Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-07-05
LITTLE ST. PETER.
"A Story of the Terrible Cape God
Storm.


The newspaper correspondents have
told the story of the wreck of the ship
e. Jason in the gale of December year
ago; but they have not related it as I
am able to do, and they have not given
the most mysterious and thrilling in
RI cident of that terrific storm. fl had
told them that they would not have
believed me. 1 think, however, that
now it ought to be made known, for it
may be that the publication of his
strange tale will turn up somebody
who or something which will relieve
my doubts as to what ought to be
done with little st. Peter. Not that l
want any such somebody something
to turn up. l feel that the world
ought to have a chance to claim him,
If anyone in it can, and yet have
great fear that some one may do SO.
l think 1 shall give an account of the
wreck as if it had not been in the
papers at all, repeating some of the
particulars that l gave to the report
ers at the time. The public forgets so
soon.s The Cape Cod wreckers them
selves, though this is vivid enough in
their memories, have almost forg often
the stranding of the Peruvian, and it
Is a rare old captain who has ever
heard of the wreck of the pirate ship
Whidah, whose two hundred men were
lost just outside yonder bar, which
twice day the sea, like a monster
showing its teeth, reveals to me.
The blow began on Tuesday morn
ing. 1t was a northeast gale, and
brought snow and sleet. The rate of
the wind increased steadily; by the
miles an hour. A few minutes after he
had taken this record-that is, about
three p. m.-Capt. Bearse, of the
Nauset life saving station, peering
through the driving sleet, made out
large ship off the point. She was
under close-reefed topsails and was
driving helplessly toward the shore.
Within an hour the life saving crews
from Pamet river, Highland Light and
Cahoon's Hollow were on the beach.
BY five o'clock it was dark, and tn e
position of the ship was lost. There is
no flash light on this coast. The gal e
swept the beach with the widest fury.
1t distinguished lanterns; it scattered
the wood piled for beacon light, and
when men brought more it tore the
sticks out of their arms and carried
them away like straws. No rocket
would rise. Snow dropped in sheets,
rs it does from a roof; man could not
see it, and would recoil as from a blow
when a sheet struck him. In the in
tervals hail, blown at the rate of a
spent bullet, stung hands and faces,
and in some cases tore the flesh. The
surfmen huddled in groups, lying on
the ground, holding to one another
that they might not be swept off, and
talked, when they could between the
thunders of the surf, of the possibility
of doing anything for the crew of the
ship which they knew was out there
in the blackness driving upon the outer
bar. She was beyond the reach of any
line that could be shot, and no life
boat could hope to reach her. So they
tied themselves together, with few
furlongs of rope between each, and
planned to stand by the beach when
she struck, and to stretch hand to
any beaten seaman the mercy of the
pillows might lay at their feet. Then
they lay and shivered and waited, list
~ening.
Meanwhile-you will learn presently
how 1 know, though they say not a
soul was saved-meanwhile. how was
it out yonder in the night, beyond the
roaring of the bar?
Tuesday morning the British ship
Jason, Capt. Mcmillan, from Calcutta
to Boston, with a cargo of jute, ran
into the gale and rapidly rising sea,
and, being out of sight of land, made
all snug to weather the blow. The crew
were in particularly high spirits, for
there was a prospect of good time in
port, only days sail away. Some of
the seamen had slowed their dufne
land packed their chests, ready to quit
ship for the first time in one hundred
and twenty-five days. The weather
shut in thick. The gale had struck
the Jason with her spars full of cloth,
but all had been furled save her three
topsails. Suddenly, at three o'clock In
the afternoon, the lookout sighted
land Capt. Mcmillan, seeing the
three lights Of Nauset. instantly re-
allied that he was south of his course,
and that the highlands of Cape Cod
were close aboard to leeward. He at
once ordered all sail crowded on, and
the ship hauled into the wind, think
ing to get her on the off-shore tack. 1t
was no use. The swell set straight to
land, and the sea knocked her bow of,
so that she sagged to leeward at the
rate of two knots for every one she
made in Roadway. In despair the
captain concluded to wear ship. He
changed his mind, however, when he