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Show The Villc lu Havre Catastrophe Catas-trophe The Tribune to-morrow will publish pub-lish a second letter from Randolph A. Witthouser, who was a passenger on the ill-fated 'tlie du llacre to his father in this city. He writes as follows: fol-lows: In my last I gave you a sketch of my experience and connections with the sinking of the Villc du Havre. I will now give you my opinions concerning con-cerning the cause of the accident, etc. From all that I can gather from the officer nd men. I conclude that the blame lies entirely with the ofti- j cer on watch on , the steamer, whose duty it "was to get out i of the Loch Earn' a way, and it ap- Sears that instead of doing this he id the very opposite, altering the course of the steamer so as to run right across the bows of the Loch Karn; at least, so Bavs the officer who time of the collision. In any case, it is an acknowledged rule of the sea that a steamer is bound to get out of the way ot a sailing craft, and as the night was magnificently clear and calm, the accident can only have occurred oc-curred through an unexcusable blunder blun-der of those in charge of the steamer. After the accident, if it can be called call-ed such, had occurred, and while the ship was sinking, the officers and crew behaved in a most coward ly manner. The latter I know, and therefore I believe they looked out for themselves, leaving the women and children to look out for themselves. them-selves. The only exception I saw was the doctor, Mr. Audmont, whom I saw three or four minutes before the ship went down going below. I told him he would not have time to get up again, to which he answered that he must look after those who wore crushed crush-ed in their state-roeims. He never came np again. A significant fact, and one needing no comment, is that not a single passenger was taken from the sinking ship by the boats, all being picked up in the water, while at least twenty of the officers and crew reached the Luck Earn without wetting so much as the soles of their shoes. OfCapt. Sunnont's conduct I know nothing. Those who saw him spoke well of him, and I don't think he is directly to blame for the collision, collis-ion, although he is to blame for not having his crew under better discipline, discip-line, and for not having his boats in condition to be promptly lowered. In great contract with the demoralized demoraliz-ed condition of the crew was the ceol-ness ceol-ness of the passengers, even women and children. There was no scream-inc scream-inc or runninc about without an ob ject. The women were in knots, praying quietly, while the men were looking around for pieces of wood, or were making etlorts to get one of the boats, which the crew had abandoned abandon-ed clear of the ship, so that it might float before the vessel sank. Language Lan-guage fails in expressing my admiration ad-miration of and gratitude to the gallantry- and generosity of officers and crew ol the Lock Earn and of the Jrimoiintain. The former saved the greater part of us from the water, and both gave us clothing and did all in their power to make us as comfortable comfor-table as possible under the circumstances. circum-stances. The French crew on the contrary, were a mob of brutes and cowards. |