The morning call., 1891-02-23
TIE WRECK.

The loss of the Elizabeth, and the ineffect-
ual efforts which were made to save her.
constitute unique picture in the history Of
shipwrecks. 1t was broad daylight-5
O'Clock in the afternoon-when the ship was
seen heading for the jaws of the Golden
Gate. a tug ran up 10 her and made fast,
and at n subsequent hour two other tugs
made their appearance on the scene of dan
ger and preferred their services. 1t must
have been evident to every seafaring OBJ
server that with gale blowing, and ire
mendous sea setting north of the entrance
of the port, it was going to be a question
whether the Elizabeth could weather the
North Head. But the danger does not seem
to have struck Captain ColcOrd or the mas
ter3 of the tugs until it was too late to es
cape it. If, at O'clock. when the Active
took the ship in tow, she had headed south
or southwest the wrecked vessel might per-
haps have been atloat to-day. The first
thought which occurs 10 an experienced
mariner when storm occurs is to give the
land a wide berth. If the whole power OF
the Active had been eXertcd in direct oppo-
sition to the drift of the sea, instead OF
being exerted obliquely to pull the ship
into the channel, The disaster might perhaps
have been averted.
In full sight of the shore. with three tugs
on the SPOT eager to render assistance aud
the rocks plainly visible ahead, the power
OF the rolling waves was such that 1t drove
the doomed ship to tie beach, and steam
and sail were powerleSs 10 check the drift.
The sea was then running so high that
hawSer from the Reliance to the Active
quickly parted under the strain, and both
tugs were forced 10 look out for themselves.
The situation was soon discerDed by the
crew of the life-saying station some five
miles south, with the mouth of the harbOr
between them and tie wreck. This was the
p opportunity for which they had been wait
ing; this was the business they are paid to
attend to. But the i'll luck which seems to
be their normal fate befell them as usual.
This tine they succeeded in launching their
lifeboat and were slowly rowing toward the
Elizabeth when the tug Relief took them in
tow and got them as far as the Jaws OF the
Golden Gate. There the sea washed over
them and swept their captain overheard.
Tie tow-line was cut and the life-saverS
thinking, perhaps wisely, of their own lives,
beat retreat to Fort Point. From there a
tug terried them over to Sausalito, and from
that windy spot they proceeded to climb the
hills, which for stretch of some twelve or
uIt6tl miles ulNlue SUuSalllU from the SHORE
on which the Elizabeth had struck. They
cut the customary iDglorious figure in the
affair. So far as any usefulness is con-
cerned they and their station might just as
well have been on Puget Sound.
The catastrophe indicates the necessity of
another life-saving station north Of the
North Heads. In gale it seems impossible
to get life-boat across from Point Lobos to
ONT Bonita. The sea washes over her and
the most secure Iashing will not avail to
prevent men being washed overheard. The
thing to do is to have another station at OF
near Tennessee Cove with the usual ma
chinery for the Tescue of lives on vessels,
thrown on that portion of the rocks. Had
there been such station ON Saturday every
life on the Elizabeth might have been saved,
as every life was saved on the Tennessee at
the same spot in 1853
Sea captains will learn from the accident
that it is foolhardy 20 try to enter this port
in a sOutheasterly gale with low barom-
eter in the months when storms prevail.
Little is lost by keeping out where there is
plenty of sea room until the storm subsidies
When a vessel once gets into the breakers
on shallow surroundings she can no more
resist the easteTly drift than a swimmer can
resist the undertOw when the waves recede.