The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-30
Sr rArL WILL AGROuNp.
Efforts to Float tho Fig Ocean Greyhound
 Nesterdny Were Without Results.

pull the St. Paul out of the sand at Long Branch this morning was sue cess so far as merely moving the ship was concerned, When the tide was at its highest at about o'clock this morn ing, the St. Paul was moved to the northeast, which means up the coast and outward, about thirty feet.
 The fact that she lighted herself. and resumed her list to port only with the receding tide, would indicate that had sufficient power been applied she would have been drawn off the beach. That the vessels buoyancy is superior to the lateral pressure of the impacted sand is proof that it is only a question of the power of the tugs employed. If the lat ter is sufficient the vessel will float at this evenings high water or tomorrow morning.
 ed without employing the immense pow CT of the mighty engines of the St. Paul, eThe steam winches were kept at work all the time, however, and three of the Merritt Wrecking company's big boats did the pulling,
 Another attempt to move the steam ship will be made at the next high wa ter, either this evening or early to-mor- row morning Everything is in readi- T | ta1st tc, Ia hitrT enough the pulling and hauling on the handsome, helpless giant of the sea will begin again.
 Captain Merritt is confident that with Q little more water than he had to work in this morning he will float the St. Paul.
 The water this morning was not near ly so high as had been desired and ex- pected. The spring tide, in the full of the moon, usually makes plenty of wa ter along the coast here. It has in the past, and was expected to do so again. But this time it failed. When the at- tempt was made to pull the St. Paul off this morning the sea was like a mill pond.
 There was but little surf breaking, so little as to excite comment. Those who have been down here and plunged through the surf in the summer would not know it as the same beach if they were to judge by the amount of surf that was breaking.
 What little wind there was blew off, shore It was icy cold that wind, thongh there was hardly enough of 1t to blow the steam away from the eX- harst back of the smokestacks of the St. Paul.
 Had that same wind been from the east or the southeast the St. Paul would probably have been moved further. The east wind would have increased the depth of water on the beach, and every little is a big help just now With good breeze from the southeast and a lively sea along the coast Captain Mer- rtt is satisfied that he will yank the St. Paul off in no time.
 At any rate, he expects at the next high water to do better than this morn- ing, when the gain made to be exact and to give the figures as furnished from the stranded vessel, was twenty one feet to the north and half point off shore.
 The minor preparations for the pull this morning were begun as early as an hour after midnight
 Coal was put aboard the St. Paul yes 1; terday, and during the early hours of this morning the heavy black smoke rolling out of the forward smokestack showed that the firemen were doing their share of the preparation. Steam began to escape from the exhausts.
 There were five wrecking tugs about the stranded steamship then, and on them, too, there was great activity in the engine and fire rooms. An immense hawser that hung over the starboard quarter was hauled taut by one of the tugs, and another tug made fast to the first one. So there were two on the one hauwser, When that hawser was made taut q third tug took a second hawser from over the stern of the ship. Then the winches Were set at work and the lines to the anchors embedded in the sand were made taut
 The work of preparation could be seen plainly from the shore. for the moon was shining brightly at the time. It was so still that the orders given could be heard on shore.
 Two long and two short blasts of the
  a. m., announced that the moment had arrived to try again. Three times was that signal repeated. a separate signal to each tug. They began to pull slowly at first, but soon they churned the wa later up at a great rate, while the winch es clanlSed and the hawsers became taut It was hard to tell, even aboard the ship, just when the St. Paul began to move. She did it Eoy degrees, and the fact could only be determined by keeping the ship in line with objects on shore.
 She made all the gain at about six o'clock, when the tide was at it's height. The St. Paul stood almost upright then and with scarcely any list to port. The tugs continued to putt until 7.15 o'clock and then gave 1t up until the next high tide. The wated had receded then until the hull of the St. Paul showed that she was eighteen feet in the water and sand. About eleven feet of that was water.
 Reilly, the man who commands the ships telephone, is busy every minute answering questions from every quar- ter of New York and New Jersey
 We're lying as easy as you please" he said this morning. "The big tide did not arrive, but we'll get off, sure'
 When is the big tide coming?"