The Jersey City news., 1901-07-20
new ERA WRECK
One of the Greatest Disas-
ters New jerseys
Coast Ever Saw.
LOSS OF LIFE NUMBERED 24o
Captain and Crew Deserted
the Ship Leaving Immi-
grants to Their
Fate.

At the spring meeting of the Monmouth
County Historical Society, held at this
place, says a Keyport letter to the New
ark Sunday News Edwin Beekman, OF
Middletown, delivered an address on the
wreck of the packet ship New Era, which
went down on the New Jersey coast No
vember l3, 1854, causing the loss OF ~
lives The thrilling seems depicted are re-
called by some of the old residents VINO
witnessed the disaster, which was one OF
the worst wrecks ever recorded along this
coast In the course of his address Mr..
Beekman said:-
"If, on that April day way back in 1854,
when the New Era was launched onthe
tide of the Kennebec, those cunning ship
wrights of Bath, Me-, who laid her keel,
said that from the numberless accidents
that accompanied her building that che
would prove 'hoodoo,' those German inn
migrants who trooped aboard five months
later at Bremen had no knowledge of it.
And there was nothing in the appearance
of that 1,340 ton brand new packet ship,
rated AL and insured for $60,000, but would
inspire confidence as to her speed and
"
tember 10, having on board 574 steerage
and eleven first and second cabin passen-
gers and a crew of thirty men, including
Captain Hardy. In her hull was a cargo
of 20.OG0 cubic feet of German goods.
Among the cabin passengers was
diamond dealer with quantity OF unset
stones, and another passenger who had a
box containing 5000 gold forms. The
steerage passengers were mostly robust
Germans, who had sold their little farms
and had the price hid about their per-
sons.
1.-The voyage to Liverpool by the north
ern coast of Scotland was uneventful l.,
the long twilight of that high latitude the
passengers would gather at the mast
and sing the simple songs of their native
provinces; of tine harvest, the vintage
and the course of true love. On the Sab
bath the silence of the ocean was broken
by solemn hymns, some as old as the days
Of Luther Among the singers was a boy
of fourteen years, the purity and sweet
ness of whose voice was the delight of all
listeners. And 50 the ship sailed on.
ut was after the New Era left Liver
pool with an additional cargo of COO tons
of chalk that the unlucky character of tie
ship began to manifest itself. She was
lashed by gale after gale. Then cholera
morbus broke out among the Immigrants.
Pestilence followed while death walked
through that vessel. A mighty sea swept
her fore and aft, smashing in the passen-
gers cook house, killing three persons
and :njuring five more. Then her seams
opened and the clang of her pumps were
so incessant that they thought the ocean
was being pumped through her bottom.
when the ship was within 100 miles of
Sandy Hook, owing to sickness and acci-
dent the corpses of forty men, women
and children had been flung overheard to
feed the sharks of the Atlantic, and with
pumps constantly going she mad SIX feeS
of water in her hull.
"a glance at the map of Monmouth coast
shows it trends to the southeast. vessei
coming in from the sea to the port OF New
York had this coast, if the wind is east,
on her lee. Now, If by thick weather,
is made impossible. and the
currents. those mysterious rivers of sea,
set toward the shore, you have all the ac-
cessories for marine disaster. From the
number that had happened, up to the
early fifties, to prevent further loss the
government built life-saving stations that
were manned by volunteers recruited
from the hardy fishermen along the
coast. One. near Loeb Arbour. was called
No. 8. and Abner Allen was the captain
On the morning of November 13 he heard
above the roaring of the surf a gun; then
another.
BRUSHING out in the rainy, misty dark
ness of the late November morning, he
Little Pond, by the flash of the guns,
full-rigged ship in the breakers, and set
off to summon his crew.
'.On November u. 1854. it had been rainy
and misty all that Sunday, and Captain
Hardy could take no observations, and
knowing he was near the coast had the
lead thrown at half-past on the morn
ing of the thirteenth, and found fifteen
fathoms; and, from the sand. said he was
off Long Island. He ordered more sails
set to keep her off, the wind being SOUTH
east. He then went to his cabin The
first mate whose watch it was, slipped
down in the steerage, leaving but the
watch on deck.
sWhen the lead was thrown again 1t
showed but four fathoms, and the captain,
coming out of his cabin, heard one of the
crew say:-'What is that so light over
there?' Just then she took the ground.
Captain Hardy ordered the yards swung
to back her off, but her .hoodoo,' at ten
minutes past six on the fatal date of the
thirteenth of November, had laid her on
the worst place on the Monmouth coast
the ouicksands of Little Pond. Finding
she was fairly aground he had the guns
fred. and then tar barrel set afire.
'Those were the guns heard by Abner
Allen, and he passed the word up and
down the beach to Stations Nos. and
a. In the meantime the ships sails were