ONLY ONE SURVIVOR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 354, 4 April 1910, Page 2

ONLY ONE SURVIVOR

AN APPALLING DISASTER. WRECK OF A FRENCH LINER. A sad story is told by the sole survivor of tbe French steamer General Chanzy, which went ashore on Wednesday night, February 9, off the wild coast of Minorca, 100 miles from the Spanish mainland. Miraculously flungi inshore while his companions perished, Marcel Badez, the sole survivor, endured thirst and hunger for the whole of Thursday and part of Friday till he stumbled, more dead than alive, across some poor fishermen.

One explanation of the fearful loss 01 life is that all the passengers were in the cabins at the lime the vessel struck. Badez himself was in a cabin asleep when the vessel struck, and was awakened by a crash and the roar of rushing waters. This was followed almost immediately by the sound of a terrific explosion, probably of the boilers. In what seemed to Badez but a few moments the waves swept over the ship, engulfing her. In a half-confused way, as if awakening from some horrible dream, Badez seems to recollect the terrible confusion that prevailed on board ■when the ship •truck. Panic seized everybody, the officers included. These latter shouted orders to the crew which were not executed, for the waves breaking over the ship washed away every living soul. Men, women and children, without waiting to snatch any clothing, rushed from their cabins in frantic fear, and dashed on deck imploring someone to save them. The destruction of the vessel was so terribly swift that there was no time even to launch the boats. Badez remembers himself being sucked down with the sinking ship, coming into contact with icy-cold water. Scantily clad as he was he immediately lost consciousness. Then his mind was blank for many hours. It was about three o'clock on Thursday morning when the Genera! Chanzy was lost. When the only survivor of the disaster recovered consciousness he was lying wedged between two rocks near the shore, where he had been miraculously flung by the mountainous seas. The tide had receded, leaving him high and drr, but maimed and Weeding from many hurts sustained in his cruel buffeting against jagged rocks. The sun was shining brightly, and from its position in the heavens he judged the hour j to be about noon.

Dressed only in pyjamas, terribly weak from many wounds, and sufferin? from hunger and raging thirst, Badez dragged himself ashore. He had hut the vagueßt knowledge of his whereabout at first.

Under the impression that he had been cast ashore on the Snanish mainland, all day Thursday he wandered about in search of some human habitation where he could obtain food and water. He had become delirious from nuich suffering, and as men do in such circumstances when their brain is on fire, Badez wandered round anil round in a circle.

Night found him a fugitive on a oesolate coast. His torments, now increased tenfold by the bitter cold, at length rendered him unable to continue any further. He sank exhausted to the ground, resigned to the fate from which there seemed, after all, no escape.

The 'morning sun brought him back to consciousness. For the second time the dooj victim set forth anew in his quest for succor. After another hour's wandering, which seemed to Badez like a day. he encountered some fishermen, who, learning from his lips part at least of his terrible stow, took him to their huts, where they furnished the famished man with food, drink and clothinsr. Alterwards the survivor was conveyed to the hospital at Ciudadela, w"here he recounted his Odyssey to the French Consul.

The coast in the neighborhood of Ciudadela was strewn with wreckage and the 'bodies of the drowned. The .lumber of lives lost was estimated at 158.