The catastrophe of the liner "La Bourgogne", which broke out on July 4, 1898, shocked the world not in size and not in the number of victims, but in the cruelty that reigned on the sinking ship. Then 561 people died and it was the largest disaster in the history of the company. Captain Deloncle refused to leave the sinking ship and died with him. Only 10 percent of the passengers survived, while about 80 of the crew were saved. These figures also spoke not in favor of the La Bourgogne team. All the children and all the women who sailed on the liner were killed.
This shipwreck in world maritime history was called "St. Bartholomew's morning" and "Bloody shipwreck".
Who has not yet lost interest in this kind of information, let's find out the details …
In the early morning of July 2, 1898, the La Bourgogne liner, owned by the French Company General Transatlantic, left New York and headed for Le Havre. Onboard there were 725 people, including 128 crew members, the rest were passengers.
Its registered capacity was 7395 tons, length - 150 meters, width - 15.8 meters, side height - 10.5 meters. The steam engine provided the ship with 9,800 horsepower. The liner could reach speeds of up to 18 knots. Its passenger quarters, located on four decks, could accommodate one and a half thousand people. La Bourgogne was a serial packet boat; together with La Champagne and La Gascony, she served the North Atlantic line. These ships had well-equipped cabins for first and second class passengers, with electric lighting, and several compartments for the transport of emigrants.
The steamer was commanded by Captain Deloncle, an experienced and highly respected participant in military campaigns, awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor, and who had been on the bridge for several years. Therefore, it is now very difficult to explain how the steamer ended up 160 miles north of the "corridor" intended for ships heading from America to Europe, and in fact ended up in the "oncoming lane" - the section allocated for ships going from Europe to America … But it was with this that the whole chain of further tragic events began.
So, "La Bourgogne" was on its way to Europe, displaced from the main course so much that it was forced to pass by the infamous "ship graveyard" - Sable Island.
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At dawn on July 4, the ship was covered with a thick fog, so dense that the lookouts, no matter how hard their eyes were strained, could see no further than 30 meters. Continuously announcing its presence with a siren, with the navigation lights on, the steamer went ahead at full speed, not suspecting that the British steel barque "Kromantishir" was heading towards it.
It was still dark when Oscar Henderson, captain of the English sailing barque Cromantyshire, came up on deck. The vessel was approaching the Sable Island area. The night before, Henderson had ordered the navigator of the watch to wake him up if visibility deteriorated. And so it happened - "Cromantishire" fell into the fog, which is almost always shrouded in the insidious Sable, this legendary "Ghost Island". The captain was worried not only about the proximity of its dangerous sandbanks, but the likelihood of a collision with another ship here.
The vessel was sailing at a speed of 5-6 knots. Every two minutes from the bow of the ship came the lingering sound of a bugle, slightly muffled by the fog. The watch was carried by the young third navigator Alexander Stewart.
It was getting light, and the fog thinned out a little. Stewart heard the distant low bass of a steamboat whistle. In a minute it was already heard more clearly, in another minute - quite clearly. By the powerful sound of the whistle one could assume that this was a large steamer. Suddenly from the tank of the Kromantishire came the cry of the lookout - first class sailor Halley: "The ship is on the left, bow!"
Captain Henderson saw a long black hull with four masts and no sails emerging from the fog ahead of his barge's bowsprit. It was moving with great speed at an acute angle from left to right in relation to the course of the "Kromantishire". The captain ran to the wheel and began to turn it with all his strength.
At this time, the sound of broken glass was heard from the tank, the crack of a breaking tree, the whistle of the broken steel stays of the ship. The inclined bomber of the Kromantishir, which protruded 15 meters in front of its stem, pierced the boat, which was standing on keel blocks in front of the navigating bridge of an unknown vessel, destroyed the bridge and broke off in the torn up middle superstructure. Two more boats were smashed into chips by the remaining junker, and when he broke off, the steel bowsprit of the ship, like a battering ram, ripped through the upper part of the ship's side by fifty meters.
The impact in the collision was a sliding one, with each ship moving forward at that moment: the Kromantishir went six-knot, and the steamer, as it turned out later, at seventeen-knot speed.
The Cromantyshire's right-hand four-ton anchor was ready for recoil and hung over the hawse. Ironically, this "symbol of hope" destroyed the ship that was under the nose of the "Kromantishir". Sliding along the stranger's starboard side towards his stern, the bark drove the horn of its anchor into the hull of the steamer and tore it off in several places near the waterline. At the same time, the anchor, knocking out about two dozen windows of the lower deck and making a large hole in the hull of the steamer behind its engine room, caught one of the frames with its paw. The anchor chain snapped, and the anchor remained sticking in the torn side below the waterline.
