The San Francisco call., 1898-12-02
HEROIC WORK
 IF INTREPID LIFE SAVERS heir Gallant Battle to
 Save Seamen.
WORKED. IN A FIERCE STORM
SCHooNERS AMELIA G. IRELAND
 AND CLARA LEAVITT LOST.
But Several Members of the Despair ing Crews Were Rescued Through Persistent Efforts of the
 Gayhead Patrol
Special Dispatch to The Cali.

VINEYARD HAVEN, Conn.,. Dec. 1. The schooners Amelia G. Ireland of New York and Clara Leayitt of Portland, Me, were wrecked Saturday night near the Gayhead life saving sta tion. The captain. mate and four sea men from the Leavitt and one seaman from the Ireland were drowned.
 It was about 9:30 o'clock, in the fercest of the storm, that the Gayhead life saving patrol saw the flash of a torch in the direction of Dogfish bar. As quickly as possible Captain Hayman mustered his crew and in a few min utes a life boat and all the apparatus necessary. drawn by a yoke of oxen, was on it's way to the nearest point to the bar, which was two and one-half miles from the station.
 2. It was il clock before the men reached the position they. sought. They were tooslat When they came to the beach, {: wreckage from the vessel was coming ashore, giving evidence that she had gone to pieces.r-A A fragment showed he:vesseI to. have been the Clara Leay- itt. Later, clinging to: a broken plank one man was driven. in and rescued from the waves. He was carried to the station. .<'.i '---
 T.. While the life savers were peering into the storm in an effort to discover another possible survivor another sig nal torch was seen from vessel which was at that moment almost upon the bar. The next instant she struck, but went on in position a little less ex- posed to the fury of the waves. and she did not go to pieces. An attempt was made to launch the life boat, but it was swept back like a chip. It was then. decided to try shooting a line to the wreck, but this could not be done until=dayhght With the first appear ance of dawn the gun carriage was drawn up for service. Seven men could be seen clinging to the rigging of the vessel. A line was shot toward the schooner, but it fell short The attempt was twelve times repeated without sue cess. Meanwhile the wind shifted more to the nOrtherly and was colder and the snow had turned to hail.
 Spurred by the sight of the men and the increasing severity of the storm another trial of the surf boat. was made. 41he craft Was tossed back on the beach. Seven times the boat was launched and the most persistent .ef- forts of the crew to breast the waves were of no avail. On Ihe eighth trial, however, success came: and under the tremendous strokes of the men the boat was driven from wave to wave till she reached the vessel. One seaman had perished, but the captain, mate and four sailors, who were barely alive, were rescued and taken to the station. The vessel was the Amelia G. Ireland. When the messenger who brought the story of the wreck and rescue left Gay head the shipwrecked men were all in a serious condition from exposure.
 Several members of the life sav- ing crew were more or less injured while engaged in their attempt at res cue. The Clara Leavitt was a three master of 395.85 tons. 127 feet long and was built at Cape Elizabeth, Me, in 1877.
 The Amelia G. Ireland was also a three master. She was owned by the Tidewater Oil Company of New York, and was bound from Bayonne. IN. J., to Boston, with cargo of oil in tanks She was of 27031 net tons, PA feet long and was built in Somerset County, Md, in 1866. She will be a total loss.