The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-02-18

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 OF
the Nantucket lightship. And yet he
was powerless to stir from his ocean
prison house.
When the first wireless message
reached the Nantucket Shoals light
ship, informing Captain J%orgenson that
his only daughter had been stricken
with lockjaw as the result Of vaccina.
ton, he determined to reach home If
it were possible. When it came to
found hat no ordinary open boat could
live in the angry sea which surged
around the lightship. For more than a
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 co~nscientiously 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-
genson paced the storm swept deck Of
the liShtship, watching the elements
in hope that there would be a lull in
the storm. But it's fury increased from
day to day.
In the captains home the grief and
anxiety We're heartrending. The dying
girl expressed but one wish, made but
one inquiry, as the hours crept by:
"Why don't father come to me? Shall
I see him before l die? Tell him to
come quick"
At the signal station on shore 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
iy vigil, cheering his dreary existence.
Now death wss claiming her for its
own. Unless the captain We're taken
from the ship in time he would never
see her alive.
. Government officials, among whom
Captain ~Jorgenson was q 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
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."
A pitiful hope now sprung up in the
bereaved mans heart. II he could
only reach home in time to see the dead
girls face. he would snatch from fate
some meager crumb OF comfort. At
last the angry wind expended it's fury.
A w%estbound steamer stopped neal the
lightship. 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
B%raintree, Mass.
Captain Jorgenson has described for
the New York World his hours Of anx-
ious waiting and agony on the storm
beset li=htship:
"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 me
that my daughter was very sick, an.
other that she was dying and a third
that she was dead. 1t was a weird
and dreadful experience, like a ghost
message delivered to me by an unseen
agency out Of the tempest. | was
frantic, for l knew it meant death for
me to attempt to leave the ship. On
Saturday Ian. fl and Sunday it was
the same, for no boat could reach me,
and in my despair, realizing the utter
impossibility of reaching land, l nearly
died. On Monday the weather cleared,
but no boat hove in sight, and not I'M
til Tuesday morning, when the Atlantic
Astoria, from Glasgow, came
along, bound inward for New York,
was l able to signal. She took me off,
and the next day WI reached New
York. Then came tile quarantine and
other delays. so that | did not reach
home until Thursday.
II can say nothing more Of my eX-
%perience during that fearful week,
and praying for M look at
my dead daughters face and fearing
that she would be laid away before I
could see her. But. thank God, / ar
in time. Now that it is over l
feel that my afiiiction has aged me
J. vas comparatively young
before it happened and my hair was