TERRIBLE SHIPWRECK AND LOSS OF LIFE.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2571, 15 May 1871, Page 2

TERRIBLE SHIPWRECK AND LOSS OF LIFE.

Amidst the din of battle, little notice is taken of calamities, which, had they happened in peaceful times, would have exe ted wide feltjconsideration. Such a calamity is the loss of the ship Le Cerf, with nearly 1100 people The Cerf was a French Government transport, and was wrecked off Cape de la liogue, on the night of February 7. On board of her were a crew of 150 men and 1080 French wounded and convalescents $ and of this great number, only ten, belong? ing to the crew, saved themselves. The Globe states that Sir Harry Vemey has received from a gentleman laboring in France in connection with the Society for the relief of the French sick and wounded, a letter, which, after giving the above particulars of the loss of the Cerf, says the vessel contained 1080 wounded soldiers, marines, and sailors, all of whom had Ixeu cared for by tbe different members of the National Society for the Belief of Sick and Wounded. They had been scut to Calais from various parts p{ the north of France fpr embarkation, their destination being Cherbourg, Brest, and Bordeaux, from whiph plapes they would be sent to their homos. Many of them.wgre

the sons of gentlemen. They all arrived here without a sou in their pockets, clothed in rags, and were billeted on the poorest people in Calais and the fishing villages, at whose houses they slept, anrl had to seek their foodat thecarsernestwicc a day; apiece of dry bread and a little greasy water called soup were given to them, and there was never enough. Thus these poor soldiers, who had suffered almost a martyrdom for their country, were to be seen wandering about the streets, faint, weary, cold, and hungry The French “Societe pour Sccours anx Blesses ” gave them a meal on their first arrival—nothing more. The wounded men on board the ill-fated Cerf were each and all delighted to tell of the noble gifts that had been sent them from England. At Metz, directly after the capitula'ion, the first food they had was from England, and how many lives had been saved in consequence. Hundreds were on board who had been wounded at Villiers Bretonncux and Amiens on the 26th and 27th of November ; these had been cared for entirely by the I'nglish from the day of the battle to the last day of their departure, and each carried with him some substantial proof of England’s sympathy fur France in her hour of need. Saturday and Sunday, as they were departing, they came by dozens to thank their nurses. Others were parted from at the train, where many a noble man, with the greatest politeness and courtesy, over and over again declared that England had saved their lives.