The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1904-01-29
..!][' THE LIFE SAVERS
Heard Voices of Doomed Men But
Could Not Reach Them.
.DRowNEDIN SIGHT OF FRIENDS.
The Complete Wreck Of Four
~ nIasted Schooner in Long
Island Beach. Eight
Lives Lost.

Eight lives were lost in the wreck
Saturday morning off Quogue, Long
Island, Of the four-masted schoone,
Augustus Hunt, coal-laden, for Boston
from Norfolk, Va. OF the crew of 1u
only two men were saved. Second Mate
George Ebert of Cleveland, O., and a
Swede who was unconscious when
washed on the beach. The vessel
was in command Of Capt. Robert Blair
when she left for Boston. Soon after
midnight, during dense fog, the
schooner stra anded few hundred feet
from the beach and about a mile west
of the Quogue life saving station. A
life saving p;ttrolman heard the cries
for help of those on board and sum-
moned the crew. For hours the life
savers were able to hear the cries of
the men on the vessel, which was near
at hand, but buried in the fog. They
were absolutely unable &C nelp the
men. Time and again they launched
their boat, only to have it hurled back
to the shore by the heavy surf. The
life savers adSO had recourse to life
lines, but the shots carrying the lines
either fell wife OF Snort OF the invisi-
BILE mark.
Soon after daylight masses Of wreck
age began to come ashore, indicating
that the vessel was rapidly breaking
up. About noon spar with Il man
clinging to it was seen tossing in the
onter>line Of the breakers. After a
line had been shot across it and made
fast by the man he was pulled ashore
and proved to be Second Mate Ebert
a few minutes later another sailor
was seen on a mass of wreckage and
half dozen life savers, forming a
human chain, dashed into the surf
and drew him ashore. He was un-
conscious and continued in that con-
dition at a late hour Saturday night.
The cries Of those remaining on the
wreck continued to grow fainter du-
ring the afternoon and finally ceased
altogether. One body drifted ashore,
but it was so disfgured as to be unrec-
ognizable. 1t is believed that only
the bow of the vessel remains on the
bar and from this the exhausted sea-
men dropped one by one until all were
swept away.
Mate Ebert after being taken to the
life saving station, said that the YES
sci stranded in the log, having mis-
- ssiv5ri: sfile nIuaecock light for t}i..
light of a steamer. The officers be-
lieved they were at least 25 miles of
shore and in no danger when the yes
sci suddenly struck and began to
pound to pieces in the heavy sea that
i, was running on the bar. Great waves
swept the vessels decks, the masts
snapped off like pipestems. and with
the rigging, were carried away by the
tremendous seas. AS the hull began
to go to pieces the members of the
crew were driven toward the bow,
where they hung on rs best they could
Ebert was clinging to some wreckage
on the deck when the whole mass
went overheard, carrying him with it.
Ebert was unable to give the names
OF any of the crew, most of whom
were shipped at Norfolk. The body
OF the man washed ashore was Satur-
day night identified rs that Of Charles
Hudson Of Maiden, Mass. The rescu-
ed sailor revived sufficiently to be able
to say that he was John Somer, a
native of Finland, who was one of
the survivors OF the wreck of the
schooner Jos. II. Pharo, near Cape
Charles on Jan. 2, and who shipped
on the Hum at Norfolk. Another
unidentified lody came ashore.