SS La Bourgogne

1898

Sable Island fog, crew with the oars Location: North Atlantic, 60 nmi S of Sable Island, Nova Scotia · Coordinates: 43.67°N 60.15°W · Casualties: 549 · Survivors: ~176 · Depth: 30 m · Cause: collision — Rammed at 05:00 on 4 July 1898 by the British iron sailing ship Cromartyshire in dense fog south of Sable Island. Took on water fast through a gash beneath her waterline and sank in thirty minutes. The crew's conduct was the scandal: lifeboats were seized by force, passengers beaten back with oars. · Fate: not located · Type: passenger liner · Compagnie Générale Transatlantique · Tonnage: 7,395 tons · Crew: 220 · Flag: France · Launched: 1886 French Line transatlantic liner, New York to Le Havre. Rammed in dense fog by the British sailing ship Cromartyshire off Sable Island on 4 July 1898 and sank in thirty minutes. 549 dead, including every child and all but one woman aboard; the French crew seized the lifeboats, beating passengers back with oars, and were widely reviled in the press of two continents. The disaster was a scar on the French merchant marine for decades. The Vessel The SS La Bourgogne was a French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT, "French Line") passenger steamer, commissioned at the Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée yard at La Seyne-sur-Mer on 10 April 1885. She was 152 metres long, 7,395 gross tons, with compound-expansion steam propulsion on twin screws and a service speed of 17 knots. Her specific role was the Le Havre-New York passenger and mail trade, on the principal French route across the North Atlantic. The CGT's Le Havre-New York route was the principal French competitor against the British Cunard and White Star transatlantic services; the La Bourgogne and her three sister ships (La Gascogne, La Champagne, La Normandie) were the core of the CGT's express-service fleet. By the late 1890s the class had been in continuous service for approximately 15 years; La Bourgogne had completed approximately 140 Atlantic round-trips. Her master in July 1898 was Captain Louis Deloncle, 49, a career CGT officer. The Disaster The damage to La Bourgogne was immediately fatal. Her main engine room and adjacent compartments flooded within 15 minutes of the strike; her electrical power was lost; her list to port progressed to approximately 25 degrees within 20 minutes. The specific horror of the La Bourgogne sinking, which produced the subsequent international scandal, was the conduct of the CGT crew during the evacuation. The ship's crew (approximately 219 in number) systematically seized the lifeboats at the expense of the passengers, using physical force to drive the passengers away from the lifeboat-launching stations. The specific reports of the surviving passengers, published in the American and European press through July and August 1898, described crew members using oars, revolvers, and knives to prevent passengers from boarding the lifeboats. The casualty pattern of the La Bourgogne disaster reflected the specific conduct of the crew. Of the 725 aboard, 549 died: 502 passengers, 47 crew. 176 survivors were recovered by the Cromartyshire (which had remained on scene despite having been damaged in the collision) and by three passing steamers that arrived over the following 24 hours. Of the 167 women aboard La Bourgogne, 166 died; 1 survived. Of the 47 children aboard, all 47 died. Of the 219 ship's crew, 47 died. SS La Bourgogne sank at approximately 07:00 on 4 July 1898 at approximately 43°50′N 60°15′W, in approximately 800 metres of water south of Sable Island.