Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1902-01-16
SAD MESSAGE OF DEATH
Wireless Telegraph Tells Light
ship Keeper of Child's End.
STORM KEPT HILL FROM BEDSIDE.
Captain JorgensOn Describes How
the News Of His Daughters Death
Came Through the Air-Her Last
Words Flashed to Him by the Mar

Words Flashed to Him by the Mar
conf System.
christine is dying. Come home"
Out of the mist and the storm by
wireless telegraph came these fateful
words to Captain James JOrgenson on
the Nantucket lightship.. And yet he
was powerless to stir from his ocean
prison house.
reached the Nantucket Shoals light
ship, informing Captain Jorgenson that
his only daughter had been stricken
with lOckjaw as the result of vaccina-
ton, he determined to reach home If
1t were possible. When it came to
launching the boat, however, it was
live in the angry sea which surged
around the lightship. For more than
week the storm had been raging.
Though the captain was willing to
brave the dangers in the hope Of reach
ing his dying daughters bedside. he
could not conscientiously ask his men
to risk their lives for his sake. He
could only spend the dreary hours in
wondering how his child was faring.
flashing ever and anon messages to
the shore making anxious inquiry. AS
the weary hours crept on Captain Jor
censor paced the storm swept deck of
the lightship, watching the elements
in hope that there would be lull in
the storm. But it's fury increased from
day to day.
In the captains home the grief and
anxiety were heartrending. The dying
girl expressed but one wish, made but
onn inquiry, as the hours crept by:
Nv hy don't father come to me? Shall
see him before l die? Tell him to
come quick"
At tie signal station on slOre the
wireless messages were sent out FROM
hour to hour. giving the captain bulle
tins of his daughters condition. Every
one knew the deep attachment which
the old captain felt for his daughter.
She had spent days with him on the
lightship, helping him to keep his lone
ly vigil. cheering his dreary existence.
Now death was claiming her for its
own. Unless the captain were taken
from the ship in time he would never
see her alive.
Government officials, among whom
Captain Jorgenson was Il great favor
lite, planned to relieve the captains
torture. The lightship tender Azalea
was requisitioned to effect the captains
rescue The boat went out to sea in the
teeth Of the storm. When the Azalea
came to within megaphone hailing dis
lance Of the lightship, it was found
that she could approach no nearer ow
ing to the high seas, and the little
tender put back. Then, after days and
nights of anguish, the wireless message
came. "Christine is dead"
ptiful hope now sprung up in tie
bereaved mans heart. If he could
only reach home in time to see the dead
girls face. he would snatch from fate
some me0eer crumb of comfort. At
Ia, tie ry wind expended its fury.
n westhound steamer stopped near the
lghtship, and, though the seas were
running dangerously high, the captain
managed to reach the deck of the
Anchor line steamer Astoria, which
enabled the unfortunate and bereaved
sailor to reach his daughters home in
Braintree, Mass.
Captain Jorgenson has described for
the New York World his hours of anX-
ious waiting and agony on the storm
beset lightship:
"On the day my daughter died" said
he, wireless messages which owing to
some arrangement of the apparatus
on land had been delayed began COM
ing at the lightship. the first telling he
that my daughter was very sick, an
other that she was dying and third
that she was dead. 1t was weird
and dreadful experience. like a ghost
agency out of the tempest. was
frantic, for | knew it Me;,.lt death for
me to attempt to leave the ship. On
Saturday [Jan. 1 and Sunday it was
the same, for no boat could reach me,
and in my despair, realizing the utter
impossibiity of reaching land, l nearly
died On Monday the weather cleared.
but no boat hove in sight, and not un-
til Tuesday morning, when the Atlantic
liner Astoria, from Glasgow, came
along, bound inward for New York,
was able to signal. She took me off,
and the next day we reached New
York. Then came the quarantine and
other delays, so that l did not react!
home until Thursday.
II can say nothing more Of my eX-
perience during that fearful week,
longing and praying for one look at
my dead daughters face and fearing
that she would be laid away before
could see her. But, thank God, | ar
rived in time. Now that it is over |
feel that my aflliction has aged ne
terribly was comparatively young
before it happened and my hair was