The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-12-05
Climbed Aboard the Dere1ict Adder
and Pulled n Hawser from the Tug
with n Life Line.
BOAT BoBBED LIKE A CORK
YET HE HELD HIS PLACE AND MADE
THE BIG ROPE FAST,
Then Went Back to the Tug Hand
Over Hand the Hawser-The
Moccasin ON the Beach.

NORFOLK, va, Dec. 4-The naval tug
Peoria, towing the submarine torpedo boat
Adder, has arrived at the navy yard here.
The Adder was saved by the heroism of
Boatswain Deery. who responded TO a call
for volunteers and swan 100 yards with
line to the Adder from the tug and pulled
a hawser after him. The Moccasin is ashore
at Currituck and appears to be only slight
Iy damaged. The Yankton. Vixen and Pc
oria have gone to her assistance. The Ad-
der is leaking badly.
When Boatswain Deery. Of the Peoria.
responded to the call for volunteer to
swim to the Adder in a thirty four-mile
gale while mountainous seas were crash
ing over the Peoria and burying the drift
ing submarine boats beneath tons of water.
he with a slender line fastened around
his waist plunged into the ocean and bat
tied with wind and tide for a full hundred
yards, finally reaching the Adder and
gaining her deck. There he hauled a thick
hawser aboard by means Of the life line and
made it fast. At this time the Adder was
being tossed about like a cork one min
ute, and driven far beneath the surface
the next, rolling and wallowing in such
a manner as to make 1t almost impossible
TO retain a position upon her scanty deck
ing. but Deery held on and accomplished
his work Then he went back to the tug
hand over hand ON the hawser.
Great confusion was caused here to-day
by conflicting reports regarding the where
2 aboufs OF the Peoria, Adder and Yankton-
The navy yard was without any informa-
tion whatever, and the weather bureau re-
ported the tug and the Adder as going direct
to Annapolis. In naval circles these cir
cumstances together with the inability OF
Iife-savers TO enter the stranded vessel,
caused some uneasiness. especially over the
condition of the Moccasin.
The Currituck lfe-saving station reports
the Moccasin in good condition. without any
water in her. From the reports received.
however, IL is not thought any headway
can be made toward floating the vessel
without the aid of wreckers, as she is high
and dry upon the beach at low water and
directly in nasty surf at high tide.
IL was said at the navy yard to-day that
Boatswain Deery will be commended at
once to the President for bravery. The
Adder is leaking and her electrical ma
chinery is badly damaged.
Lieutenant English, commanding the
Peoria. says the little boats towed very
well indeed until they were just off the
Virginia capes. There the heavy seas run
ming at the time proved too much for the
frail towing bits of the Adder, which was
towing first, following the tug. They
snapped short and the two submarine YES
sells went adrift. The Peoria sought to
catch them, but they drifted southwark be-
fore the wind rapidly. There were only the
broken bits On which to get hold. so the
tug could only run in between them and
keep them from humping together The
seas were running entirely too high, the
lieutenant said. for the tug to run alongside
the boats, and 1t would have been suicidal
to have lowered a boat. All the Peoria
could do, therefore. was to keep the boats
apart.
All Wednesday night this continued, and
then the line between the boats snapped.
1t was then that Boatswain Deery. who
comes from Brooklyn, performed his he
roic act In last attempt to save the boats.
After he had made fast his line to the
Adder and succeeded at the risk of his life
I'm regaining the tug, consideration was
given to anchoring the aaoccasin. but it
was that IL would be impossible 10
anchor her. The tug, it, was found, could
handle only one of the boats in the heavy
seas The Yankton appeared and the Moe
casin was left TO her, while the Peoria
fought her way up the coast with the Ad.
der Great seas swept her bows all night
and she had hard time reaching port.
Patrick Deery. No. u in the list of boat
swains In the navy, is native of ireland
and enlisted in the service from New York
On Jan. I. 1903, he had been sixteen years
and eight months in the navy. of which
eleven years were spent enlisted sea-
man. Throughout his entire service to that
date he had been unemployed but two
months. He warranted boatswain on
May ). 1897.