The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-15
PIRATES OF THE COAST.
MEMORIES OF A MAN WHO WAS
ONCE A WREcKER HIMSELF.

| sIldll WHY IAdu. Win AAlC AOHuffNAAg Va g
| phonograph and the general dried up and
shrewd aspect of typical south Jersey
man. His face, spare and bronzed, held
sharp, penetrating eyes. His beard was OF
that unique pattern that gives its grower
| the facial expression of a baboon- His
| shoulders were stopped. and it was noticed
| that his gait as be came up the main street
! and slid into the hotel was of quick,
nervous order, half walk, half hop, and. as
| the Irishman would say, the other half a
! jerky skip.
This particular specimen of the inhabit-
ants of this particular spot is known the
| length and breadth of Ocean county prob
ably as Charlie No matter what other
name may necessarily have to accompany
this to make the full cognomen strictly
legal, il is enough to know, and ample for
all purposes here, TO refer 70 him simply as
Charlie, the doer of odd Jobs, the village
errand runner and chore expert Of Forked
River
'Wrackin'i" said he, with an expression
of surprise; ",,..ratin'? Yes, sir; yes, sir;
dead loads OF it. Everybody round here
was into it up to their chins. Why, it was
as common as breathin' in them days,
when the coast patrol was skinny. All
you had to do was TO go over TO the beach
and help yourself, and then-look out you
wasn't ketched. That was all; fur they
was pretty spry, was the underwriters
agents, gettin' about as soon as it was
known a ship had gone on.
How'd we do it? Well, ye sec, we'd
keep our eyes and ears open when there
was a storm, knowin' somethin' must go
wrong, for that was about the deadest sure
spot for gettin' astray in that there was on
the coast-barrin' some further to the
southar'd, of course Some of US along
the main was always sailin' out over the
bay, fishin', clammin', oysterin', or Just
lynn low, and if there was any wrackage
fresh up on the beach or bobbin' round in
the bay, why, it wouldn't be three switches
Of cats tail before the shore would be
covered with fellers. Pirates? Not exact
ly. Buzzards? Oh, no, We couldn't call
em that. Just loiterin' around like, look
in for good things. and not too conscien-
tiOus to live-nO, sir; no, sir; not ballasted
too deep with scruples.
1--WE generally went out in pairs-some-
times there'd be three who could trust one
another, for you know when it came to
the divvy we'd be likely to pull ears, or
peach, or do sOmethin' else that might hurt
if there was any backcappin' goin' on. 1t
was one big scramble as soon as the news
would get along the main that there was a
ship goin' to pieces, and the ones as got
out first as likely as not got the choicest
pickins.
well, as I was a-ssyin', we'd slip over
the bay in our cats as soon as we heerd of a
wreck, and preferred goin' at night, for
then things amt quite as noticeable as in
daylight. It was surprisin' what a lot of
catboats would be found along the meadow
banks inside the bay, and what parcel of
men would be seen sneakin' round, haul
in boxes. barrels, casks and parcels of ev-
cry description out of the surf up high and
dry beyond the water. 1t is perfectly le-
gitimate, of course, to wrack on salvage,
protectin' the goods for the underwriters
and gettin' fair per cent. of the proceeds,
but on the whole we wasn't wrackin' on
them terms.
WED get the goods over the hills and
out of sight, and bury them deep in the
sand; then go back for 'em in a few nights
and run 'em over to the main, where they
would be again buried, and deeper than be
fore, and good luck to the officer of the
law that 'ud turn 'em up. But chances
was that we'd no sooner get 'em under
sand among the beech hills than some
other pirate. not satisfied with his success,
'ud sneak around after we was gone. un-
cover 'em, roll 'em to some other spot and
bury 'em again to his own account.
What did we get, mostly? Well, we
wasn't so pertickler, let me tell you. We
warn't any too we'll off on general princi-
pies, and about anything we could fetch
was acceptable, barrin' lumber-that
wasn't much good, and was too much
trouble, anyway. Boxes of silks, satins,
velvets, ribbons, linen goods, India shawls,
kid gloves, boots, shoes, rubber goods and
liquors all came in handy, and as a rule
brought in pretty fair returns.
Course, some was damaged, but large
quantities was in prime order. The wom-
en- folks all along the main used to have
plenty Of silk dresses then, for they could
be had cheap. If we got our finds over
here we'd bury 'em on the meadows, or
bring 'em right here to town and plant 'em
in our gardens, or send 'em way over into
the state twenty miles from here, where
in good time they'd grace the shelves of a
country store.
Get rich? Well, I'm not sayin' much
on that pint. / didn't; blt there's lots
around here who got their start out Of
picked up on the sands around
Barnegat light. / might go over the list
of some of our best citizens, who have lots
o. land now, and you'd hardly believe that
it come to 'em with money got that way.
"Luring vessels on to the coast2 Well,
now, that's p'inted question. as the law
Ia ar,I Cra f.ffar ferl,r l-inlr
ag'in'. False lights? Who told you so9
Oh, you heard some one say so, did YEP
I'm not sayin' anythin, They used TO tell
ABOUT the lamps in the oid lighthouse go
ing ont some foggy nights, and lamps be
ing planted right out on the north point
o. beach, and Of vessels in distress beng
deceived in other ways, resultiu' in their
going to pieces on the sand bars out there.
But II warn't all cheerful gatherin' up
those boxes and barrels and such like We
used to run often upon stray body rolling
up and down with the surf. all bloated aud
battered and perhaps fisa eaten. Why,
there's thousands of poor bodies which
found their death out there buried in the
sands and in the cemeteries here and at
other points along the main; mostly no
names, no epitapnS, nothing but n
known, drowned AT sea Whenever we'd
find one the first thing was 20 get IL hiZn
up beyond ne Su-f, and then lay it out, tie
IL TO 4 stake, and come over 20 the main
for the coroner, who'd go over and, finding
the body there as reported, would pay Us
s. apiece for en-.
1t was pretty big blow 20 the chief in
dustry OF this section when the new life
sRvIn' system got established al long the
coast, for there WASH any more oppoTtu-
nity To get hold Of thinEs A. we r1Saf rp
aud as a result the business nsd 70 tail of
We was too closely watched. UNDERWRITERS
could Cet bigger returns ana thrifty beach
Sesrchers v,.r.. I-lt nnf IN lie rnln Ma.re