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Show PLY HUNDRED ! PERISH IN CRASH i t . ! j UNER EGYPT SINKS IN COLLISON I OFF FRENCH COAST; DISAS- TER WORST SINCE WAR i Somes Without Warning in Dense Fog; Trouble With Lascar Crew is Hinter; No Americnas Reported Re-ported Lost Paris In thick sea fog Saturday ?vening off the coast of Finisterre the British ship Egypt of the Peninsular & Orient Line was rammed and sunk by the French cargo steamer Seine and nearly a hundred of the passengers and crew are believed to have been drowned. The accident is one of the worst which has happened on the French coast since the war. The fog was general all along the French coast In exceptional density for this time of year and the first news of the disaster disas-ter became known Saturday, when it was reported from Cherbourg that the liner Berengaria on her first trip from America with oil fuel could not make port and could not get into wireless communication with land, ns the stations sta-tions were all busy with calls for aid of vessels in distress. Neither the name of the vessel nor extent of the catastrope were, however, how-ever, learned until the Seine reached Brest Sunday morning with about thirty thir-ty survivors from among the passengers passen-gers of the Egypt and 200 of the crew. According to the captain's statement, fifteen passengers, mostly of British nationality, are missing and about eighty of the crew. The disaster, according to accounts of survivors, happened Just at the moment they were sitting down to dinner, about 7:30. For some time previously they had been going dead slow on account of the fog, nnd usual fog signal precautions had been taken. tak-en. The ship was about twenty-two mile9 from the coast,, running south Into Uie Bay of Biscay when the cra.s'h came. Until there wns no possibility of avoiding col 11 son, It npepars the watch officers of both vessels were unconscious of their proximity to each other. The Seine, steaming west on outward out-ward trip from Brest, struck the Egypt amidships. The bows of the Seine were badly damaged, but the Egypt drew clear and for some minutes steamed on her route. According to the account of the captain of the Seine, he turned. In spite of the damage which had been suffered, to follow the other ship, nnd twenty minutes later picked her up in the fog in a sinking condition. The mist-blanketed water was dotted with boats and rafts to which terrified passengers nnd crew were clinging. After having floated for some time the ship began to make water and sink rapidly nnd at the end there was little time left for the launching of boats. |