San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-03-25

the wreckage of a vessel in a storm at sea as
a magnificent. terrible spectacle, but that is
all that ! saw at the moment of its occurrence
the mirror parting in the middle and the
bilge water pouring into the room.
But that was enough. | knew that the
ship was doomed.
The mate. Sanders, stood in the doorway.
'Whar * this yelled Knott
The ship has struck a bar and is going to
piece" the mate answered. All hands on
deck"
lie spoke pretty much a he might have
talked # he were giving an order to holy
stone decks, yet knew that he had a wife at
home, AMI child whom lie had never seen,
but had hoped to see on the morrow. His
cOujne,S was habit, you SEE.
don't know how we got on deck. We men
helped the three women up, of course. Thai
WAS habit, too Good habits tell in time
like that jus; rs much as they do in an even.
ing party in a drawing room on shore
The Ayrshire was on the great sandbar
which lies or the whole New Jersey coast.
. Hundreds of ships used to be wrecked there.
Before the life saving service was established
the New Jersey shore WAS Strcwn with wreck.
age
The engrants were warming ON the deck.
\ fearful surf broke over Us continually
The ship was irrcmovably settled in the
SANDS, but it was rocked necessarily by the
waves. All around Il, was the lmpenetrable
gravrrs, OF III" fog. through which came the
terrific thunder ii the breakers on the shore.
1t drowned the shrieks of the women and
even the hpar.e shouts of the captains trum-
pet.
'.s'ur,'y "" are ON land" ppnd Mrs Muir
ray, clos h.,il" me. The ship is last
"Ou a bnr,' said the mate
From III. moment of her striking there
was NO chance Of s,ving the vessel, which
wa, rap l.. GONG to pieces The passengers
and ere" w'"' budIl'd on her quarter deck
Three boa.> were launched, but before one
Of them couid be manned they were swept
away like lthers in the storm.
We found afterward that we had gone
upon the bar off the village of Point Pleas
ant. Our guns were heard on shore, and the
crew of men along shore came at once to our
rescue, but the fog was so dense that we did
not see their signal lights nor, with the wind
blowing toward shore, hear the firing of
their mortar 1t was after hours of mortal
agony and suspense that a wild yell of de-
light broke from the ships crew; they rushed
together, graphing a light cord which had
fallen as if from the skies across the deck.
1t was a line shot from the life saving
mems mortar on shore.
Gently, men! gently" shouted the cap
tain, hOarscly, as he himself caught the cord
and pulled on it.
BY means of the line the crew pulled a
rope from the shore to the ship, and this
rope served in turn to draw on board great
cable The crew made the cable fast to the
hull OF our v,.~>nl and it was pulled taUt
from the shove.
At that period Of marine history, when a
cable had been stretched from the land to a
wrecked vessel it was generally supposed that
the rrscurr> had done all they could, and it
remained for the ships company TO find their
way To tine ehurr if they could, cinging to
this rope. BuI now, Nluug to the cable, there
came our - th, vessel that same queer little
boat which saw the other day at Point
Pleasant 1t j, shaped like an egg, with a
hole in the top through which the passengers
crawl to enter the boat. Over this hole lid
screws tightly. The car will hold about
fifteen people, When the passengers are
packed away in 1t and the lid has been
screwed down, it is drawn back to land
through the breakers, turning over and over
As it goes.
1t va, a fearful trip to make, but it was
the one chance for life to the people on the
ship.
l cannot fifty describe the awful scene on
that wreck; the darkness, the wet, the thun-
der of the sea, the hundreds of men and wo-
men standing there facing death, and fully
realizing the perils that surrounded them.
1t was the first time that the life car had
ever been tested by actual service, and even
the captain looked doubtfully at the strange
looking craft that had come out to the ship
along the cable.
"Who will 90 in it, he shouted. The
women have the first chance. 1t is not good
chance, but 1t Is the only one"
The men among the emigrauts began to
push their wives and children toward the
car, but the poor creatures shrieked and
fought against entering it. ! did not blame
them. 1t is bad enough to 90 down, drowned
in the open waters, but to 80 down locked up
III that iron collin
Very we'll" cried the captain. There
is no time for choice If the women will not
90, the men shall"
At that, little Miss Muffet stepped forward
before them all, actually smiling.
Come" she said to the terrified women,
IF go, you surely will follow me- l am
nothing but poor little crippled"
She stepped into the dark box and lay down
in it. Then the others crowded into it after
her-stout English matrons and pretty Irish
girls, children and babies. When the car was
full its lid was screwed down tight and it was
pulled ont into the waves. Upon the ship no
man shouted and no woman cried in the few
minutes that followed. We could see and
hear nothing.