A SHOCKING COLLISION IN THE ATLANTIC.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1553, 24 February 1874, Page 125

A SHOCKING COLLISION IN THE ATLANTIC.

LOSS OF 226 LIVES. By the arrival at Cardiff of the American ship Tremontain, we have news of the loss of the Transatlantic steamer Ville du Havre and 226 lives. The collision between the Transatlantic steamer Ville du Havre and the Lochearn, of Glasgow, by which 226 lives were lost, occurred in mid-ocean on the 22nd November. The Ville du Havre was a large French steamer, belonging to Havre, and owned by the Transatlantic Steamship Company. She was 5,000 tons register, and her crew consisted of 172 persons. She carried also 89 first, 19 second, and 27 third-class passengers, and six stowaways, making a total of 141, besides the 'crew. Many of the passengers were ladies and gentlemen on the way to visit France, with the object of spending the winter there. From the time of leaving New York, on the 15th of last month, the vessel had encountered a thick fog, but on the night of Thursday the 20th, the atmosphere became clearer, and on the following day a breeze sprung up, raising a somewhat nasty swell on the sea. The night of the 21st, however, was bright and starlight, and the passengers retired to rest in the expectation that the latter portion of their journey would be pleasanter than the beginning. About midnight, the captain, who had scarcely quitted the deck since the ship left New York, retired to rest, leaving the second officer in charge. Two hours afterwards the Ville du Havre experienced a terrific shock from stem to stern, and as in their terror, men, women, and children, clad only in their nightdresses, rushed on deck, they saw the bows of a large vessel projecting over their own steamer amidships. So severe had been the force of the collision, that the deck of the Ville du Havre was cut across some twelve feet, and her iron plates for 25 or 30 feet were broken completely in. The terror of the passengers was so great that the majority of them were utterly unable to do anything towards saving themselves. Many of them fell on their knees on the deck in prayer, while others gave themselves up to wild despair, all feeling that there was hardly the remotest chance of beiDg rescued. To add to the confusion of the moment mainmast and mizenmast fell, crushing in their fall two large boats of the steamer, and killing many on board her. Despite the strenuous efforts which they made, the crew were only able to launch the whaleboat and the. captain's gig, for within twelve minutes from the time when the two vessels came into collision the Ville du Havre had goue down, carrying with her the whole of the crew and passengers, with the exception of the second lieutenant, who was in the whale-boat, which was in his command, and seven of the creWj who had scrambled into the captain's gig. Having cleared herself from the Ville du Havre, the Lochearn kept on heir course for about a mile, and then hove to. Four boats were launched from her and sentto pick up such of the passengers and crew as Were floating about on planks, casks, and life-buoys. In the meantime the second lieutenant of the Ville du Havre succeeded in picking up a boat load, who were at once conveyed to the Lochearn. Having accomplished this task lie returned to the scene of the disaster ,and ; saved a second boat load, amongst whom w«B the captain, who had remained, on the deck to the last, and gone down with the steamer. Many of the ladies who were: picked up had been in the water over two hours, and one of the officers saved himself by swimming to a distance of a mile. The boats of .both the Ville du Havre and Lochearn rowedabout the spot where the collision occurred until it was hopeless to expect any more lives would be saved. They then returned. to the latter ship,' where it was found that of the passengers

