The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-01-10
ON The CUCKOLDS!
Story Of the Wreck Of the Schooner
Aurora.
FOUR OF THE CREW In PORTLAND
YESTERDAY.

Four Hours on Top of the House Last Sat-
urday Night-Taken Off at Midnight
by Fog Horn Station Men-Three DAYS
on the Rocky Islet-Narrow Escape
from Freezing to Death.
Yesterday noon four shipwrecked sailors
arrived in this city on the Maine Central
and went to the office of Acting British
Consul Starr. They came from Boothbay.
Their names are FALLEN Spicer Henry
Dickey, William McSaaley and Thomas
Coonan. They told their story as follows.
They were the crew of the British
coasting schooner Aurora, IS tons bur-
den, Capt. Morris, from Harborville, N.
S. for Boston, with deck load Of wood.
| Last Saturday night at about g. 30
O'Clock, with the sea very rough and a
thick fog prevailing, they went ashore on
the Cuckolds, two rocky islets about six
miles off Boothbay. They are simply
lodges, projecting slightly above the sur.
| face of the water. On the largest of
them, which is less than an acre in ex-
tent, is government fog horn station,
where two keepers and their families
| live.
The Aurora went aground on the
smallest of the islets at almost dead low
water, and at point about 20 yards
from Shore The sea was too rough and
the place too rocky for them to get
ashore They remained in the cabin
while the schooner pounded, till about
~ al
much, the schooner fell over on her
beam ends, and the deck load of lumber
went overheard. OF course the cabin
filled and the men had to take refuge
on top of the house. They stayed there
in the freezing weather with the ther-
mometer below zero, the waves dashing
over the schooner and the spray over
them, for four hours till midnight, when
their light was seen or their foghorn
heard by the men at the station on the
other island, who were of course on the
lookout for wrecks
They came ont to the schooner in
their dory but the waves were too rough
for them to take the men off in that
boat. and they had to row to neighbor-
ing island and get boats and the aid
of some fishermen. They had to take
the men off one at a time. by backing
cautiously up to the main rigging the
lower part of which was submerged. The
man would watch his chance and spring
from the rigging into the boat, which
was rapidly pulled away out of danger
The deck load OF wood, bobbing about
ON the waves, made it more difficult.
They remained on the Cuckolds at the
station till Tuesday, because it was too
rough for them to get to the mainland
1t was during the cold snap, and out on
the Cuckolds the thermometer went
down to IS below.
Had there been no fog horn station
there they would probably have frozen
to death in their exposed position on
top of the house for they
would have had to remain
there all night They were obliged to
leave all effects in the schooner, and
left the Cuckolds with only the clothing
that covered them.
They were taken to Boothbay Tuesday
by the little fishing steamer Bonita,
which they hailed as it steamed past.
Arrived at Boothbsy the deputy COL
lector sent them to the British CONSUL
at this port. Mr. Starr will send them
home to Nova Scotia.
| Wednesday an attempts was made to
| tow the schooner up to Booth bay. About
half way up the channel blight in
| chain hanging overheard caught on
rock and held her securely. She was
there yesterday on her beam ends, thus
anchored, SO that the tugs couldn't move
her.