The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-01-18
1"e 's nn. l sssrs se''' 'es OF

sS NEW Yo1x, Dee. q.
A special dispatch from Bridgehamp-
ION, L. l., says:
AT four O'Clock the ship Circassian,
ashore ON the bar of Bridgehampton, on the
south shore of Long Island, was entirely
broken up BY s0uthcasterly gale and lost
together with twenty eight lives. The Cir
cassian went ashore in the storm on tho
night of the 18th inst. At that time the crew
and officers were saved. The storm yester-
day caught thirty-two men, employees OF the
short time after midnight the ship went to
pieces with an awful crash. According to
the account, four survivors were washed
ashore this morning, more dead than alive,
on fragments of the wreck. None of the re-
manning twenty-eight men have been seen.
o. heard from, up to the present time, and
there is but little doubt that all have per-
ished."
This second wreck of the ship Circassian
is the most disastrous that has occurred on
the Long Island coast since the wreck OF the
John Milton, fifteen years ago. She ran
ashore in a binding snow storm, and all on
board, thirty persons, were lost. The crew
ging, their arms standing straight out In
front of them. The men ON board the Cir.
cassian had finished on Friday night all
necessary preliminaries for attaching .
hawser with which she was to be drawn OIL:
During the early hours of the night the wind
freshened little, and the sea began to run
very high, until at about six O'Clock 1t be-
nan to break clear over her. The men, ap-
pretending danger, went into the fore rig
ging, where they were ordered for greater
safety. All on board, thirty>two souls, all
told, remained thus exposed until early In
the morning, when it was deemed advisable
to shift quarters, as the falling OF the top
a L "a t1,n~ ouv
made it difficult to hold ON. The crew was
safely transf rrcd to the mizzen, where
signals of distress were shown.
All this time the shore was plainly iu
sight. The moon was shining brightly, and
fires built by the crew Of the life-saving sta
ton showed plainly the figures of the crowd
on the beach rs they hurried to and fro, in
ging. 1t was an awful suspense for the poor
fellows dashed to the masts and yards Of the
ship. They saw attempt after attempt
made to establish communication with them
fail, and each failure seemed to measure
their purchase upon life. Every effort to get
boat off shore proved futile. As often az
it was attempted the sea drove 1t high and
dry on the beach. Capt. Henry Hunting, Of
Life-Saving Station No. 10, now brought .
mortar into service, and several balls with
q rope attached were thrown out to the ship.
But one of the cords reached the ship.
Its hold was not very secure, ana u pres
emily fell on, and the slender thread upon
which thirty-two human lives depended was
snapped forever. The station-men, all the
while these endeavors ware being made,
could sec men tn the rigging quite PLAINLY
and hear their cries for help. f<S 4
Many Of the weather beaten heroes on
shore, who have been on wrecking vessels
and saving lives since boyhood. were moved
to tears by the ptteous opportunities of the
$r0N .~~&
their efforts to save mitigated the suspense
they would otherwise have felt during the
early hours. But when the last charge was
shot off, and nothing else possible to human
effort or bravery remained to be done they
became unnamed and many OF them wept.
The nervous excitement and sudden mac
tivity utterly incapacitated them for any
was only left for them to remain inactive
and sec their fellows pssish. before theat
eyes. To leave the beach would only add to
the terrOrs of the death that stared Its vic
Tins in the face, and to remain inactive
would probably give cause for unjust re-
pr0ach from the poor helpless walters on the
wreck. Supt. Hunting and his men re-
from the wreck, but nothing that was said
on shore was heard on the ship on account
of the direction of the wind.
In terror and suspense the morning wore
on, the wind having veered around In the
meantime to west-southwest. During the
early part of the night before the men went
into the rigging the cables were slackened
but the ship moved only short distance
and continued through the night to strike
the bottom. Every time she struck the men
thought she would lose her masts, to which
they had dashed themselves. While conscious
of the great danger and the utter impossi.
bility Of saving themselves if the mast
should 20 by the board, it being of iron
they were unable to slacken the flashing
Some of them, with more self-possessior
than others, had taken this contingency into
their calculations and had not securely dashed
themselves, and among those were the only
four saved from the wreck At lf-pasl
four a. m. the long dreaded crisis came, and
the mizzeumast went by the board with q
crash, carrying the mainmast with 1t.
tremendous swell had struck the CircassiaI
CCUCU sue tuumpcU heavily, duU Tic tCTTlu>