The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-07

when a heavy line was thrown to us, and we
jumped into the water, and were pulled through
the surf into a boat"
WHAT LIGHT HOUSE KEEPER SAW
T Alex. Clinic, brother to the lighthouse keep
er, who resides upon the island, gave the an
nexed statements
my brother Alfred is keeper of the light
house. The permanent residents upon the ISL
and are the keeper his wife, three children,
myself and another BROTHER Stewart bombar-
dier, four gunners of the royal artillery, and
Alex. Houseman, engineer, in charge of the fog
whistle. At the time of the disaster the keeper
and bombardier were in Halifax, on the duty of
making annual returns, etc. Two bOilermakers
were, at the time of the wreck, at work repair
ing the boiler of the whistle. | was in charge of
the fog whistle from till 930, having relieved
the engineer at 6, at which time the whistle was
In working order and sounding its notes of warn
ing l succeeded in keeping the whistle going
me to see distinctly Devils island and
Chebucto head. [ stopped the whistle,
the engineer at this time deeming it
unnecessary to keep going. just before the en-
glneer relieved me, at $50, the lookout man
sighted a steamer about mile south by east of
the light. He called me, and 1 saw how she was
lying to- heading about east-northeast She lay
there about fifteen minutes, while looked at
her. after which she ran ahead about mile,
then started ahead again and went about five
then struck on the Broad Beaver Shoal, for she
began to back astern. 1t was very dark, and |
judged her motions by her lights The fog
whistle was started again at 9:45, though it was
still clear. This was done to warn the ship from
the rock, about twenty minutes after she began
to back This time she struck again on the Mad
rock, on the northeast shoal. She then let go
her anchor, but this did not seem to hold her,
andshe drifted up across the shoals and sank be-
tween 300 and 400 yards from the shore of the
island My brother and [ then got
into boat and attempted to put
out to the steamer, but the
boat was too small, and we were forced to turn
back We then went up and burned lamps on
the rocks and lit bonfres along the shore to warn
any boats that might be afioat against the dan
gerous coasts. We also waved blue lights in the
direction of the cove a signal to such boats to
keep within safe distance from the island, and as
a guide to enable them to keep compare lively
free from danger, so that they could land with
out risk In the course of an hour a boat came
iD sight, which proved to be one of the boats of
the SteameIy containing seven men. We sue
ceeded in guiding them in to where,they might
land. We kept the lights burning along the
shore all night, but saw nothing more until day
break, when We observed two persons clinging to
the forward rigging. Stewart and three others
then lowered boat. and putting ont to the
wreck, rescued and safely landed the captain and
one passenger. Throughout the day the fog CON
tinued too thick for US TO signal and the sea too
boisterous to permit our landing on the main
land. We did all in our power to make those
who had been saved as comfortable as the cir
cumstances would permit"