The daily gazette., 1878-12-18
Letter from Samuel Townsend.
For the DELAWARE GAZETTE.

was engaged In what farmers call hog kill
ing and sailing meat, and that generally !
attended to my business first and news |
paper controversies afterwards; but as |!
soon as got through the meat job was
summoned as a witness at Court on two
very important cases, therefore ! had no
time to reply to Vincent until now
What led me to crticise, in the first place,
Vincent's selt-laudations was his efron-
terry in publishing the following in the
Wilmington Herald: The coast from
Cape Henlopeu south to Rehoboth Bay
is one Of the most dangerous stretches of
the sandy beach on the whole Atlantic
Lying open and unprotected, 1t receives
the wild beat of the surf as it comes in
driven with unusual violence by the un-
obstructed sweep of the northeasters
and it is rendered particularly dangerous
from the natural formation. just north
Cape Henlopen stands out from the main
land, bold and extending, and just round
this is the Delaware Breakwater, inside
of which so much shipping finds shelter
in rough weather. The way wrecks oc-
cur is as follows:
Vessels sailing from the southwest in
rough weather, with gale blowing from
the same direction are apt to get too far
in toward toward the shore, and while
endeavoring to round the Cape would be
driven in upon the shore in days <of
a year or two ago, were dashed topieces or
capsized and sunk just outside the break
ers. Disaster after disaster has occurIe ed in
this manner; crew after crew gone down
to watery grave by this natural pheno-
menon of the coast, and year after year
went by, each one adding to the death
roll of the hapless mariners; and no ef-
fort ,ras made to check the fearful work
of death.
At length Francis Vincent, Esq, the
State Historian, visited the place to gain
historical information concerning certain
caprices OF the coast, by which the sea is
steadily encroaching upon the shore,
having washed away whole islands and
covered much of Delaware soil. He not
only secured his information but heard
also of the fearful loss of life from
marine disasters. lie saw how easy it
would be to remedy the evil, and set
about so doing. He collected statistics,
published them in the papers, and sent
them to Washington, accompanied by
formal application for life saving stations.
A year or so ago his request was granted
} and the stations were established in the
very places he had recommended-that
is one at Rehoboth, and one at the other
end of the fatal beach at Cape Henlopen.
This led to similar stations clear down
= the Atlantic coast to Cape 1Iatteras, fol
= which Mr.. Vincent should have the credit
as it was his efforts which brought then
about. In the end, the stations along the
Delaware coast, have been doubled il
r number since then, and these mentioned
= in the New York Herald despatch giver
in the first part of this artice, are simply
= additions to those established through
j Mr.. Vincent's efforts.
t | thought it best to give Vincents OWL
: laudations of himself and his assumption
so the public could judge the nan. Ill
assumes to know more than the Light
house Board for the last hundred years
and all the millions it has cost; NOR
c than the Typographical Surveyors, AM
g all other people concerned in the com
= mercial marine of the United States
that he, Francis Vincent, pointe'
IS where the first life saving stations shoul'
n be. whilst he was on pilgrimage to tn
l. sea shore as historian of Delaware.
, have never heard of but one parallel cas-
'' In Vincent's selflaudation and self-im
portance, and that was negro king Il
"a Africa. The tale goes that French man
& of-war anchored off tho coast OF Africa
w and the Capt. went on shore to pay his re
- spects TO the ruling king. When he land
ed he was conducted to the august pres
a. ence of the king, whom he found to be
)r naked Niger, chalked i'll stripes up an
'e down and around, and sitting under
tree. his back against the tree, his eye
balls steady, looking neither to the rlgi
nor left. and sticking out like lobster'
~ After the French captain had made,
" Frenchmen can do, a few salams, this al
" oust king without deigning to turn HI
,e head asked the Frenchman if there wa
in much talk of hir. in France. Vincef
ne saws there was a notice of him in IN
90 I,ondon Times, copied no doubt from I'll
" " Y. Herald, and said puff no dou'
'h written by Vincent. A pretty historic
ts of delaware. indeed / received fe
is nnmhers of that document and consigne
to them TO a small house In my garden.
shonld moi in the first place have answe
ed his laudatory article, II 1t mad not pee
for two particular assertions ne iiiaue.-
The first was that the Delaware Goa
,sS from Cape heilioPeh W
he one of the most dangerous stretches
on beach on the whole Atlantic, lying OPP
er and unprotected. What stuff. are not
lu- beaches from Nantucket to Florida opt
nS @ and unprotected? ? And to prove this vel
Ir stretch of Delaware beach not so DANCE
ID, ons as many other beaches, cited u
I'll. shin Tuscarora that laid on ihls Del
ny ware beach for two months, was taken
I'm to New York and put in the dry-oo
d. he NJ not one OF the frame timbers broken, W
,ly repaired and run 1or '"el.
ne years Afterwards. e.hai,ta sbinni,
house of Henr aud Alfred Cope
es- philadelphia, to Jacob Vaughn, one
to the surviving builders of sai1 snip, n a.
de- further to his chief clerk, MI f1Hno Tna
hes now at Mr. corner OF fTo 0
ed ed and and Market streets, wilmington ~ u
GU f''d 7 defy Vincent to cite and prove al
abin Of over one thousand tors that es
1d 1aid on Hatteras shoals, Barnegat; "A
secom or Nantucket shoalt' Two ,omair maH. =
oa m,ontbs, and was then got OIL repair
geo and rnn twenty years. If he does
m ~, nroduee such proof his assertion OF =
M 4 acb between Cape Henlopen anu = !,
I'M nm pohotb n being the most dangerous on