ST. NAZAIRE TRAGEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 141, 17 June 1931, Page 7

ST. NAZAIRE TRAGEDY

STORIES OF THE DISASTER NEARLY TOUR HUNDRED DEAD [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copy right | LONDON, Juncls. St. Nazaire reports that sixty bodies, mostly of women and children, have been washed up on tho beach. The preliminary official inquiry into the disaster shows that it was due to a forty-foot wave hitting tho steamer broadside on. When she listed, through frantic passengers rushing to the ice side, at least 100 were trapped in the saloon like rats. Estimates of the death roll touch 145, out of a total complement of 475, but 44 passengers who have returned from Noirnioutiers assert that between 80 and .100 landed there, which would reduce the fatalities proportionately. Scenes of Honor. The owners state that the (St. Philbert was quite seaworthy and was com nianded by an able and experienced captain. She would hav v weathered the storm if the passengers had not become panic-stricken. The roughness of the sen was proved by tho fact that the bodv of a naked eighteen-ycar-old girl,, still warm, was washed up. Attempts at. resuscitation failed. The weather is still not calm, but lifeboats are searching. The survivor Bcrthy states that he does not know how he camo to the surface. The scene was terrible, unforgettable and hideous. Men, women and children were screaming and flinging their arms about and struggling to keep afloat. The survivor Duvenger said that he dived as the ship turned turtle, sending hit to tho bottom. When he reached the surface he saw people clinging to the hull, which was bottom uppermost. lhen the vessel disappeared, drowning numbers below the decks like rats in a trap. He and others scrambled into one of the Bt. Philbert’s unsubmergablo life-boats and were rescued. Bcrthy, when asked whether he desired his family to be notified, replied: “It is useless. My family is at the bottom of the sea.’’ A later message states that a s the result of a search by many vessels, che bodies of 12 men and 57 women have been laid in rows under a quayside shed, while weeping relatives pass, along essaying the almost impossible task of identification.

~o f h ? <Jcafll ro, l now estimated at uBO, including Captain Ollive. Brave Rescue Work. The pilot boat at St. Nazaire landed seven semi-demented people who had been rescued. Her valiant crew again and again manned the .chip’s boats and each was promptly engulfed. Until a check is made of those who disembarked at Noirmoutier it will be impossible accurately to estimate the death roll. The owners fear that it is upward of 400. MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY inquiry BEING OPENED T, „ . , PARIS, June 15. The President (M. Doumer) and the Premier (M. Laval) have issued a mes sage ot condolence to the relatives. Ino Minister of Mercantile Marine i« opening an inquiry. NEARLY 500 DEAD AN APPALLING TRAGEDY Received Juno 17, 1.30 a .m. T , . , PARIS, June 16. It is now feared that the St. PhilJ 3 d ° ath ™ u is between 470 and 500, whereof only 79 bodies have been recovered. . T "? I Se , a J? a , nes ’ fly!Dg over the spot, counted laO bodies. When the Nantes Co-operative society offices reopened, only two employees out of 35 were present. The remained arc victims of the disaster.