St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-03-26
Nineteen Officers and Sailors
Go Down With the
Strathairly.
Tremendous Surges Speed
lily Tear the Big Steamer
to Pieces.
The Lite-Saving Service Still
Hard at Work in the
Binding Storm.
Four Miners Dashed to Pieces
in a Shaft Near Lyons,
Kansas.

NORFOLK, Va, March 24.-The British
steamer Strathairly was wrecked yes
terday morning below the lifes-aving
station of Chicamicomico. Out of a
crew of tWenty-siX, nineteen lives are
said to have been lost, including all
officers except the second mate. The
steamer will be a total loss. 1t was bound
from Santiago de Cuba to Baltimore.
The steamer Strathairly, wrecked on
the coast of North Carolina, was Brit
lsh vessel of 1886 tons. She was COM
manded by Capt. Wynn. She left Balti-
more Feb. 25 for Havana, where she ar
rived March Z. She proceeded from
Havana on the 18th for Santiago de
Cuba, where she arrived on the 10th.
She was on her homeward trip from
Santiago to Baltimore when she went
on the
North Carolina Coast
with such fatal results. Lieut.. W. A.
Failing. the inspector of the district,
one of the bravest and most experienced
officers of the service, is on the ground,
and the general superintendent says
that it may be taken for granted that
every possible means to save the people
will be taken. 1t is difficult to
imagine more desolate coast
than that upon which the unfortunate
steamship Strathairly was wrecked. For
a hundred miles south from Cape Henry.
there extends strip of sand cast up
from the sea and separated from the
mainland by many miles of broad salt
sounds. Sometimes this strip broadens
to a width Of a few miles and
then shrinks to mere thread
side long sand bars run out and reefs
abound, so that the vessel wrecked upon
this coast is sure to strike at distance
from the shore, and be speedily torn to
pieces by the
Tremendous Hatteras Surges
of gray sand. The inhabitants are few
in number. scattered in solitary dwell
ings and without means of communica-
ton with the world, save the occasional
oyster sloop or fishing boat that at
irregular intervals cruises along the
sounds. Their living is derived from
the sea, and the strip sissznearly
barren of vegetation. On the sea-
that have made the vicinity the dread
of nayagatOrS for century, and have
strewn the white beaches with the tim
berS of numberless vessels and count
less sailors. The life-saving service is
OF the best in the country, but owing to
the character of the coast tire
most useful 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 man.
age to launch and land with marvellous
deXterity in the fierce surf which con-
stantly rolls upon the beaches and
bars. Communication between this
city and the scene of the wreck of
the steamer Strathairly. at Chichami-
comico life-saving station, is in
terrupted by break of the
government telegraph cable across Ore
gon Inlet. This is an arm of the sea
about three miles across, just south of
Kittyhawk. All information from the
wreck has to be brought across this
break in 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 al
ready been sent. No further
information will be received until TO-
morrow morning, when it is thought the
names of the lost and saved will be Sc
cured. An order has been sent from
the agent of the line in Baltimore to
forward those of the crew who were
saved to that city, and they are expected
to arrive here the last of the 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.