The sharp stem of the Kromantishir pierced the wrong side below the water level and entered the hull 5 meters behind the second mainmast. The area of the hole was several square meters. With a screeching sound, the colliding ships, once again hitting their sides, disengaged due to the great force of inertia of their masses, and an unknown four-masted steamer without sails rushed further into the fog.
Thus began one of the most difficult dramas in the history of merchant shipping at sea. This took place at about 5 a.m. on July 4, 1898, about 60 miles south of Sable Island.
And what happened at that moment on the liner?
At dawn on July 4, the fog became thick as milk, and the lookouts from the tank and fore-mars, already 30 meters away, could not distinguish anything. But La Bourgogne, shrouded in fog, like a shroud, rushed in a seventeen-knot course towards its death. Every two minutes, the long whistles of the steamer were carried away into the fog.
At about 5 am, the lookout from Mars, La Bourgogne, heard the sound of the foggy horn of a sailing ship. The sailor immediately reported this to the navigator on the bridge. Then everything happened so quickly that the navigator DeLinge did not even have time to do anything to disperse from the vessel, the signal of which was heard close by right on the course. Seeing the sails protruding from the fog, he put the rudder "port on board" and gave the car the signal "Tovs". But the ships collided before La Bourgogne had time to turn aside or stop her car. The liner managed to give only a dial tone.
The bowsprit of the Kromantishir on the ship's navigating bridge killed the navigator Duron, who was looking out on the bridge wing and the helmsman. DeLinge, who was on watch, managed through the wreckage of the destroyed bridge to reach the surviving cabinet of the machine telegraph and set its handles to “Stop”.
Water rushed into the hole in La Bourgogne's hull. She flowed like a river into the boiler room of the steamer. One of the stokers rushed upstairs to report this to the captain, and when he returned, the compartment was already filled with water. Part of the steam pipe system was torn, and several stokers were scalded with steam.
From the impact of the collision, the fore-top and the main-top-top fell on the deck of the Kromantishir. When they fell, they carried away two yards with them and tore part of the rigging. Having lost the bomb-utlegar, the lighter and the bowsprit with all the bow sails, the bark ceased to obey the helm. No damage was inflicted on the people on board the Cromanteyshire, no one was even scratched, and although a leak appeared in the bow of the ship, only the forepeak was flooded. Thanks to the watertightness of the collision bulkhead, the bark remained afloat.
The "Kromantishire" heard first long, and then intermittent (due to a damaged steam line) low horns of the steamer. Then there were several shots of rocket launchers, and through the already dissipating fog, red flashes of missiles could be seen. The captain of the barge gave several beeps with a misty horn and sent several signal flares into the sky. But the horns of the steamer, which sounded in response, were now hardly distinguishable, they were carried away. The steamer was leaving …
About three minutes after the impact, Captain Deloncle appeared on the destroyed bridge of La Bourgogne, and the entire deck crew poured out of the cabin. The sailors were ordered to pump out the water with hand pumps. But the liner already had a list to starboard, and knowing the nature of the damage, Deloncle understood that it was impossible to save the ship. However, he decided to try to dump the liner onto Sable's sandbanks, which were about 60 miles away.
The captain turned the handles of the machine telegraph from the "Stop" position to "Full speed ahead", ordered to correct the compass heading "Nord 10 degrees to the east". Despite the severe damage to the hull, broken steam lines and panic in the boiler room, the liner machine started working, and La Bourgogne rushed forward. The mechanics reported to the bridge that the furnaces of the second boiler room would be filled with water in 10 minutes.
In fact, it happened after 5 minutes. With every minute the starboard side sank deeper and deeper. The water began to pour over the steamer through the holes that were just above the waterline. When she flooded the furnaces, the boiler room filled with acrid coal smoke.
La Bourgogne's car stopped, the steamer's propeller stopped turning. In the ensuing silence, now interrupted only by the hiss of steam escaping from the car, screams were heard on the decks of La Bourgogne …
When La Bourgogne's car stopped, Captain Deloncle ordered all officers to report to the bridge. Having given the command to rescue women and children in boats, first of all, Deloncle shook hands with all the officers, said goodbye to them and remained on the bridge alone among the wreckage.
The sailors began to remove the tarps from the lifeboats, and the passengers rushed to take their places in the boats. There were only ten rowing boats on the liner, of which three were destroyed at the time of the impact. The seven remaining, of course, could not accommodate all the passengers and the crew of the liner.
