TERRIBLE SEA TRAGEDY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 6 August 1931, Page 10

TERRIBLE SEA TRAGEDY

HUNDREDS OF LIVES LOST PLEASURE STEAMER CAPSIZES BAY OF BISCAY STORM “There is a blue sky overhead to-day and the sea is calm hero, though there are still white horses capping the waves out where the Pointc de St. Gildas juts out westward. There, under that glistening green, lie- some 450 men, women and children, the gay party of excursionists who set out yesterday morning for tlie island of Noirmoutiers." So said tlie special correspondent of the “Daily Mail” on 15th June, in a message from St. Nazaire, Brittany, on the day following tlie catastrophe in the Bay of Biscay. The St. Philibert, the pleasure-boat, usually plied up and down the placid waters of the River Loire between Nantes and St. Nazaire. On Sunday, 14th June, she went out in the open sea. having on board, in addition to her captain a«d seven sailors, 460 members of the Nantes and St. Nazaire Co-operative and Friendly Society, for their annual summer outing.

The story of the tragedy was given by a survivoi and one eye-witness, M. lienri Gernoux, the watcher at the semaphore station of St. Gildas. SUDDEN GALE SPRINGS UP Tlie weather was fine at the outset—indeed, it was the first Sunday on which such good weather had been experienced this year. But when the St. Philibert put back toward the mouth of the Loire the sea suddenly rose and the sky darkened, while the wind came shrieking along from the ocean. “I never saw anything like it,” M. Gernoux said. “I was watching the St. Philibert and I saw her suddenly being tossed about like a cork. Occasionally I could see her drifting sideways in a squall accompanied by rain., and then, as the sky cleared, get back on her course. Then came another terrible gust of wind and rain and she heeled over until her short foremast almost touched tlie water. “She righted herself with a sort of shudder —and rolled over again. For a few seconds she was on her side and then, with a lurch, she disappeared. I was so astonished that I took my glassos from my eyes and wiped them. Then 1 had another 100k —but all 1 could see were the white-capped breakers.” SWIMMER'S DIVE FOR LIFE A graphic story was givon at the hospital next day by one of the survivors, a 21-year-old carpenter, of Nantes, Daniel Duvcrtier, who, fortunately for himself, is tlie champion swimmer of his club. “We had been out about an hour fromthe island on the return trip,” M. Duverticr said, “when the wind rose suddenly and the sea with it. The rain kept coming down in gusts, and the waves Swept over the boat. We were then thoroughly miserable, crowded as we were and with so manv people ill. “The weather grew worse and our progress slower, and most of the passengers went to the starboard side for shelter. Some were so frightened of being washed overboard that they lashed themselves to the rails!

“The ship began to roll heavily. Suddenly there came a- terrific wave and the St. Philibert heeled to such an alarming extent that I knew she would never right herself and I decided to jump for it. I am a good swimmer, accustomed to rough sea-bathing, and I rose to tlie surface again with little difficulty.

“I saw the ship turn keel uppermost, with a score of drowning people trying to clutch at her sides. She stayed like that for a few seconds —and then went down.

“I swam as hard as I could to keep out of the suction and then sighted a lifeboat, in which were four other persons. I made for this boat, which was one of the unsinkable variety.* I climbed into it and we were rescued by the tug Pornic a few hours later.”

DISTRESSING SCENES The moving of the passengers to one side of the ship, referred to by M. Duyertier, caused the pronounced list, which is believed -to have been a contributory cause of the, disaster. Many bodies were recovered from the sea by tugs on the Monday. There were distressing scenes at St. Nazaire as crowds of men. women and children strove to learn whether their loved ones’ remains had been found—for all hope of any survivors beyond the eight in hospital had been abandoned. This terrible harvest, as was expected, would go on for weeks, as the sea .washed up its dead, and sailors say they have always found it thus—women first and men afterwards. When the work of searching the sea'was over for Monday. 70 bodies—the majority of them those of women—had been recovered. SEAPLANES OUT AT DAWN Telegraphing on Tuesda- 10th June, the correspondent said:— The women waited at Nantes, the home of tho holi-day-makers, outside the historic castlo of tho Duchess Anne of Briltanv where a chapelle ardento was being prepared. They all hoped they would bo able to seo the remains of their friends and relatives, which arc being taken to the castle, but the task of recovery from flic sea is a long one, and the sad organisation of identification slow and complicated.

The 70-odd bodies brought ashore yesterday—mostly those of women and "iris —were taken to Nantes by army lorries. After searching all this morning, tugs and other ships steamed back with further tragic cargoos. The remains were immediately transferred to lorries for Nantes.

Seaplanes out at dawn reported seeing a patch of at loast a hundred bodies, but whon sailors went out in' a tug they could not find them.

The number of lives lest was comput ed as at least 457.