RUN DOWN AT SEA.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 109, 4 July 1885, Page 3

RUN DOWN AT SEA.

New York, May 29.— The "Tribune" Bays :— " Tho steamer City of Rome, of the Anchor line, reached here yesteroay, having on board, besides her 1,821 regular passengers, two French fishermen, the only survivors of the crew of the French fishing barque George Jeanne, which was sunk by the City of Rome in collision on the banks of Newfoundland on May 25th. The names of the rescued men are Hubert Albert and Frank Alphonse Marie. The ill-fated vessel was stiuck and eank in less than a minute, carrying down with her twentyfour men, only two of whom were saved. Captain R. D. Munro, of the City of Rome, was too much broken up by the romembrance of tho scene to give more than a brief statement. The steamer left Liverpool on May 20th. The weather was fine until Monday, when early in tho morning a denso fog came on. It was so thick that from the bow of the boatitwasdifficu't to see 100 feet ahead. A great many icebergs wore passed, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. fifty-eight being counted, large and small. The captain asserts that the vessel's puce was slackened to half-speed, and fully realising the danger, every precaution was taken. Bells were rung and whistles sounded continuously. At 4.10 a.m., when tho fog was thickest, the men forward saw the spars and masts of a barque appear in tho mist barely twenty feet away. The barque lay at anchor, and, according to the captain's story, was not ringing its bell an "" keeping a look-out. Signals to revorse en gines were given, but she struck the barque, and her iron bow cut through the barque Jeanne with as little resistance as if it had been a piece of cheese. The people on the City of Rome saw the barefooted Frenchmen, in blue fishermen's blouses, rushing frantically forward on the barque. The murky air was filled with their affrighted crie3, the exclamations of horror from the deck of the steamer, and the steamer's hoarse-sounding fog-horn, and then the barque went out of sight. A few spars floated on tho sea, and four men could be eeen struggling in the water. Life-buoys were thrown to them, and as soon as pos* sible the steamer was stopped, and backed to where the barque had boon seen, and the boats were lowered. By this time one of the four fishermen had sunk. Two were clinging to a buoy, and the third floatod alongside the steamer, supporting himself by a spar. The fourth officer, Arthur C. Turner, rigged a rope around his body, and taking another rope had himself lowered to the man. Turner succeeded in getting a loop around the Frenchman's arm and neck, strong arms pulled him half-way up the side of the boat, when the loop slipped over his head and he fell back into the water and sank out of sight. This man was the captain of the George Jeanne, Joseph R. Londin. Meantime Albert and Marie wers picked up by boats. The steerage passengers who landed from the City of Rome at Castle Garden declared with one accord that the steamer was making at least fourteen knots an hour when the collision occurred. Every one on the George Jeanne except Marie was below. Marie sat near the stern keeping a lookout. He heard the whistle of the Rome for eight minutes befoie she appeared. He rang the bell of the Jeanne and kept it up, and was ringing it when the Rome crashed into her. The lost fishermen were all married. Charles Morgan, a steerage passenger, declared that tho officers on the bridge were ' watching the passengers leaping and jumping, and were not keeping a proper lookout. The official log of the steamer states that on Monday the steamer made 480 miles. A memorial was presented to Captain Munro, signed by the cabin passengers, praising his efforts to save the survivors.