My grandparents spoke of La Bourgogne Tragedy

When I grew up, my grandparents spoke often about “les naufragés de la Bourgogne” (the shipwrecked sailors of La Bourgogne) and, not being interested in history yet, I did not have a clue what they were talking about. However, when they spoke about these poor unfortunate sailors, they did so with a bit of disrespect in their voice and it took me half a century to understand why.

It was not until I read the story of “La Bourgogne” tragedy by Lorna Inness, a freelance writer and a former senior editor, that I came to understand the full story of this tragic sea disaster. La Bourgogne, as it turned out, was a 495-foot transatlantic steam-driven passenger liner owned by the “Compagne Generale Transatlantique” of France. On July 2, 1898, this passenger vessel sailed for Le Havre from New York with 491 passengers and 223 officers and crew on board; of them 250 were women and children. They had to sail pass treacherous Sable Island, but this was not what prevented them from reaching France.

On collision course

Their sad fate, unknown to them of course, was that the 249-foot iron-hulled British sailing ship Cromartyshire, carrying a cargo of chalk and owned by T. Lawrence and Co. of Glasgow, was on a collision course with them. The Cromartyshire was under the command of Captain Oscar Henderson; also on board was the captain’s wife, formerly from Halifax, and their two children. Mrs. Henderson had not seen her father, William Muir, a Halifax businessman, in three years and was looking forward to the happy occasion.

In the meantime, the foghorn kept blowing every minute. My own grandfather, who was cod fishing in those days, “at 13 years of age,” spoke often of listening for “steamers” and of blowing the fog horn constantly.

Before anyone could get out of the way, the steamer La Bourgogne came through the fog at great speed and crashed into the Cromartyshire, causing intensive damage, but not sinking the sailing ship. The British sailing ship fared out a lot better than the French vessel.

Aboard La Bourgogne, which was filling with water, the crew refused to obey officers, even though the captain threatened to shoot them. Unlike many rescues at sea, it was not “women and children first” into lifeboats. Those who survived gave reports of savagery, disregard, panic and of no effort to save the passengers.

Desperate men wielding weapons such as knives, boathooks or oars did not try to save women or children; unfortunately, they thought only about getting into lifeboats or rafts and saving their own lives.

Blame placed squarely

Sadly, the passenger liner La Bourgogne went to the bottom, taking 549 souls to a watery grave. At a later inquiry, which lasted a few years, the blame was placed squarely on the shoulders of the French liner, due to speed “as high as seventeen knots” it said.

With time, this sea disaster faded into the memories of those who cared to remember. There was something much bigger to talk about now; nothing less than the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic. This tragic story is still talked about today as if it was only yesterday.

Survivors of La Bourgogne, needless to say, are long gone and the full story will likely never be known. However, many sailors from this vessel made it to shore in Nova Scotia and went door-to-door in French-speaking villages begging for food and mercy.

Rumours of the way the tragedy had been handled preceded them, even in those days, and the French had little respect for those who came banging on doors, even in my Acadian village in Yarmouth County.

My mother, who is now 90 years, spoke of her grandmother “Monique” answering the door to hear a man asking for charity: “I am a shipwrecked sailor from La Bourgogne and the father of nine children.”

But did he get any mercy from my great-grandmother, who had gone through difficult times herself? Not likely! She told him, “I am the mother of more than nine children (she had 10), now leave!”

That I had heard many times, but only understood her behavior after reading Lorna Inness’s story on La Bourgogne in recent times.

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