3-056-375 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Collision between the Ville du Havre and the Lochearn, 1873. 'The terrible disaster of the loss of the French Atlantic steamship Ville du Havre, with more than 220 lives, by a collision with the sailing-ship Lochearn, of Glasgow...took place, off the Azores...the night before Saturday, the 22nd November. The Ville du Havre had...313 persons on board...Most of the eighty-nine first-class passengers were American ladies and gentlemen, with their children, going to Paris for a pleasure trip..."I was awoke by the collision...and heard some one call out that we were sinking...The passengers were all rushing backward and forward, some crying, 'Save me! save me!' while others fell down and prayed...I tried to help some of the sailors to get a boat off, but the passengers were all jumping into it and frustrating our efforts...As soon as I saw her going below water I jumped off the rail astern and swam towards the Lochearn. The cries of the struggling people behind me I never, never can forget, and I seem to hear them now ringing wildly in my ears...The Ville du Havre sank in about fifteen minutes, but two of her boats, with the boats of the Lochearn, saved eighty-seven of the persons on board her".' From "Illustrated London News", 1873.