rescued one lady had lost her husband and four children ; three young ladies had lost their parents; and one young man had lost father, mqtjieiyj and . sister. One gentleman, who was taking his sister to France for the benefit of her health, found that she was amongst those who had gone down. The scene on the deck of the Lochearn was heartrending, and. the suffering of many who had been in the water over two hours were intense. The cold had been so great that many of those saved, who were taken off the pieces of wood on which they had floated, were in an almost lifeless condition, and in a few .moments more must inevitably have perished through exhaustion. On examining the bows of trie Lochearn it was discovered that she was much damaged ; so much so, indeed, that when at about eight o'clock the American ship Treraontain was sighted, signals of distress were hoisted, and on her being hove to the 87 survivors were transferred to her, the Lochearn continuing on her way to New York. The Tremontain came forward to Cardiff, where the survivors were removed to the various hotels in the town. Amongst the 87 persons saved are 23 first-class passengers (10 ladies and 13 gentlemen), one secondclass passenger (a lady), and three thirdclass passengers (all men). Of the crew six officers and 54 men were saved. Two of those saved were so injured at the time of the collision that they had to remain ori board the Lochearn. The purser of the Ville du Havre has furnished the following narrative of the disaster : —We had be'en out of New York seven days. A thick fog settled over our course during the first five days of the voyage, but on the night of the collision the mist had cleared away, and the weather was fine and bright. I retired to rest at the ususl hour, and was sleeping in my cabin when the .collision occurred. The shock;, of course, awoke mc, and I. immediately rushed on deck to ascertain the cause of the unwonted disturbance. I discovered a sailing ship, and I knew at once that it had come into collision with our right side. The rigging of the mainmast was gone, and five minutes afterwards there broke over me the fearful conviction'that the ship was going down by the head. The scene which' followed will ever remain with me as a living memory, but I cannot attempt to describe it. Some thirty or forty of the passengers had managed to get into the long boat, lowered by order of the captain, and the feeble hope which had remained with them, that they might all escape with dear life, grew strong when they found themselves freed from the sinking ship. Just at that moment, however, the mizen mast fell on the 1 left side of the vessel, and either killed or wounded nearly the whole of the occupants of the boat. Half a minute afterwards the mainmast fell on the deck, killing two and injuring several others. The horror of the catastrophe seemed as it Were to concentrate at this point, and surely a more terribly heartrending scene was never enacted in mid ocean. I hear even now the groans of the wounded, the grievous but unavailing cries for " Help, help," the heartrending shrieks which pierced the air as " one was taken and the other left." I hear even now the calmly expressed determination issuing from many a manly heart to " Die nobly, as die we must." I hear even now the sound of the water rushing down the windpipe into the hold with a velocity which convinced all who knew what it meant that the vessel was .sinking, not gradually, but with- wondrous, awful rapidity. Undressed, I and another jumped into the water. We swam towards the English ship Lochearn, which had then sheered off ; a distance of half a mile from the Ville du Havre. I heard the ship cracking and turning my head round saw that the vessel wonld bo under water immediately. I exclaimed to the gentleman who was swimming by my side, " Look behind you; the ship is going down." As ;a rule, when a vessel sinks she rolls and "shivers," but in this instance the ship went down forward. For a moment a mighty shriek rent the air, and the cries from the vessel were evidently!the outbreak of the last great agony. Then all was peace where all had been confusion. A deathlike calm succeeded noise and tumult,,and I knew the good ship and the souls on board her had sunk into a watery grave. I should like to add that our captain remained on the bridge during the whole of the scene, and went down with the vessel. He was rescued, however, in the, course of an hour afterwards. All the officers" Saved were picked up out of the water, 1 with one single exception, viz.', the first lieutenant, who, by command of the captain, left in a boat for the English ship, in order to ascertain whether it was sinking or able to receive the passengers. There were fifteen officers in all, and only six of these remained to tell the tale. With regard: to myself, I swam in the direction I before indicated for half-an-hour, but when I did succeed in getting close to the ship I missed the rope thrown out to me. I continued swimming for ten minutes'br a quarter of an hour longer, when I was picked up by the lifeboat belonging to the Lochearn. Among the passengers on deck was a French tfriest, who never for a moment lost his selfcontrol in the frenzy which raged around him, or missed, so far as I could see, a single opportunity of comforting and nerving, those who" were about to die.

The vessel sank immediately after he had uttered them, and the Father was drowned, but the gentleman with whom he last conversed is amongst the saved. We cruised in boats around the scene of the disaster until ten o’clock, when we sadly abandoned the task as hopeless. The survivors remained on board the English vessel till three in the afternoon, when they were transferred to the American ship which conveyed them to Cardiff. There is a very general impression among nautical men in Cardiff that no blame whatever is to be attached to the Lochcarn, as, according to maritime regulations, it was the duty of the steamer to keep clear of the sailing vessel. This opinion is borne out by some of the surviving members of the Ville du Havre’s crew themselves, who agree in stating that the Lochcarn was seen by the watch on board the steamer some minutes before the collision. Unfortunately, however, the second officer, who was in charge at the time, went down with the ship, and consequently the exact period when the Lochcarn was first seen will not be known. One of the ordinary seamen states that it was fifteen minutes before she struck the Ville du Havre, while others give various periods, all agreeing, however, that it was at least seven or eight minutes before the catastrophe occurred. The damage to the Lochearn was very serious, so serious that but for the fact that she possessed watertight compartments it is said she must inevitably have sunk. A few incidents were related by one or two of the passengers, upon whose minds they had made an indelible impression. One lady, a Mrs Sp afford, of Chicago, was with her four children when the ship went down. They were all drowned excepting the mother, whose grief when she discovered that she alone had been saved was pitiable in the extreme. The only child was rescued was Miss Helen Mixters, nine years of age, who was crossing with her parents, her grandfather, and an elder sister, Miss Madeline Mixters. The little girl was picked up by one of the boats, but unhappily only to find herself left an orphan in the world, for the rest of the family all perished. Mr Charles Waite was accompanying his sister to France for the benefit of her health, but she alone has survived to tell the sad tale of the wreck. A singular fact is related in connection with Mr James Bishop, of Broadway, New York, who is among th e passengers brought to land. This is said to be the third occasion upon which Mr Bishop has had a very narrow escape of his life. On one occasion he was travelling in a railway carriage in America when it was precipitated into a river, and ( he escaped by diving out of the window-. At another tune he narrowly escaped being killed by a torpedo, and now for the third time he has been snatched from the jaws of death. Among the passengers was a United States judge travelling to France in company with his wife. As the ship was sinking he was seen to clasp his wife's hands, and just before they became engulfed, he exclaimed, “ Let us die bravely.” One lady is reported to have been rescued with a bag of gold, said to have contained £2OO, round her neck. The first-class passengers included Captain Hunter, of the American navy, and his three daughters. Of the daughters two were rescued; the other and the father was drowned. As they stood on the deck, the father, while taking an affectionate farewell of his daughters, expressed his belief that his daughter Msy would be- saved. “ I know God will save you,” he said ; “ there is something for you to do ; you must go on again,” Miss May Hunter and her sister Annie were two of the 27 passengers who landed at Cardiff.