3-074-530 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Damaged hull of the Saint Germain, 1883. Aftermath of a '...disaster which occurred to two steam-ships off Ushant, on 25th August, when the French Transatlantic mail-steamer, St. Germain, from Havre, came into collision with the Newcastle steamer Woodburn...The Woodburn was sunk, drowning seventeen of her crew and officers...The tug and the Woodburn had arrived within forty-five miles of Plymouth...when the collision occurred...The St. Germain, which had on board a crew of 122, all told, and 462 passengers, and was on her way from Havre to New York, ran into the Woodburn, striking her on the starboard quarter with such force that she began to settle down immediately, and sank within three minutes of being struck...The St. Germain...sustained very considerable damage, her bows being completely stove in and her fore compartment filled with water to such an extent as to bring her deeper down by the head...The force of the collision is shown by the fact that a piece of ironwork weighing two tons, which was part of the Woodburn, was taken out of the hole on the port side of the St. Germain. A smaller portion of wreckage, part of the lower deck of the Woodburn, was subsequently taken out of the second hole on the port bow'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.