Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1876-1904, 1902-01-17
SAD MESSAGE OF dealt,
Wireless Telegraph Tells Light
ship Keeper of CniId's Ind
STORM KEPT I'll FIoA BEDSIDE

k.e4-~ I.e@hca - E@tza ~ t-l~ 1I-4--
eoEi system.
-Chr.s,snc Is dying. Gene home"
Cat Of .he mist and the storm IS
wireless telegraph came these fatefEi
words 10 Captain James Iorse.ason OF
the Nantucket lt-hfship- And Yet he
was 20 ss,eriess to stir from his ocean
prison horse
When the first wireless mess:tGe
reached the Nantucket Shoals light
saip Informing Captain Joreenscn tilat
his oaly daughter had been stricken
with locl.iaw as the result of vaeesna
ton lie determined 10 reach home If
il were possible. When it came TO
launching the boat however. il was
found that no ordinary open boat could
live in the angry sea which surged
around tie Iightship. 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 conseientiously ask his men
10 risk their lives for his sake. He
could only spend the dreary hours in
wondering how his child was faring.
Gushing ever ana anon messages To
the shore making anxious inquiry. AS
the weary hours crept on Captain Jor-
genson paced the storm swept deck Of
the ii.h.shtp. watcain. the elements
in hope that there would be IL lull in
the storm. But its fury increased from
day TO day.
In the captains home the grief and
anxety were 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
| see him before | 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
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 a great favor
lite, planned to relieve the captains
torture. The Hghtship 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
A pitiful hope now sprung up in the
bereaved mans heart. If 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 its fury.
A westbound steamer stopped near 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 bereayed
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:
ION 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
- 1T
that she was dead 1t was a weir6
and dreadful experience. like a ghost
message delivered to me by an unseer
agency out of the tempest. | was
frantic. for | knew il meant death for
me to attempt TO leave the ship. On
Saturday liam. 4 and Sunday ii was
the same. for no boat could reach me
and in my despair. reaiizin@ the utter
impossibiIity of reaching land. nearly
died. On Monday the weather cleared
but no loaf hove in sight. ana rot IN
til Tuesday morning. when the Atlantic i
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 reaef
home until Thursday.
Il can say nothing more of my ex /
perience during that fearful week |
longing and praying for one look al
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 il is over
feel that my affiiction has aged me
terribly. | was comparatively young
before il happened and my hair was
scarcely touched with gray. Now. as
you see it is almost white"
Though fate had played a tragic
trick on the aged lightship master, YET
ii did not deny him the melancholy