were already filled with French sailors and forty men were fighting for the last boat. He used a sailor's knife to cut free a number of life preservers. He secured one life preserver to his body and jumped over the stern. Witthaus could not swim, but hung on to the life preserver. When he came to the surface, he saw the SS Ville du Havre sinking. He found a floating piece of pine wood and, along with two French sailors, clung to it for eight hours before being rescued. As Willhaus and other passengers were rescued from the open water, he was a voice a reason, challenging the captain's decision to move the female survivors from the rescue ship the Tri Mountain to the Loch Earn which had a large hole from the collision. From the safety of Paris, Witthaus noted that all of the rescued passengers were saved from the open water, while twenty officers and crew—and no passengers—reached the safety of the Loch Earn in lifeboats. Of the survivors, Witthaus was the most outspoken, "declaring that the blame of the disaster rests entirely on the officer of the steamer in charge at the time of the collision." Marriage Witthaus married widow Bly Ella F. Ranney in 1882 in New York City. In 1896, the couple separated. Witthaus filed for a divorce absolute in December 1896, making numerous claims against his wife, including indicating that she had an illness which resulted in a loss of reason. She claimed she was beat and kicked by Witthaus. In March 1898, Bly filed for a modification of a divorce decree in White Plains, New York. Kate Devino was named as a co-defendant in the divorce proceedings. However, Witthaus claimed there was a prior divorce ruling for abandonment, but that Bly had prevented the divorce absolute. Bly lost the case; the judge ruled she had filed for an amendment to increase her alimony which was $2,000 a year. In March 1901, Bly once again went to court, this time asking for their divorce degree to be vacated. This time, she claimed the original divorce had involved fraud and that Witthaus had caused her mental illness with poisons. She also claimed that her prior lawyer had been in collusion with her husband's attorney. She filed in Westchester County, New York with hopes of a quicker resolution and limited newspaper coverage. Witthaus's council responded his