Only 5-7 minutes had passed since the collision, and something unimaginable was already happening on the deck of the steamer. It is no coincidence that this shipwreck entered the chronicle of sea disasters under such names as "bloody shipwreck" and "Bartholomew's morning".
Chronicles testify that on board "La Bourgogne" among the passengers there was part of the crew of an Austrian steamer, which crashed off the coast of America. Having survived one crash and saved by a miracle, these people again faced the fact of imminent death. The animal instinct awakened in them deprived them of their human appearance. At that moment, when some helped the women to get into the boats, supported the old people and carefully passed the babies, the Austrian sailors made their way to the boats with revolvers and knives. Their example was followed by the Italian emigrants, who made up the majority of the inhabitants of the third class. Knife blades glittered on the deck …
The second navigator directed the descent of one of the boats on the port side. He was able to put women and children in it. The boat was at the side, and the verb-hooks of its hoists had not yet been disconnected when the Italians began to descend from the deck along the cables. Despite the pleas and cries of mothers and the crying of children, the male emigrants, trying to save their lives, sank the boat: the fragile boat could not bear the weight of people and was filled with water - mothers and children were in the water. The same thing happened with the second boat.
The Austrians fought their way through the maddened crowd to a large boat, which was anchored on keelblocks on the port side of the bow deck. Not knowing how to launch him, they pushed him into the water and started jumping overboard.
One of the officers of "La Bourgogne" with difficulty placed a group of women and children in one of the boats on the port side. He hoped that the sailors would take care to lower this boat into the water, and began to board the women in another boat. But in the boat, where the women were sitting, a block of aft hoists got stuck, and it remained hanging with a strong inclination towards the bow, swinging on the hoists.
The liner continued to fall to the starboard side, the water was already approaching the main deck. From the rooms of the third class, half-dressed emigrants, seized with fear, climbed into the boat deck in a crowd. Attempts by the liner officers to contain their onslaught were unsuccessful. The officers were no longer recognized, anarchy and disorder reigned everywhere. In the bow of the steamer, where the sailors handed out life bibs from a large box, there were continuous fights, people snatched from each other these, now worth their weight in gold, objects and in a hurry put them on themselves. The sailors of La Bourgogne did not have time to explain how to put on and tie bibs correctly. Later it turned out that this was exactly what cost many passengers their lives. They tied the bibs too low at the waist, instead of strapping them at chest level. Later, in the places where La Bourgogne sank, dozens of corpses were found,who floated upside down …
The struggle for life lasted until the last minute, and most often ended with death. Near the navigating bridge, the sailors tried to lower the last surviving boat, already packed to the brim with people. But the boat hoists were stuck, and to fix them, everyone had to go on deck. However, no persuasions and explanations worked: not a single person in this boat even moved - a crowd stood nearby, ready every second to take his place. So none of her got out on the deck, this boat went to the bottom together with the steamer …
The struggle for a place in boats and rafts continued for several hours after La Bourgogne sank to the bottom. People who found themselves in the water swam up to the boats, grabbed the sides, but they were mercilessly beaten on the head with oars and beaten off with their fingers. One passenger, an Italian named Mechelini Secondo, did manage to get out of the water into an overcrowded boat. But those who were already in them, with fury pounced on him. Sekondo received several heavy blows and was literally covered in blood. However, he picked up a piece of oar and began to fight off his offenders. It ended up killing five people with this wreck …
The end of the drama was already close - and from minute to minute "La Bourgogne" was to tip over to starboard. Neither the watertight compartments of the liner, most of the doors into which were closed, nor the longitudinal bulkheads of the boiler rooms, dividing them into two parts, saved the liner from death. Its buoyancy and stability reserves were running out …
Until the very last minute on the liner there was a desperate struggle for life … Those who could not find a place in the boats crowded on the deck under the navigating bridge around the captain. Deloncle encouraged these unfortunates with advice on how to jump overboard if the ship began to capsize. In the midst of this confusion and terror, he was powerless to change anything. This man, whose return on the shore was awaited by his wife and five children, having no hope of salvation in his soul, retained courage and self-control. Next to the captain stood a passenger, whose wife had been run over in the dump by the boat, and held in his arms two naked screaming babies. Someone threw a blanket off their shoulders over the children who were blue with the cold.
At this time, near the navigating bridge, the sailors made their last attempts to fix the broken device of the boat hoists and lower the last boat into the water, for this it was necessary to free the boat and everyone get out of it on deck. But, despite the explanations and persuasions of the captain and officers, not a single person in this boat moved: a crowd stood nearby, ready every second to rush to storm the vacated boat. This boat sank along with the steamer …
Two days after the sinking of La Bourgogne, the New York Times came out with the headline: "It was a French ship, and only one woman escaped from it." To the great shame of France, this was an indisputable fact. Of two hundred women, fifty nursing infants and thirty older children, only one woman managed to survive. In total, fifty-nine passengers (one tenth) and one hundred and five (out of one hundred twenty eight) crew members were saved.
