The Forrest City times., 1902-02-07
GREAT EASTERN STORMS.
A Seventy-Mile Gale Brings Death and Destruction Along the
 Atlantic Coast
MANY DEAD BODIES COMING ASHORE.
me shores Of Long Island and New Jersey strewn with Wrecked and Stranded Vessels Narrow Escape of the Crews of the Tugs John E. Berwind and E. $. At- wood,

s'e iuss oobh BerWlnd and F. \. At-
 wood.
 New York, Feb. 4.-The gale which had been sweeping the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey for more than 2i hours and continued last night, though with abated force, brought death and destruction to sailors and their craft.
 Reports of loss of life are confined to the eastern end of Long Island, whence comes news that several bod les have been washed ashore. It is not known what vessels the men who lost their lives came from. They must have been on either the barges lowed by the tug Richmond, reported as passing Block Island without tow, bound from New York for Newport. E. l., or the tug Cuba which passed Block Island, two hours later, and which left New London, Conn.,, Sun day, for Newport News, and was re- turning without tow When leaving port the Richmond had three barges and the Cuba two.
 Wreckage strews the shore in the vicinity of the Bellport C.. I.) life saving station, and one body came ashore east of this station One barge was thrashng about yesterday afternoon near Forge river station. The finding of the other bodies was reported later from the same point
 The largest piece of wreekage is the after-quarter and a portion of the stern of n barge. On this last were the letters 70. P. E."
 The crew of the American mer- chantman Schepp, a full-rigged ship, which went ashore on Long Beach shoals early yesterday, were in peril all day. Late reports last night said they were still on the stranded ves- sel though the danger of death had been lessened owing to the slight abatement of the storm A westerly gale was blowing at the rate of 70 miles on hour when the Schepp struck at 3:30 o'clock in the morn- ing. The men from Capt Andrew Rhodes life-saving station, half mile east, dragged their mortar to the scene of the wreck. sighting the Schepp about daybreak and found the seas breaking over her bow and stern. She was about one thousand feet from shore and tossing heavily at every thrust of powerful break CTS. Nearly every spar in her was twisted or broken. Several of the crew could be seen on deck running fG Frp ;,, keep from freezing to death. The life savers of Capt. Rhodes station and those of the Long Beach station, under Capt. Van Wylicken, made several attempts to shoot the life lines over the Schepp, but the after noon's efforts were not successful. Then they tried to launch the life boat, but this too proved impossible, owing to the high seas.
 The crews of the seagoing tugs John E. Berwind and E. $. Atwood had very narrow escape from go- ing to the bottom with their craft Sunday afternoon. Nothing was known of their plight until the ar rival of the German steamer Barce- Iona, the crew of which rescued the tugs men. The tugs had been de- livering provisions to the stranded Cavour, ashore at Long Beach, l.. l., and were proceeding back to this point when the gale struck them. The waves not only swept off everything movable, but flooded their holds and got into the fire boxes
 The seven men on each tug were in imminent danger of death for over two hours. The tugs were absolute ly helpless and gradually sinking when the Barcelona hove in sght and took the haIf-frozen crews aboard. Within half an hour after this the two tugs went to the bottom.
 Capt. Calus Bohn was utterly ex- hausted when the Barcelona reached the south central pier, as he had been 4s hours on the bridge. He said the houses of the Berwind had been smashed by the fury of the waves when the Barcelona hove down on the sinking vessel and rescued her crew.
 Both of the tug boats were fine ves- sels of their class. The Berwind was probably worth S33 900 or S35, ,000, and the Atwood about $25 ,0OO.
 Atlantic City reported that an un- known four-masted schooner went ashore during the night on the Brig antine shoals, near where the Clover dale grounded Sunday. Fire island also reported that the beach, five miles east of the Bellport life-saving station, was covered with wreckage, and it was believed that a coal barge