From the archives: Maritime disaster was 'wholly without excuse'

This story was first published on June 25, 2007, in the Montreal Gazette.
“On the deck of the steamer, almost under foot, beneath the hot sun but sheltered from its rays by a coarse sail, lay the bodies of the poor victims.”
The Gazette, Monday, June 29, 1857
The scene on the Montreal waterfront that Saturday morning was horrifying. Twelve little children lay huddled in death on the deck of the steamer Napoleon. Beside them were the bodies of a young man, a teenage girl and two women