Omaha daily bee., 1896-01-26
OCEAN LINER FAST AGROUND
Pilot of ths bstss Paul Lost His Bearings in
.... aas Fog.
PASSENGERS all TAKEN OFF BY TUGS
No ETorts fIs5 Bccn Made Mt n Int
Hour f6t Hhul the ship on but
verythtng WAS In Rendi-
ness for High Tide.

4 '''l'
LONG BRANCH, N. j., Jan. 25.-In
heavy fog, with uae wind in the northeast anC
the surf running far up the beach, fsv
minutes after 1 o'clock this morning, th'
new American liner, st. Paul, bound in
went ashore In front Of the Grand View
house. All Of the 700 passengers were today
transferred to land. At no time were thu
passengers in danger. Strenuous efforts ART
being made to pull the st. Paul from hel
dangerous position She Is in twenty fest o.
water, just in the outside edge Of the break
ers about 300 feet from the shore, with hel
head pointing at an acute angle west and
toward the shore. 1t has been day Of ex
citement for the people of Long Branch and
vicinity. Never before in the history OF the
town has there been such a midwnter influx
of excursionists as there was today. All
trains deposited crowds of curiosity mongers
at the depots. The farmers for miles around
with their wives and families, came. The
objective point was East Long Branch, where
the big American liner was hard aground, a
hundred yards from Ocsan Grove. There
she lay. washed by the marclless breakers,
looking like huge hotel in the surf, with
her iron hull, nearly an eighth of mile In
length embedded deeply in the sandy beach.
| She lay SO close to the shore that the people
on her decks early In the day could be heard
speaking to each other very distinctly by
those on the beach. There was evidently
no uneasiness felt by the passengers or crew
Of the unlucky vessel. .-
| life guard named Joe r. Wiley Of life
boat station No. was the first man to dis
cover the st. Paul In her dangerous position.
While patrolling his beat he saw signals
Of distress flashing from a huge black mass,
which. through the thick fcg. he made out
| to be an ocean liner. She was close in to
the shore head on, and seemed to be hard
and fast on the beach, and the tide, which
| was then about full. was unusually high
| Wiley FASTENED to his lifeboat house and
aroused Captain Mullgan and the rest of the
| crew.
FOUND ALL SAFE ON BOARD.
| The life savers lost no time and in less
| timo than 1t takes to tell 1t the little mortar
wa9 loaded and a life line shot out into the
night. 1t fell athwart the bridge Of the St.
Paul and moment later the men on shore
were aware Of the fact. They went to work
with Will and had ropes and guys soon in
place. The breeches buoy was rugged up
and Captain .,Dfulligsn got into it. He was
drawn aboard with a couple of wettings and
| the passengers hailed him with cheers as he
was pulled over the side of the ship. He was
assured that everything was all right on
board and he came ashore with message
for the international Navigation company
which ownsythe vessel. and assurances from
the prominent passengers that they felt per-
fectly safe and had confidence in the sta
bility of the ship
When Captain Muligan brought this as
suring news ashore few hundred people
had gathered on the beach. When Mulligan
returned he found Captain West and his
crew from life saving station No. 8, Sea-
bright. hard at work. The two crews COM
bined worked like Trojans, but they could
not launch Z the boats in the face of the
! heavy breakers, which threatened to swamp
them at every attempt. Seeing nothing could
be done till daylight the weather beaten
life savers stood ,around and talked of past
experience They all declared that no YES
gel had ever run so close to shore in their
memory. m.
When Captain Wardwell Of life boat station
No. 5, which is located at West End. or
story which in itself was almost as long
as that of tho grounding Of the St. Paul.
He said, as he explained the reasons for
his late arrival: Look here. boys. you think
this is bad Job. but there came near being
another one which might have been worse.
About the same time that the alarm was
given to No. 4 came up with my crew
and saw a big vessel right off our shore.
knew by her size that she was trans
atlantic steamer and as she was coming
head en- ! sent up red Coston light. which
Dignalled her Off Of her danger. In reply
she sent up a blue Coston light, which sig
nified that she understood our signal. She
was delayed about half an hour and I think
she must have been aground, judging from
the position in which she was lying | knew
she was none other than the Cunarder Cam
pania. / am very positive that II 1t had
not been for our signals that you would
now have two of the fastest cnoss-Atlantic
steamers bow on in this vicinity instead of
one."
-. TUGS ON THE SCENE.
hree bo
was kept busy bringing messages ashore from
the captain and passengers. The contents
of only one Of these messages was made
public and that was an assurance from
Captain Jameson: It read, "The ship Is
fast, all safe and not making water" The
life boats went out early in the forenoon
but no person was allowed to go aboard
any of them except the crews. The pas
sengers promenaded the decks and waived
handkerchief in reply to the encouraging
cheers which were waited to them. Shortly
before noon a number of tugs hove in sight
and by / o'clock the st. Paul was surrounded
by number of small craft including
revenue cutter and the Merritt & Grafton
wrecking boats.
The boats after few trial trips from the
St. Paul to the shore, made arrangement to
transfer the mail and passengers to some of
the craft which lay around. The mails We're
the first to be attended to. After Uncle SANS
correspondence had been safely stored away
and headed toward New YORK, the creWc
turned their attention to the first and second
cabin passengers. Captain Jameson had the
big gangway lowered, Then the first cabin
passengers began their exit from cramped
quarters. 1t Just took twelve boatoads to
exhaust the supply of the first and seconds
In the fourth boatload one woman tainted
after she had made the Jump from the little
platform to the boat They were all trans
ferred to the sidewheeler George Starr.
which left atbS45so'cock for New York. The
steerage passengefs and the baggage fol-
lowed. All ltnei passengers were taken off
the steamer before 4:30. No attempt was
made to haiti the st. Paul of up to II
O'Clock tonight But the wrecking company
will probably make an effort at high tide
between chi 1in the morning. Captains
West and Mulisan said this evening that
everything was quiet and orderly on board
and that Captain Jameson blamed the man
who was throwing the lead for the mis-
hap, as he Claims the man called out seven
teen fathoms immediately before the ship
grounded 5Ast
At midnight itte ke sci was lying pra ra,tlcally
parallel to thee behch. with her bow heading
south. Later Itbhght Captain Wardwel OF
the West Eiid fife saving station, said he
was pretty Sire the steamer would remain
In her present position for many days to
come "As i6hg as the wind is off shore"
said he. "she is all right but II a gale
atrikas the ODDOsits direction. /