The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-25
RESCUED JtST in TIME.
The Nellie ]. DinsmOre's Rough
Experience.
ABOUT TO BE ABANDONED OFF
THE TWO LIGHTS.

When the Tug Be 1knap Arrived--Crew
at the Pumps-RoIling In the Trough
Sails and Rigging Split to Ribbons-Half
Full of water-Her Voyage From Phil
adeIphia-Her History
News came from the Cape shore Yesterday
that vessel was anchored off the Two
Lights, between Pond Cove and Trundy's
Reef, rolling, fearfully in the trough of
the sea and flying signals of distress.
At about five o'clock the tug Belknap
sarted to go to her relief. Although there
was not much wind in the harbor yesterday
afternoon, the heavy undertow that shook
the wharves and swayed the vessels in the
docks indicated that it was unusually rough
outside, and when Captain McDuffy of the
Belknap passed outside Portland Head
Light he found that the sea was very rough
indeed. AS he fnallysapproached the dis
tressed schooner she was rolling so IN the
trough that her cross II lees came very near
to the tops of the waves. The tug could not
approach alongside, but drew near, bow
first, and the .topmast of the schooner
came down and just missed the masts of the
tug, SO that she had to back away.
But the line was made fast all right, and
she was towed into the harbor. She was d
sorry spectacle as she came up to the end of
Long wharf, where she was grounded in the
mud. Her jibs were hanging in ribbons and
so.were her topsails. Her main stays were
gone and SO were the topping-lifts, the lines
that hold up the ends of the booms. The
booms, of course had fallen on the deck.
Her spanker boom was broken. She was
half full of water, and being loaded with
COAL set pretty low.
When the Belknap hove in sight, Captain
Dodge. of the schooner, had hauled in his
flag of distress and decided to take to the
boats Only the constant labor at the pumps
kept the vessel aaoat. The gale split the
sails, but the rolling loosened and broke the
shrouds. Capt. McDufy of the Belknap,
said that when she rolled he was afraid all
the time that her masts would come out of
her. She would go over into the trough and
the shrouds on the lee side would hang out
loose in blight. Then as she went back the
shrouds would tighten with a snap that
threatened to break them. Had they broken
the masts would have gone out of her inn
mediately. The Nellie J. Dinsmore was
from Philadelphia for Gardiner with coal.
She has had rather hard time getting even
thus far. She had to put into both Perth
Amboy and .Vineyard Haven to stop her
leaking bottom. =
A dispatch from Newburyport yesterday
morning, stated that she was pecalmed
fifteen miles off the Newburyport Bar, and
had been long while on her passage, and
fears were entertained for her safety. Sun
day schooner entered this harbor and re-
ported having passed the Dinsmore, in a
gale of wind, under bare poles and laboring
badly.
Yesterday as the schooner approached this
coast in the strong gale and heavy sea she
found that she could not enter the Kenne-
bee and decided to make harbor here.
When she changed her course and made
for Portland Head, she got into the trough,
and it was too much for her. and that is
how she came to anchor off Broad Cove. She
was leaking SO badly that all hands could
not leave the pumps to cast anchor, but two
of the men kept at work.
The Nellie j. Dinsmore was build in Lubec
in 1872, and is therefore twenty-five years
DID, Of late years she has become very
leaky, and two years ago this last spring
she was sold at auction. Captain Dodge of
South Portland, one of the owners, bought
her for $780, 1t is said that last year he
cleared S3400 on her. But he takes big
chances for she is a leaky and unsafe
vessel, as this last experience demonstrates.
She was docked here and not anchored in
the har bor, because she must be repaired
before she can continue her journey to the
Kennebec.
The first of the schooner's mishaps was
wnen she came down sthe Delaware river.
She ran saground on the sbreakwater and
started bad leak there