The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-04-01
NINETEEN LIVES LOST
By a Wreck on CarOlina's
Cruel Shores.
The Steamer Straitharly's
Terrible End.
A Burlington Flyer Wrecked in
q Snow Storm.
Lives and Money Lost in a Wis
consin Collision.
Terrible Injuries to Members Of the
Train Crews.

NORFOLK, Va, March Pa steamer
which went ashore a mile below Chicami-
comico hfe-saving station, on the North
Carolina coast, last night, is the British
steamship Straitharly, bound from Santi-
ago de Cuba to Baltimore. Out of crew
of twenty-six, nineteen were lost. includ-
ing all the officers except the second mate.
The steamer will be total loss.
The steamship Straitharly was British
vessel of $50 tons. She was commanded
by Captain Wynn. She left Baltimore
Feb. % for Havana, where she arrived
March 7. She proceeded from Havana on
the 18th for Santiago de Cuba, where she
arrived on the l6th She was on her
homeward trip from Santiago to Baltimore
when she went on the North Carolina
coast with such fatal result
1t is difficult TO imagine a more desso-
late coast than that upon which the I'M
fortunate steamer Strathair Y was wrecked.
For hundred miles south from Cape
Henry there extends a strip of sand
cast up from the sea and sepa-
rated, from the main land by
many miles of broad salt sounds.
Sometimes this strip broadens to a width
Ol a lew mites anu THEN snIlllhS 10 a lISIc
thread of gray sand. The inhabitants
are few in number, scattered in solitary
dwellings, and without means of COM
munication with the world save
the occasional oyster sloop or
fishing boats that at irregular intervals
cruise along the sounds. The living is de-
rived from the sea and the strip is nearly
barren of vegetation. On the seaside
long sand-bars run out and reefs abound,
so that the vessel wrecked upon
this coast is sure to strike out
a distance from the shore and be speedily
torn to pieces by the tremendous HaIteras
surges that have made the vicinity the
dread of navigators for century and have
strewn the white beaches with the tim
bers OF numberless vessels and countless
sailors. The life-saving service is one of
the best in the country, bat owing
to the character OF the coast the most use
full of their appliances-the life line thrown
from gun-can rarely be used and the
crews are compelled to rely largely upon
their surf boats, which they manage to
launch and land with marvellous dexterity
in the fierce surf which constantly rolls
upon the beaches and bars.
Communication between this city and
the scene of the wreck of the Strathairly
at Chichamicomico life-saving sta
ton. is interrupted by a
break in the government telegraph
cable across Oregon inlet This
is an arm of the sea about three
miles across just south of Kitty
Hawk. All information from the
wreck has to be brought across this break
in a boat and only two trips are
made day, and only then when the
weather permits. The last trip was made
this morning and all of the available facts
have already been sent. No further
information will be received till
morning, when it is thought
the names of the lost and
saved will be secured. An order has been
sent from the agent of the line in Balti-
more to forward those of the crew who
were saved to that city, and they are
expected to arrive here the last of this
week, when full story of the wreck and
its causes may be gotten from the second
mate, who Is among the seven who were
saved