The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-12-16
Sank In SIGHT OF HARBOR
i'll let Reimann tell his story in his own

81 knew that had but one chance in
hundred of getting to land alive" said
Reimann when telling his story to the
PRESS, "but 1 resolved to take that
chance,
81 did not stop to take off my boots,
thinking if [ did the rocks might hurt
my feet. I leaped from the side of the
wreck and found deep water, but when L
came to the surface everything was black
about me and the roaring of the waves
was terrible. I cannot swim stroke, and
was giving myself up for lost, when
something struck my arm and grabbed
1T.
SIT was one of the tenders used to keep
the schooner from chatting against
wharf. 1t was round, about five inches
in diameter and five or six feet long.
grasped it and thought that by its aid
might be able to reach the shore. I soon
despaired of ever setting my feet on land
again, when I began to be thrown about
among the breakers.
"All at once a wave caught me up and
carried me towards the shore. l was
dragged over the rocks, now out of water
and again completely buried in the crest
of wave. When was pretty we'll in
shore as judged, the receding wave
caught me and sucked me back again. I
was flung from one rock to another, until
| thought there would be no bones left
whole in me.
when it seemed as if I was go ing
clean out to sea, another wave caught me
and tossed me in again. This time did
not go 80 far in. Time and again I was
passed back and forth, ciinging all the
while to my timber. I had been in the
water as long as two hours, it seemed to
me, when big wave, much larger than
any had felt up to that time, lifted me
on it's crest and carried me towards the
shore. At a terrible speed it took me
along, clean over ledge of rocks against
which l bumped several times before.
| When the wave receded was left on the
| inner side of the rock in a still pool of
water. I lag until got my breath and
then 1 clambered up the rocks. could
see nothing of the schooner and could
hear nothing, except the loud roar of the
| breakers.
''It was three hours after the schooner
struck before l had got rested and began
to grope my way up the island to see il
could find a place to stay until morning.
l knocked at one or two houses but could
raise nobody, until came to a house and
knocked loudly, and pretty soon got an
answer.
Captain Began, who stays on the
| island in the winter. took me into his
house and kept me until morning We
did not go back to the wreck, for it was
so dark and thick that we could not have
found the way.
"This morning Captain Began and 1
went down to the wreck. The schooner
had gone all to pieces, but we found the
bodies of three men. the captain. cook
and one of the seamen. Captain Began
and rowed over to Willard in dory and
| then came to the city"
Reimann was kindly cared for at the
house of Captain Began. Something hot
to drink, something to eat, dry clothes
and warm bed were what the good
people here did for him, and in little
while the poor shipwrecked sailor was
himself again,
The night wore slowly away and the
storm still continued. With steadily fall
ing rain, heavy sea and huge breakers
roaring up TO the rocky shores of Cush.
iDg's, and fog so thick that anything a
few yards from shore was blurred and in
distinct, the morning dawned. Captain
Eben Smith and Captain Began were at
the shore Of Cushing's with daylight
The sight that met their eyes when the
dull streaks of daylight found their way
through the heavy fog banks was a
terrible one. Among the foamed covered
rocks and the Jagged ladges with their
dull brown mantles of kelp and seaweed
heaped in indescrible confusion was
wreckage of all kinds Broken planks
and timbers, chairs from the cabin,
articles CT clothing, sections of the
schooner's deck yet unbroken, pieces Of
spars with the ropes and blocks attached,
casks, boxes and barrels were strewn
along the whole southern shore. In the
little cove abreast the place where the
schooner struck the lodges, Captain Smith
ound the bodies of Captain Helgersen
and the cook John G. Nickels. Mr..
Smith, aided by boy succeeded in
getting the bodies on the shore. A little
further away he saw another body buried
in the seaweed and firmly wedged in be-
tween the rocks, and this too he finally
goo to the shore. About seven oclock the
shipwrecked sailor came down to the
shore, having had few hours of much
needed sleep. He at once identified the
bodies Of the captain and cuok and the
one seaman, but hunt as best they might
the men could not locate the other mems
bodies.
Captain Began then took Reimann
across to the Willard beach in his dory
and the man came into Portland on the
electric cars. AS soon as he reached the
city he went to the office of the collector
of customs and there.told his story in
broken manner to the officers and men