passenger hour, carrying with her to the ocean's that the strong overcame the weak, for the through over the head with a bar and struck the Cromartyshire and passed on in the gray light to plunge to the bottom, drawing down its the f'nfog her whistle crying body dropped bottom over 500 of her passengers and the list of 163 saved contains the name for help and kill him. The into the helpless victims in the whirling that hex rockets signaling her distress water. The passenger grabbed the boat surge marked the spot where she had floated. crew, while the balance, who were not of but one woman. The disaster oc- The in which the sailor was and attempted down by the fearful suction, curred at 5 o'clock in the morning on Cromartrshfre was rounded to, In the few minutes that elapsed between the shock and the disappearance the greater hor- draws and her master. Captain to get on board. struggled and fought for life until one Monday. July 4, about sixty miles was considerably Henderson, Matte O. Zurich, a Norwegian, said ror of the disaster was enacted. In an instant the quiet deck of the liner was transformed into Island, nearly ! relieved in finding appear anybody's duty an hundred and sixty-three were at length south of Sable which lies that she it did not to be Cromarty- was in no danger of sinking. launching inferno. Women who obstructed the of were rescued by the crew of the a hundred miles off this port. Off to to look after the of-the boats. way strong men to the boats struck down with the eastward on port side were not touched shir", which ship survived the colli- The Bourgogne had left New York hoarse could be heard the Those the knives. The steerage had contained many Italians, and it though call of the steamer, as by the crew. People climbed into them, seemed as in the face of death bound for Havre the previous Satur- fog began and the launched, to lift all the boats- on the waiting for the boats .to be ship in a short Uie were launched. Half an hour after but time steamer listed the collision the misty so rapidly it was impossible to do so. curtain went un Zurich declares that two of the life giving a clear view for miles, and it was that those then rafts upon which people were saved on the Cromartyshire were cut adrift by him. He was unable fearf6l to move them, they on *"*«for Iff* but tumbled over- Iboard"Vifthe Bourgogne. The board when' the steamer careened had collision and come so suddenly and at such a proved useful. The steamer slowly time in the morning that few besides settled down by the stern and star- her - advancing crew were on deck, but the shock board side and the water aroused nearly every one, gradually drove the people forward. a and within Finally men, women and children were few minutes the decks were At first crowded walking about on the port bow. The it seemed as if there was stern was deep In the water and the some attempt at discipline. A bow in the gave the boats few of air. The ship a great were swung off and some of plunge and hundreds of people were in S n c S a"mv d to set the water, grabbing at broken oars, But as theth [ into them. l^ /steamer began£ to settle and bits of canvas, etc., and struggling. Zu- list to pert went over the officers lost control of rich the starboard side and the crew and a panic caught a raft, on which he climbed. ensued. He thinks Passengers and crew fought for that had the . boats been boats and life the launched as soon as the steamer struck rafts. The strong bat- several tered down the weak, hundred who perished would the women and have been saved. Only one of the port children being pushed far away boats, a small one. any hope from was launched. That of rescue. Fists, was the boat the second purser even oars' and escaped knives wore used b*- some of the in. Zurich saw one boat leave the demons to keep their places. Bourgogne with only a few people on it The offi- Niftier, a Swede, cers seemed to have been powerless Fred lost his sweet- over heart through the boats not being their own men and only four away. cut saved. we're The girl had on a life belt but the suction of the sinking ship was too The fight for life on the decks of the powerful. i steamer did not last long, for In a lit- He and the young woman got into a tle more tlian a half hour she gave a boat with many others, waiting for the long lurch to port and went down. sailors to launch it. The boat was finally capsized and girl As the ship sank beneath the surface the was lost. the vortex Niffler climbed on a life raft, which of the waters and live everything sucked down upset, were drowned, for there on the surface within a cer- were many crowded on it. The others tain radius. When the suction ceased climbed upon the raft. those still alive saw about 200 bodies Among the survivors are nine Assyri- ans come out of the water with a rush, as and Armenians. There were 75 Assyrians in the party if the sea were giving: up the dead after when it left having New York. Allbut eight