The record-union., 1894-12-11
The W. L. Beebe Goes Ashore
South of the Cliff House.
HER CREW RESCUED BY THE LIFE
SAVING SERVICE.
The Two Men Who in 1892 Robbed
Secretary Gibson of the Judson Iron
Works of a Bag Containing $4,000
While En- Route to the Works to
Pay Off the Help, Captured In Mon
terey County
Special to the REcoRD-UNIoN.

Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.
SAN Francisco, Dec. I0.-The three
masted schooner William l.. Beebe,
lumber laden and eleven days out from
Port Blakeley. Wash, for San Frenclsco,
was wrecked in attempting TO make port
this morning. The vessel is going to
pieces in the breakers on the ocean beach
at a point about three miles below the
Cliff House. The nine members Of her
crew were rescued, after enduring trying
hardships.
The schooner foundered in the heavy
sea that was breaking on the bar when she
attempted to pass in. A terrific wave
broke over the vessel, carrying away her
wheel and steering gear and her mlZZen
rigging, and flooding her cabin. She was
soon swamped and swept back over the
bar, only to drift southwark and be
thrown by the heavy seas upon the ocean
beach.
1t was just after daylight that she at
tempted to cross the bar. About o'clock
she struck, and began pounding to pieces
in the breakers. Long before, however,
her crew had been driven into the rig
glng, where, drenched to the skin, and
all but frozen by the chilling breeze, they
hung on for their lives. Two OF the poor
fellows, who had been thrown violently
against the deckhouse and badly injured
by the wave in which the schooner
foundered would have fallen and
drowned but for the assistance of their
mates.
Life-saving crews from Golden Gate
Park ana Ocean Side went to the rescue,
but long time elapsed before a lifeline
could be got through the SeethiBg surf,
in which the sailors were momentarily
Na6 NIT Iii
at last fired out to the shipwrecked yes
sci, and when it had been made fast to
the foremast the heavy work OF getting
the men ashore was begun. That was at
10 A. NJ, and 1t took just half an hour for
tue basket to travel back and forth and
land the nine men on the beach. Captain
Raynor was the last man TO leave the
vessel. Every one of the men in coming
ashore were caught several times in the
breakers and completely submerged.
-Four or five of the Hte-Saving men would
rush out into water clear up TO their
shoulders, and as soon as the man in the
basket came within reach they would
seize him and carry him, halt drowned,
TO the dry sand.
The nine shipwrecked men were in a
pitiaole condition when they got ashore.
They had been hanging III the rigging
Tor nearly three hours, and were almost
dead from cold. Some OF them had been
unable to get quite high enough out Of
the reach Of the combing waves, and as
the water dashed over them they several
times were nearly washed oil into the
sea. Captain Raynor was absolutely
helpless when taken out of the basket
He was carried To buggy and hurriedly
brought TO the city. Soon, however, he
regained the use OF his benuln bed limbs
The other members of the crew were
taken to the Ocean Side Life-saving Sta
ton and the Ocean Side Hotel, where
Frlv 1larnt 40
comfortable.
Captain Raynor states that it was upon
the advice OF pilot whom he spoke Just
after daylight, and who told him that the
bar was safe and not breaking, that he
attempted to pass in The bar, however,
was breaking heavily. Captain Raynor
tonight said: You can imagine the
fearful force OF the first sea that struck
US when tell you 1t carried away 10000
feet OF lumber on the schooner's deck"
Captain Raynor, while thankful for the
rescue of the crew and himself, says he is
doubly thankful that his wife did not ac-
company him. She remained in the
north. Had she been on board and in
the cabin, as she most likely would at
that hour in the morning, she would
probably have been drowned, for the first
sea not only smashed in the cabin but
filled it. and had anyone been in it they
could not have escaped. The ships dog,
which was In the cabin, has not been
seen since.
The loss on the vessel and her cargo is
estimated at about $4,000. The schooner
was valued at about $4,000. She was in
sured Tor $4,000. Much of the lumber
may be saved. A large quantity of it had
washed ashore by 10 O'clock, and was
strewn along the beach for 100 yards on
either side OF the vessel.
The w. l.. Beebe was owned by Cap
tain j. j. Smith, of the Golden Shore
Market, in this city, and was built in
Seattle in 1875 by Hall Bros,