The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-30

OUR LIFE SAVERS.
How ShipWrecked Crews
Are Rescued on Jer-
sey's Coast.
NEW METHODS FOR SAVING LIVES
Successful Operations With the
Brooches Buoy-A dangerous
Spot for Wrecks.
Special to the Jersey citv Ne,cs.

coast is Seven Mile Beach, where the
Government has erected two new life
saving stations-one at each end of the
island. The new stations are two stories
high. contain ten ample rooms and are
equipped with he latest apparatus used
= saving life on he ocean. They are
considered the best stations ever erected,
and are unusually comfortable.
II a description of them tho Philadel-
phia Times says:
A four-story towers surmounts one of
the front corners of the house, from
which a view fifteen miles out to sea can
be had. The boatroom occupies almost
one-half of the ground floor and is
pierced with seven large windows, plenty
of light being d necessity IN sudden emer-
lgenoies. Three doors open from tho
front and side of the boatroom, in order
thai no time may be wasted in running
out the different apparatus that GO to
make up the service of these nonpareil
stations. A small magazine and powder
room. also used for storing lanterns anc
signals, opens from sone end, while di-
rectly overhead is an apartment set aside
for the use of women and children taken
from wrecks.
The outside of the building is of South
ern cedar shingles, aid about three
inches to the weather. The wood is SO
perfect thai all four faces of the house
are without a single blemish or knot.
The floors are of yellow pine, cut with
the grain to prevent splintering, and laid
so tight that the lines between them
cannot be seen. Solid oak Is used for the
stairways, and the balustrade ratings.
with their posts, are of polished cherry.
There is not a scrap of corrodible metal
in the whole house. the hinges and
window catches being of a non-rusting
composition metal. Every window is
practically sand tight, a condition of
things that is almost an impossibility to
get. as sand is said to work into places
where water cannot penetrate. The cost
of each entire building. exclusive of the
life saving ap~paratus-is $1,000.
EQUIPMENTS OF THE STATION.
The equipments of the stations will be
the regulation life car and brooches buoy
goes along with them. The only devia-
having two boats, instead Of one, as
formerly. The smaller of these is a
light skiff, intended for use in fair
weather, to board and relieve a ship that
may be in distress from other causes
than being disabled by storm. The upper
station is t have a self-righting and
adopted ~ the Life-saving Service, while
the lower station will keep the boat it is
now using, a cumbersome but very ef-
feNEuaf affair, with valves in the bot
@tEAB let out the water that is shipped
i r., Tough sea-
y9ferly ha-mile Beach has become famous
4 i ~ number Of its wrecks, which in
= piely exceed any other similar length
] am iach on the Jersey shore. Lying
as it does. twelve miles or Whereabouts
tending into the sea with its treacherous
shoals it becomes the trap for the in
cautious mariner who is about to swing
around the Cape on a coastwise cruise.
The. Saone Harbor l~ifeguards are rugged
boatman. who live eight months in the
year in almost total Punishment from
ted by the winter visitors of a seaside
metropolis. nor do they carve wooden
boats for the same. It is a monotonous
of valor and heroism that find their
way to the outer public through the me-
dunn of the press. It is the duty, OF
ing their allotted watches in snow, sleei
and wind. with the tide bursting at their
feet away up among the sand hills OF
dashlng them with spray by the force OF
RoDMAN r. MCPHERSON WRECK.
On January q the three-masted schoon-
on the inner bar, half a mile below the
Stone Harbor Station. n was broker
in half. The story of the striking of this
jerseys wrecking horrorA Not since the
year 1887, when the crew pulled for two
hours through a head-wind and lashing
sea and saved the sailors from a burning
schooner has the suffering of shipwrecked
men been equalled. The rescue of the
Nickerson's men has been recorded at
Acting Keeper Christopher Ludlam, as
the longest distance traversed by q shot
line for he rigging of the brooches buoy.
The even rise and fall OF the waves
the bows of the N.ckerson as she lies
now in three fatlloms of water out in
the calnaest of calm seas Is in subdued
contrast to that unlucky night Of Janu-
airy q, when, running before a bowling
storm of snow and rain, the doomed
schooner drove madly against the bar,
with the breakers twenty feet high dash
ing almost up to her crosstrees. The
bones of many a fated vessel project
their whitened ends along the strand,
none of them tell a tale of such suffer
ing or endurance as the silent shrouds OF
the Rodman N. She struck the bar at
1890 in the night. An hour later the
patrol, Who was going to the post to get
the key with which he winds up the re-
cording -chronometer, sighted her signal
Of distress, and burnt a torch IN reply
The wind was blowing at the rate OF
seventy miles an hour, and in two hours
after the patrol had discovered her the
eight surfrnen and a horse dragged the
two-ton boat and wagon through the soft
THE WORK OF RESCUE.
As nothing could live In such a sea II
was folly to attempt launching it. though
shey removed it from the wagon to en-
courage the poor wretches until day,
light. Two successive shots We're fired
and fell short. Then a lighter line was
used. with nine ounces of powder. 9
charge hat is prohibited for the calibre
the night the cries Of the men in the rig
gin could be heard on the beach,, and
it could be seen that they were eagerly
watching the vain efforts that We're be,
went over the foremost and fell into
one mans arm. who was franticaily
reaching for it., but it snapped before
the rope that hauls the cable aboard
fastened. At u o'clock noon, twelve
hours from the time. of striking, the cook
fell from the, rigging and persisted In
the sea-" as it is written DOWN in the
exposure the other men endured. and
only being lightly clothed, the poor fell
low succumbed just at the moment when
the fourth and successful shot fell over
which amounted to fifty persons, anc
comprised the whole population Of tbs
island, set up, a cry on seeing his hat
blow overheard, and, in a moment after
the water. His body washed ashore sooa
| after and was recovered. When tbs
breaches buoy was at last run out the
| weakest man was sent ashore first, the
| vessel. The crew Of the Anglesea Sta
ton and the residents of S~sven-1nile
Beach assisted and shared In part Of
the h~ardships q the Stone Harbor crew