The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-12
HEROIC WORK SAVED LIVES.

Surfman Risked Himself Three
Times and Saved Three Men.
Hamilton at Norfolk After Terri
BILE Trip-PassenEers Panic Stricl<-
en- and Several Injured-Great
Damage Near Norfolk.
Norfolk, Va, Oct. 1.-THE northeast
gale that has ragged over this region
since Thursday has tonight practi-
cally spent its power, but for miles and
miles along the Virginia coast the
beach is Uttered with wreckage and
throughout this entire section of the
country devastation lies in the wake
of the storm.
Thousands of people crowded trains
to the coast to-day and saw the wrecks
of the big barges Ocean Belle and
Georgia near Virginia Beach. There
is nothing left but an indiscriminate
tangle of debris along the shore at
Dam Neck to mark the end of the
three-masted schooner Nellie w. Hew-
lett.
The body of Capt. George E. Evans
of the Georgia washed ashore last
night, two miles south of Sea Tack
life-saving station, and is now at that
station. The body of George Peters,
the colored seaman of the same YES
sci, has not been recovered.
The rescue of the remaining three
negroes of the crew by Surfnan F. w.
Capps of Sea Tack station was one
of the most heroic acts in the history
of surfmen on the Virginia coast.
Capps. while two miles from any other
human being, and patroiling his
stretch between the stations, saw one
negro over 100 yards off shore in the
roaring surf. Without a moments
consideration of the peril he was fac
ing. he stripped and plunged into the
sea that was already a seething mass
of wreckage from the barges, and
after a half hours battle, single-hand-
ed and alone, brought the unconscious
man ashore.
He had not recovered his breath be-
fore he iiscerned through a rift IN
the spume another form, and once
more he vent into the surf. This time,
by reason of his exhaustion, his strug-
gle was a harder one, but he eventually
succeeded in saving the second man.
Placing both men under the lee of a
cliff he started back to the station to
give the alarm when he saw the third
negro in the waves. and, for the third
time plunged in and brought an uncon-
scious man ashore. Capps did not
cease his work until all three men had
heen cared for at the station and at
midnight he resumed his regular trick
at patrolling the storm-swept coast.
While nothing new is reported in the
way of wrecks on the coast, there is
absolutely no method of securing in
formation from points more than six
miles south of Virginia Beach, Inc
coast telegraph system is Frustrated
and it will be some days before com
can be restored.
The passenger steamer reported OH
the capes last night in dangerous po-
sition is thought to be the Old Domin-
ion steamer Hamilton from New YORK
Friday. The Hamilton reached Nor
folk at 4 o'clock this morning after
terrible experience in the gale. Inc
steamer was not damaged to any great
extent and will continue her schedule
but the suffering of the passengers
those in the steerage, was
locked in the bowels of the plunging
and lurching ship these foreigners
men. women and children, became PAN
,c-stricken and their shrieks of terror
could he heard above the gale. Many
of them were bruised by the tossing OF
the boat. and three received fractured
limbs. aside from other hurts. These
three are at the hospital here. Two
men and one woman.
Among the frst-class passengers, the
fear of death in the storm was as great
as among those below. Life preservers
were worn constantly by nearly every
one on board, and some women be-
came historical and collapsed. Few on
hoard expected the Hamilton would
survive the blow, but Capt. Boaz.
profiting by his experience in last
hurricane, kept the situation
in hand throughout and brought his
boat to her pier in safety.
Anchored off Virginia Beach with no
sign of life aboard, are two large sea-
going barges. Both are slowly but
surely dragging toward the beach and
unless there is further break in the
force Of the gale, both may be wrecks
before morning.
What fate has befallen their crews Is
YET TO develop. This afternoon two
tramp steamers, themselves battling
head on with the heavy sea, passed
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