Sinking of SS La Bourgogne

Common card · No. 407254

On 4 July 1898, the SS La Bourgogne collided with the sailing ship Cromartyshire while the two ships were in thick fog off Newfoundland, and Cromartyshire had reduced speed, but La Bourgogne was steaming at high speed. The La Bourgogne sank forty minutes after the collision, killing 562 of the 725 people aboard. It was, at the time, one of the worst maritime disasters in history. Only 13 percent of her passengers survived, compared with 48 percent of her crew. 200 of her passengers were women, but only one survived. Passengers included numerous children, none of whom survived. It was alleged that after the collision, some of the steamship's officers failed to do their duty to minimise loss of life, and members of either her own crew or a group of seamen who were steerage passengers fought to save themselves to the exclusion of other passengers. Owners of the Cromartyshire, and the relatives of dozens of the victims of the sinking, sued the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT) for damages...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain