The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-04


life-saving stations on Long Islands
wreck-strewn south beach is called
Shinnecock. 1t is eighty-five miles east
from New York as the railroad runs,
and that is about as the crows fly.
The unpretentious one-story frame
station house, capped by a little box
like lookout, is surrounded by a trio
of dwellings, doll house in proportions,
in which live as many families of life
savers. The only other evidences of
habitation on the desolate sandy
stretch are two or three implanted
storage sheds and a flag signal pole,
vastly overtowering the squat build
ings within its shadow.
From Shinnecock Bay, which sep
arates the beach from the mainland to
the north, the whole station is clearly
visible on a fair day across the 4-mile
stretch of water; but let one take up
his stand on the oceans edge fifty
yards to the south of the station and
look northward, and he will see naught
of human handiwOrk, except the top of
the flag pole-that and an abruptly
rising ridge of sand. This ridge. which
is pure golden and silvery and iron red
by turns, continues almost centrally
along the beach as far as eye can see
to east and west, and it has the pc
culiar property of keeping the noises
of the sea from out the ears of the
Shinnecock life savers, except on the
stormiest of nights when the gale is
blowing great guns from the south.
1t was on such a winters night that
the two occupants of an ancient cat
boat, baffled in their attempts to reach
the mainland across Shinnecock Bay,
ran the boat over the flats until it's
bottom grated and held fast on the
sand. Then jumping into the knee
deep water, they tugged and pulled
the boat after them until it was
beached. After that they made the
tie while later, set their faces toward
the gale-dSiven rain and breasted their
way to the station house.
They threw open the door just as
the life savers were sitting down to a
meal of salt pork, boiled cabbage and
hot coffee, served on a table hid under
a piece of clean oil cloth. With that
open-heartedness and naive simplicity
characteristic of the men who work
along the sea coast, the five beach
ers," making no excuse for their fru-
| gal fare, invited the visitors to eat.
! AS they did so the heat from the wood
fire in the big cooking stove back of
them quickly dried their drenched
clothing and skins, so that when the
last of the mounds of food had dis
! appeared from the platters and pipes
had been lighted and chairs tilted
comfortably back against walls, they
were in fitting mood to show interest
| in Capt. Alanson Penny's reminis-
| cent observation:
The Captains story of Another
Captain.
bad night, but clear weather along
side the night when the schooner
Louis V. Place went ashore off the
Lone Hill station about four years
ago"
He took a deep puff at his pipe.
Maybe you'd care to hear about it?
All right; yes-yes.
Once more a big volume of smoke
hid the captains face, and, as it clear
ed away, he continued:
The sea was awful that night Gen
| orally l don't notice the awfulness or
grandeur of the sea, being so used to
! it, but that night the combers were
the highest I've ever seen and they
| threw spray over the top of the ridge
| yonder, which is sixty yards from
the waters edge at ebb and about
thirty feet above it. And the sleet
fell in sheets.
1T was around about midnight when
the Louis V. Place was blown on to
the bar. Capt. Sam Baker and his
crew were down at the shore in a
| jiffy with the beach apparatus for
they knew that quick work was needed
to save men grounded in such a sea.
| They shot out the line, and it wouldn't
| hold. They shot out the line again
and it wouldn't hold; and they shot
it out time after time, but it wouldn't
| hold, for the schooner was rolling so
I frfr r1,Nf N1lN AIaN
dared come out of the rigging to make
it fast.
And they couldn't go out to the
| schooner in the surf boat The wind
had damned the sea between shore
and vessel, 500 yards away, with por-
ridge-that's ice packed tight and
thick. No boat can live or get through
1 such ice, so there they were-Capt.
Baker and his men-helpless as babies
and sobbing like babies, too, with the
sailors freezing to death in the rig
ging before their eyes.
There was nothing to do except to
wait for the wind to die down. They
waited two days and nights. best. l.
the beach fires, which lit up the faces
OF the freezing sailors, and as they
waited and watched this man and that
frozen beyond further endurance, let
] go his hold and fell into the sea. On
| the second night they saw one man.
armed with ropes end, beat two of
the men near him to keep them awake
! and from freezing. The next day the
sea died down, the ice broke and the
surf boat was finally worked to the
! side of the schooner, but not before
the man who had whipped the others
TO Keep them alive had fallen into the
sea. The two survivors were brought
ashore, and one died shortly after.
The other, I'm told lived, but he was
amputated all to Meces, nearly
When 1t was all over Capt. Ba-
| ker who was half crazy all the time
ne was powerless to rescue the sail
ors, went to pieces and died a few
weeks later He died of broken heart
died because he had not been able TO
save the eight sailors who froze be-
lore his eyes. And these are the last
words he said before he died:
God pity the poor boys out yon-
der in the rigging"
Nipsy, the Dog Life Saver.
Capt. Penny struck a match and
as he relighted his pipe, he said be-
tween short puffs:
Tell them about Nipsy, Carter"
Charles A. Garter is No. l at the
Shinnecock station, where he has
patrolled the beach for twenty-five
years. He reached down at his side
and patted a medium sized black dog
on the head.
This is Nipsy." he said. He's a