perished, one swallowed the ship. But the eight lost his struggle of the wife and two for life still continued after brothers and other relatives. Another the ship went down. Hundreds still lost two daughters. Only one of thir- floated about, grasping for rafts, boats teen Armenians survives. The Assyri- and wreckage in ans were bound to their homes near frantic- endeavor to Damascus, every keep above water. Even many and one had from one then to two hundred dollars saved. They lost of those in the boats, if the stories told all, barely escaping in are it their trousers to be believed, showed their bru- and shirts. On board the steamer Gre- tality by beating off those who at- cian, which towed the Cromartyshire tempted to climb aboard. with the survivors to Halifax, the As- By this time the small boats of the syrians wept like children and could not be comforted. one surviving Cromaityshire had come up and the The work of rescue began. crew Armenian tells a sorrowful tale of the The of the drowning of an Armenian priest and ship worked heroically and saved every- boat, one who his family, who had got in a vvith had managed to keep above some water, but even then scores fell away thirty other people. When the from boats, end came and the boat was abandoned rafts and wreckage, ex- crew, hausted, and were Iiwas all to its fate by the who miile.no drowned. to it, stood over an hour, although effort launch the priest up in for some uplifted prayed time great pieces of wreckage came and with hands aloud. shooting up from the bottom, marking Several French priests stood on the | the spot where the great liner had gone deck during the sinking of the steamer effort save them- Idown. But little attempt was made to without making an to recover the bodies of any of the ill- seK'es and gave absolution to a large fated passengers or crew, and the bat- crowd of passengers. tered hulk at the bottom of the ocean August Piyrgi was eager to give the will probably be their tomb. correspondent an account of his ex- In the afternoon the steamer Grecian perience. He was in the water about was sighted, coming from the west- half an hour and attempted to get into ward, and a few hours afterward the a boat. He was seized wh^n he man- Cromartyshire was in tow and arrived aged to get half in and thrown back here this morning. into the water. Again he tried to en- Strangely enough, Mr. La Casse is ter the boat, but the savages who the only man of the saloon and cabin manned it were determined to keep passengers who survived, while his him out. He managed at last to get wife is the only woman of 300, not only in and to stay in. Clinging to the life of the first saloon cabin but of the line of a boat not far away he saw his whole' ship, who escaped. Mrs. La mother, and as if his trials were not Casse was roused from her berth by enough he was forced to watch a man her husband, who was on deck at the shove her into the ocean with an oar. time of the collision. When she She never rose. He said the man was reached the deck of the listing steam- saved and was almost sure he could ship she saw the captain of the steam- recognize him. er on the bridge and some of the offi- Fred Niftier, a Swiss, was the moat cers at other points endeavoring to di- jovialand contented of all the unfor- rect the efforts of the crew to launch tunate passengers. He lost all his the bodts. There was little response money and clothes, with the exception to the orders of the officers. The crew of a pair of trousers and a shirt, but seemed paralyzed. Matters were quiet he laughed and now and then cursed and there was no panic at first, the frenzied sailors with passionate though the decks were becoming more earnestness. and more crowded with frightened Niffler got into a lifeboat with some people. others and remained there until he The steamer was listing and settling reached the water, when he thought it and then a wild fear seized on the was time to leave. None of the sailors throng and the people lost their reason. ever attempted to let the boat loose. Mrs. La Casse was separated from He swam for a long time before he her husband in the scramble, and the was picked up. He saw an Englishman steamer listed so badly, that she slid attempt to get into a boat, but the men down the declivity of the deck and into in the boat, who were sailors of La the water. She had taken the precau- Bourgogne, hit him over the head with tion, nt her husband's direction, to put the butt end of an oar. He fell back on a life belt before leaving her state- and sank. room, and shortly after being thrown Christopher Brunon, a passenger, wag into the sea she was seized by the arm thrown into the water and swam for and drawn upon the life raft. Her two hours before he found a boat. He COLLISION savior was her husband. A moment clung to this as his last hope. After THE BETWEEN THE CROMARTYSHIRE AND LA BOURGOGNE. later the ill-fated steamer disappeared some time a man got hold of the same