The Portland daily press., 1897-05-26
FOG HID THEM FOREVER.
Sixteen Of Crew Of Joseph E.
Johnson Lost.
WERE OUT IN DORIES AND FOG
SHUT IN ON THEM.
When 1t Lifted No Trace of lMen Could
Be Found-sad Story Which Captain
Brought into Provincetown Yesterday

Brought into Provincetown Yesterday
Slight Chance Men Were Picked Up,
Provincetown, Mass, May 25.-Of the
nineteen men of this town who sailed on
the schooner Joseph e. johnson for the
fishing grounds on the western bank, so
called, which lies southwest of Sable
island and about 200 miles off the Novia
Scotia coast, last week, only three
came back on the schooner, when she
rounded the point this morning with her
flag at half mast. The other sixteen men
are either still adriff in their..dor off1the
western bank, have found watery
grave, or happily have been picked up by
some passing steamer.
All sixteen put off from the schooner
early Friday morning, but the fog that
settled down over the ocean three hours
later swallowed them up and when after
three days of waiting it lifted, no trace of
the men could Captain Bier discern from
the masthead of the schooner.
The story that Captain Bier told as he
landed on the wharf this afternoon was,
perhaps a repetition of similar tales of the
sea, that fishing captains have related
from the spot, but none was more
pathetic.
Said the captain. his voice trembling
with emotion at nearly every word: "We
had good run down to the banks after
leaving here on May 10Th. When we
anchored on the western bank, Thursday
night there was every prospect OF good
weather for some days to come.
Preparations had been made the night
before so that when the men came on
deck early Friday morning they were all
ready to start out with their travis.
breakfast was soon out of the way
and then the men began launching their
dories. Each of the little craft had a good
sized jug of water, can Or two Of hard
tack and small compass.
1.-The men distributed themselves
among the five or six dories. Sixteen Of
them went over the schooner's side that
clear bright morning, and never saw a
more contented lot Of men. By seven
o'clock they had set their travis the
schooner. Two men beside myself re-
manned ON board, one of them being the
cook
Everything appeared all right for an
hour or two, when suddenly l caught
sight of the terrible bank of mist rushing
up from the southwest. I had just q
chance to take hasty sight of the men,
when the fog shut in, and they were all
| lost to sight.
''T Immediately began blowing the fog
horn and blew for hours being relieved
only by the cook at intervals, but not the
slightest response did we get. Along In
the afternoon 1 concluded to run up a
short ways to place that would bring
me between the dories so we weighed
anchor and stood off for few minutes,
| dropping anchor again apparently about
| two miles from our first place. While
| under way we continually used the fog
horn and kept it up after anchoring.
During the night the fog lifted and as
soon as it was light, l went to the mast
head in the hope of sighting some of the
missing boats. Not one did discern.
was almost sure that was near the place
where they were last seen, but seemed as
if the ocean of fog had swallowed them
up. For two hours stayed aloft looking
in all directions with my glass;, but at
six o'clock the terrible fog again came
creeping over the ocean and ..blotted out
about one O'Clock Saturday afternoon,
when the wind shifted to the north and
| began to blow hard, clearing the air al
| most Immediately During the afternoon
/ discovered that the schooner had drifted
considerable before the wind. This fact
discouraged me more than anything else,
| and came reluctantly to the conclusion
| that the men were beyond the reach of
the ship. just before sunset Saturday
night the wind moderated and then
shifted to the south and blew gently from
| that quarter all night. Sunday morning
came and still there was no trace of the
| men and SO after waiting for nearly three
days and doing my utmost to locate them,
1 turned back toward Provincetown.
"God only knows what we three men
have suffered from excitement, want of
sleep and anxiety for the safety of our
| co mrades. "