HEAVY DAMAGES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 134, 19 March 1935, Page 5

HEAVY DAMAGES

MAROONED ON AN ISLAND.

FRENCHI COMPANY SUED. THREE PERSONS SHARE £IB,OOO. (United Press Association—Copyright). (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) PARIS, March. 18. Damages totalling £IB,OOO were awarded against the La Langouste Francaise Canning Company to three survivors and the widows of two of the victims. The Court declared that the company was negligent, hut the men should have augmented the tinned food by fishing and rabbiting. A Paris cablegram, dated February 25, stated: — A story of slow starvation was told when two.-'Breton fishermen and a woman brought a suit for damages against the company, La Langouste Francaise. They leave evidence that the i company proceeded to build a canning factory capable of dealing with 26,000 crayfish daily, on a sun-scorched rocky island near Madagascar in 1928. Fire destroyed their food stores in 1930, and the company decided to repatriate all the workers, except five Bretons, Madame Lebrunon, wife of one of the Bretons, and the Madagascan factory superintendent. The survivors understood that when the steamer Austral left the island on March 3, 1930, she would return in three months’ time with supplies. Meanwhile those left had three or four pigs, eight goats, and some tinned food. Months elapsed. The occupants of the island were forced to eat fish, penguins and rats. Scurvy resulted, killing three, including Madame Lebrunon’s husband. A baby was born but survived for only two months. The fourth man went fishing and did not return. When the Austral reappeared on December 6, 1930, its crew found three living skeletons, who pointed to a row of rockhewn graves.