STEAMERS IN COLLISION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 166, 15 July 1903, Page 3

STEAMERS IN COLLISION.

GREAT LOSS OF LIFE.

San Francisco, June 25.

More than a hundred people perished to day (says a depatch from Marseilles, France, dated 7th June) in a collision between the Insnlaire and theLiban, two passenger steamers belonging to tho Fraissenet Steamship Company. The Liban, which left Marseilles this morning, on her regular trip to Bastia, Corsica, was run down and sunk by the Inaulaire off Maire Island. The colHsion was witnessed from the pilot boat Bleohamp, two miles away, and the latter hastened to render assistance. The collision cut a great hole in the side o£ the Liban. The captain tried to run the vessel aground, but seventeen minutes after the collision, while still in deep water, the fore part of the steamer plunged beneath the waves, and a few minutes later the vessel disappeared. Meantime other vessels drew near, and made desperate efforts to resoue the sufferers, The Bleohamp

picked up forty parsons, and the Bal kan rescued thirty-&even. The officers of the Balkan say that tb© scene just before the Liban disappeared was terrible.

As the vessel sank it inclined to such an angle that the masts struck the water, causing an eddy, which made the work of rescue very difficult, A mass of people clung to the foundering vessel, uttering despairing cries as it went down, and at the same time the boilers exploded, intensifying the horrors of the situation. For a few minutes the victims were seen struggling in the sea; then tho waves closed over them. Of two hundred persons on the Liban it is feared that half were drowned.

It is stated that the Liban was put ting to sea as the" Insulaire was makiDg for Port Maire, an island off the entrance to the port, which hid the vesssls from each other till it was too late to avc?.? a collision. Onf <?| the survivors says that all the pi^><*ngers were below at the tables when the shrieking of the whistles gave an alarm. " Coming on deck, I saw the Insulaire approaching us at fall speed. The captain gave several orders, but apparently no attempt was made to change the course of the ship. Some of the passengers reproached the captain. When the crash came a panic prevailed. Attempts were made to lower the boats, but only oto got away, and on that I and a few others escaped. As the vessel sank, bow first, the passengers took refuge on the after-deck, which was covered by an awning. This, as the Liban foundered, became a cage, in which people were caught and dragged beneath, the waters."