The only thing that could somehow rehabilitate the French shipowners in the eyes of the world community was the fact that all (except one) of the liner's officers died in the line of duty. The surviving officer was one of the navigators. However, his rescue was completely accidental - not a single criticism from eyewitnesses of the disaster followed the navigator.
Over the next long months and even years, the Sable Island drama occupied almost the entire world press. The American newspaper "New York Mail and Express", two days after the death of "La Bourgogne" stated: "Whatever the verdict of the court regarding the management of the liner, both before the collision and after, the fact remains: in the history of tragedies at sea, preserved in the memory of mankind, there has never been anything like it”.
Before the liner capsized, Captain Deloncle, co-navigator Dupont and helmsman Deval climbed onto the destroyed bridge. The water was already at their feet. The life of the steamer was now calculated in seconds.
Deloncle grabbed the line of the small emergency whistle and pulled: a shrill whistle sounded over the steamer, it swept over the fog-covered ocean like a cry of agony. Then the waves hid the ship's bridge.
Here is how one of the surviving passengers, the Swiss Nyffeler, described the last minutes of La Bourgogne: “There was a loud crash, and the ship, capsizing on the starboard side, began to quickly go stern into the water. Dozens of people left on the decks began to jump overboard as the steamer sizzled, enveloped in steam. Once in the water, people swam to the boats and, getting into them, drowned them …"
Among the floating debris, people fought for life. Most of these fights ended in favor of death: the last cry was heard over the hidden fog of the sea, and the man disappeared into the waves. So the Russian wrestler Yusupov died. He couldn't swim. The helmsman Deval fell into a whirlpool when the vessel was immersed and was carried under water to a depth of, as he said, about 20 meters. He considered himself dead, but by some miracle he was able to emerge to the surface and climb on the bottom of an overturned boat.
The struggle for a place in boats and rafts continued for several hours after the sinking of La Bourgogne. People who found themselves in the water swam to the boats and tried to find salvation in them. But they were mercilessly beaten on the head with oars and hooks, and were struck on the fingers gripping the boat's gunwale. The first two La Bourgogne boats, commanded by the sailors Gendreau and Le Corre, were rescued by the Cromantishire at about 6 am, when the fog had almost cleared.
As the wounded, crippled survivors began to arrive on the deck of the ship, a terrible picture of the death of the steamer began to emerge. Henderson, in order to take on board the rescued, threw about 30 tons of cargo overboard. At noon of the same day, the steamer Greshian approached the board of the Cromantyshire, en route from Glasgow to New York. "Kromantishir" had to be taken in tow, without bow sails it was uncontrollable, and in the first hold the water level reached 2.5 meters.
When Captain Henderson counted the survivors from La Bourgogne, he received the following figures: 59 passengers (including the only woman) and 105 crew members. A total of 164 people. Recall that at the time of departure from New York there were 725 people on the liner: 597 passengers and 128 crew members. Thus, the number of victims of this disaster is 561 people: 538 passengers and 23 crew members. (Various marine historians indicate the death toll in different ways: 597, 565, and 546.)
Immediately after the steamer "Greshian" arrived in Halifax, an investigation was ordered to investigate the disaster. Eyewitness testimony established the facts of many killings on board the liner before its sinking and after - on rafts and boats. The Austrian sailors and Italian emigrants guilty of the murder were escorted to France. The surviving members of the La Bourgogne team did not look in the best light either. Comparison of the figures for the number of dead passengers and sailors of the liner - 538 and 23 - did not speak in favor of the latter, and only Deloncle's sacrifice could somehow smooth out this unsightly picture.
Interrogation of witnesses made it possible to identify those members of the La Bourgogne crew who also committed the brutal killings on board.
The only thing that to some extent rehabilitated the French shipowners in the eyes of the world community was the fact that all (except one) of the liner's officers were killed in the line of duty. This one turned out to be navigator Delinge. Not a single criticism from the witnesses of the disaster followed.
DeLinge acknowledged the fact that La Bourgogne had been in full swing in the fog throughout the night, running lights on and beeping all the time. But the responsibility for this lay entirely with Captain Deloncle, who died along with his ship. On September 25, 1898, all charges against the Captain of the Cromantyshire were dropped in Halifax.
By the way, upon their return to Europe, the surviving Austrian sailors were put on trial and executed.
