New-York tribune., 1902-01-29
THE SEA CHEATED OF PREY
WOMAN CHILDREN AND TEN MEN
SAVED FROM WRECK.
THEY DON BUOY. JUMP INTO WAVES AND
ARE HAULED ABOARD A CoCKLESHELL.

THEY DON BUOY. JUMP INTO WAVES AND
ARE HAULED ABOARD A CoCKLEsHELL.
In a terse letter whose brevty is indicative of
the calmness with which those who go down to
the sea in ships view their hazardous life Cap
tain Crawford S. Smith. master of the steamer
Coronda, of which Norton & Son are the agents.
tells thrilling story of the rescue of thirteen
souls from the very maws of death. Unornate
devoid Of praise of himself his crew, almost
statistical in its bare recital of facts in the
chronological order of their happening the letter
received by the agents reveals the matter of
fact way in which the sailors of the merchant
marine leave their work risk their lives for
Others and saving those lives return to their
drudgery as if both We're part of the articles
What Captain Smith omits ought to be told.
1t was on January H. at 7:3O a. m. in latitude
81, longitude 6112 that the lookout in the Co.
ronda's crows nest sighted distress signals fly
ing from a wreck. The Coronda was battling
her old enemy. climbing dizzy heights
which seemed to meet the sky: now. with racing
screw plunging headlong into liquid abysses;
now staggering under buffets that made her
reel, now shaking like aspen, and now almost
drowned beneath a deluge, but all the time forg-
ing ahead AS she mounted the pinnacles, the
lookout saw the distress signals; as she dashed
oo"h 10 the valleys tney were lOSl 10 view.
Captain Smith shaped his course for them, for
they told of the need of succor.
Getting as close he could with safety, he
bore up on the bark flying the signals. She was
about to surrender to her implacable enemy;
most OF her masts and rigging were gone, and
her waterlogged hull the manned sport of huge
grinning waves, seemed about to disappear with
each roll. Her signal said she sinking. 1t
told no lie She was the Ella, of this port, coal
laden, for Porto Rico.
Voices could not carry the distance the
Coronda obliged to lay off. but the signals
spoke again. telling that ten men. a woman and
two children had been watching death stalk
them and were tired of the game.
Captain Smith says: The sea was tremendous.
was afraid to launch boat"
cockleshell of a boat live in a bowling
fighting maelstrom that crouched for a spring,
leaped to the clouds. fell back with engulfng
suction and played with steamer though it
were millpond chip!
But again the signal I'VE are sinking"
Flesh and blood brain and Drawn, could not
resist the appeal. Pygmies of strong heart have
ever vanquished braggart giants Captain
Smith called for volunteers. A boats crew
stepped forward. The boat was launched
paused on crest. appeared to be engulfed;
hoped up as If from the oceans bottom. and
blot to the stricken bark. ship in its death
rattle.
- Oil made the way less turbulent: without II
there would have been need of way. Close
enough to the bark. line heaved. Ready
hands caught it. hauled the buoy attached to
it aboard. and made IL fast. First the captains
wife puts it round her and. with a farewell to
her children, leaps overheard. The men in the
cockleshell haul her into it. The line goes back,
hauled to their mother. One by one the ten
men jump into the water that clamors for
them; it has them it tosses them, ii half browns
them IL throws them up atop to the boat;
1t buries them deep with sense destroying
sw'iftness. AS ii gets ready to drop them way
down, having tired of its play, hands snatch
them from it,
The boat made two trips TO and from the
steamer before all the wrecked souls were
aboard
II am glad to say the work was accomplished
without accident" says Captain Smith