The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-09-12

FORM ALL STIFF FROM A FREEZING BATH.
mained in ignorance of what was being
done, buoyed only with the thought that
the gale might die away at sunset and the
anchor hold until the sea became calm.
But at o'clock the wind returned to its
old storm quarter, and with bowling snow
laden gusts broke into tempest. The
watchers on the beach stood ready to save
what the sea might spare, for they saw
that no anchor could hold against that flu
rious gale. At 8 O'Clock the whistles on
the tug once more burst into shrill cries,
and then the people knew her doom was
sealed. She was drifting and must go
upon the breakers. Fires were lit upon a
long stretch of beach and bluffs in the
direction the tug was making, and the
scene, now bright and peopled with muffied
figures whose words were hushed by the
storm, now yelled by clouds of driving
snow, was one of weird and awful SPLEEN
dor. The tragic could not all be seen, but
once known may be imagined. The men
on the tug, nine Of them waits from the
hapless Arab, saw only the distant lights
telling of m8u's powerlessness in the face
of the elements. Help must be out Of the
question, or surely those ou shore would
give 1t. They shook hands all around
spoke their messages for wives and little
ones In case some soul should be spared to
bear the tale, then took their places on the
cabin roof and pilothouse to await the
final crash. The tug drifted past the dan
gerous piers, the first piece of luck in all
that stormy voyage and an earnest of bet
ter things. Soon she struck ON the outer
bar and was instantly swept from end to
end by a frightful sea. Two men went
overheard and disappeared in the breakers.
The vessel was lifted again and again and
dropped with thud that shivered every
beam in her hull Roofs and doors were
beaten in, the hold filled with water, and
shortly the bottom rested firmly in the
sand.
The moment the Protection got within
range a steel slug, carrying line, went
whizzing over her from on shore. That
was the first intimation the hapless souls
on the wreck received of the presence of
life saving crew. About the same time
figure, all still from freezing bath in the
surf, crawled from the water and made for
the nearest fire. 1t was one Of the sailors
knocked from the tug when the first wave
broke over her. Happening to have on a life
preserver, he struck out for shore, and for
wonder escaped. The other was drowned.
When Keeper Stevens of the st. Joseph
station telegraphed the anxious people at
Saugatuck, AYE, aye, we're ooming!" he
put his name to big contract. The mouth
of the st. Joseph was as wild as the lake
outside, and the life saving apparatus was
slowly ferried across by boat moored to
cable stretched from shore TO shore.
After that, AZ miles were covered by rail,
and % by boat down the Kalamazoo. At
8 O'Clock the corps stood on the pier at
Saugatuck, but the tug was too far out to
be reached with the line, and the binding
snow prevented signaling. When the tug
drifted past the piers, the corps crossed
the river again with its heavy mortar, surf
boat and ropes and stood ready on the
hither beach when the vessel struck. The
first line from the mortar fell across the
wreck, but parted near the slug, and before
the benumbed sailors on board could seize
1t the sea dragged it out Of reach. The sec
ond was caught, and in half an hour, or
at half past 10 O'Clock In the evening, the
first man was hauled ashore in breeches
buoy through the bounding surf The poor
fellows were armored in ice, for the air was
biting cold. Keeper Stevens and his men
waded into the surf waist deep In order to
support the sagging hawser on which the