I have the most heartfelt sympathy for the bereaved, unfortunate survivors of this last terrible wreck. It has always seemed to me a great mistake to compel women and children to be saved first. How much better it would be to save entire families than to have so many widows and children. I know that I should have preferred going down with my husband to being saved without him. The women and children from the Titanic, who have just passed through this ordeal of being separated from their husbands and fathers, stepping into little boats and looking back on their loved ones for the last time, must feel just as I do. Why should the rule of the sea supersede the marriage vow, “until death do us part.” The story of La Bourgogne has been told and retold so often, and there have been so many different versions of the wreck, that I do not believe that the public understands the truth yet. For one thing, I think too much stress has been laid upon the alleged brutality of the crew. While it is undoubtedly true that they were untrained and undisciplined, and were not at their proper stations, I don’t believe that they fought back the women and children with their knives. It was the men in the steerage who did these things. We boarded La Bourgogne on Saturday, July 2, from New York. The steamship was bound for Havre. My husband, who, I may mention, had served ten years in the French navy, wanted to spend the summer months with his parents. The first two days we had beautiful weather. Sunday night I could not sleep, recalling the stories of the passengers as I did. At one o’clock on Monday morning I awakened my husband, telling him that I heard a foghorn. THERE WAS NOTHING TO FEAR. He laughed and tried to comfort me by saying that we had a good boat and that Captain Deloncle was a good captain and there was nothing to fear. I insisted and told him that I would not go to sleep unless he went up on deck to make certain that everything was all right. My husband dressed himself and went up on deck. He did not come down to our cabin again until half-past four and then he threw himself, all dressed, upon the bed. I called to him again that I heard the foghorn, which had been blowing all that time. He went to the port hole to look out. He had hardly done so when the crash came and he was thrown violently on his back. He was on his feet in a minute, and half dragged me out of bed. Then he put a life preserver on me and another on himself. Then we both went on deck, my husband taking several other life preservers with him and leaving them on the deck for others. Some men from the steerage saw us and evidently thought that we had the best life preservers, because they came at us with their knives. I screamed and they went away. Meanwhile some sailors and passengers were trying to launch boats on the other side of the ship. My husband tried to help them, but there was no use. The ship was listing too much.