St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-11
Frozen IN RIGGING.
Awful Fate of Seven Of the
Crew of the Louis
V. Place.
SEVEN OF THEM LOSE LIFE.
TWO Frozen to Death Lashed
to Rigging---Others
Drop Into Sea.
SEVEN OF THEM LOSE LIFE.
TWO MIRACULOUS ESCAPES.
Remarkable Work Done by a
Life-Saving Crew at
Fire Island.

/ Ii T. $1,000
who chung for forty hours to the rig
ging of their vessel, off Fire island
beach. were rescued at midnight by
the crew of the Lone Hill life-saving
station. The vessel proved to be
the schooner Louis V. Place, Capt.
Souires. coal-laden from Baltimore
to New York She left Baltimore
on Jan 2S, and was wrecked during
the height of the gale. Nine men
took to the riggig when the vessel
went down, an eighth Of mile off
the shore, and there they chung in
the raging blizzard, until, one by
one, seven of them slipped into the
sea, or hung lifeless, bound to the
rigging by a rope. Two only were
able to endure the terrible exposure.
They are S. J. Nelson, whose home is
in Providence, r. l., and William
Stevens, a German, of ROckland,
Maine. The rescued men are badly
frOSt-bitten, and it is thought that
Nelson will lose both feet. The story
of their rescue is a tribute to the
brave life-saVers, who have for the
past two days been making almost
superhuman efforts to reach the
wrecked schooner. 1t was on Tues
day last that the Place ran into the
gale, and it was found that she was
leaking badly. The coast of Long
island was then dead ahead, and,
after careful preparations, the YES
sci was allowed to drive
STRAIGHT AT THE BEACH.
Half an hour later she touched her
nose on the outer bar, and a heavy
wave lifted her high on the sandbar.
AS she settled on her side, the
waves broke furiously over her, and
chilled to the bone the men who had
sought safety in the ropes. The life
savers sent out life-lines, but not be-
fore the seamen were almost frozen
to death, and so stiff as to be I'M
able to get to them. They tried
countless times to launch their boat,
but on each occasion the breakers
drove it back with renewed fury to
the shore. For two days each hour
of the day the same attempts were
see, hour by hour, that their aid was
of decreasing value. One by one the
men in the rigging gave way to the
exposure, and when, at midnight,
the life-savers, under command of
Capt. Baker, pushed their boat into
the surf and pulled like mad to the
wreck, there were but two lives re-
naming of the nine. During all
that time the men in the ropes had
not tasted food nor drink Just a
spark of life seemed to remain in
them, and, although the two We're
able to drop from the rigging into
the lifeboat, they were
ALMOST INSENSIBLE.
One of them presented a terrible
appearance. His face, hands and
feet were frozen. He was unable to
speak for several hours. This was
Nelson. His legs were incased in
a pair of long boots, and the water
in them had frozen into a solid
cake. Stevens had been more for
tunate. He had slipped his boots
off and had wrapped his feet in a
huge piece of canvas. 1t was
through his efforts that the other
sufferer had remained alive. Each
time that Nelson's head sunk on his
breast during the binding storm,
Stevens would reach over and
pound him into sensibility again.
The latter was able soon after his
rescue to tell the story of the wreck
and the terrible experiences of the
two men. The dead are:
Capt Charles Squires, fifty years
old, married, with one child, New
York City; Engineer Charles Allen,
twenty-eight years old, single, of
Providence, r. l.; Mate Jaibic, forty
four years old, of Norway; Fritz
Ward, seaman, twenty years old.
single, of Norway; Charles Morrison.
cook: Gus Olesar, twenty-eight years
old, of Sweden; August Fullerton.
. seaman. The bodies of the mate and
the SWede are still dashed to the rig
ging. The others dropped into the
sea.