The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1905-01-03
RESCUED BY LIFE SAVERS
After Three DAYS 81 Suspense the
Drumelzer's Crew Go Ashore.
THE STEAMERS BACK BROKEN

Steamship Strikes Fire Island Bar on
Long Island and sticks Fast-Her Cap
tain and Crew Stand ~ Her Until tho
Last--sandy Hook and Oak Esland Life
savers called Upon.
New York City Leaving their
stranded ship, a battered. rudderless.
derelict, with a broken back. to contend
alone with winters storms and giant
breakers on the Fire Island Bar Cap
tain Nicholson and his crew OF twenty
nine men were rescued from the Brit
ish freighter Drumelzicr by the life
savers Of the Sandy Hook and Oak
Island stations, after three trips which
are likely to go down in the annals OF
such deeds as among the most perilous
on record.
1t was not until late in the afternoon
that Captain Nicholson showed any dis
position to give up the valiant battle
with gales and ocean he had been
waging for three days for the mastery
OF his Inflated vessel by that time
k4C AdI Ot5cAA tAEpCA leu W llCtRAAJ ttAA 1As
crew with the exception of the officers
and small apprentice, who with the
determination OF man, vowed that he
would stick with his Captain to the
end, and resisted all the pleadings of
the life savers and his superi0rs, in
Guiding Captain Nicholson, who asked
him to leave
BY the time Captain Nicholson, who
was the last man on board his ship,
decided that ne had enough, it had
become plain to every man on board
the Drumelzier that the ship was
doomed, At daybreak on the second
day, while laboring heavily among the
breakers that ran mountain high and
pounded the bed of sand under her
hull the crew heard cannon-like re-
port way down In the depths.
The next moment there was a sud-
den bullying up of her decks amidships,
as though a volcanic eruption had oe-
CURED in her hold. The engine was
torn from it's fastenings and slid six
feet aft. The boiler slid Toward a
like distance. The stern buried itself
deep in the sand, with the result that
rudder and propeller were both ground
to pieces. Captain Nicholson needed
no further evidence to tell him that the
Drumelzier had broken her back and
that his fight with the ocean had been
lost.
There were six feet Of water in the
forward hold OF the vessel and eight
feet aft. The storeroon where the
ships provisions were kept, had been
flooded, and there was hardly anything
on board for the crew to eat Never
theless, when a string OF bunting was
discovered fluttering from the signal
,halyards of the Drumelzier, the signal
was not for life savers, but for boiler
makers.
The rescue Of the crew was effected
in three relays. Captain Nicholson was
not taken off until after nightfell.
Even then, though the ship seemed to
be on the verge of breaking up, he
seemed to find it difficult to part from
her For three days, while he and his
crew had stood by the wreck, it has
been swept by mountainous seas.
Through the long nights the only ray
of hope for the ships company shone
cut from the anchor lights Of the
wrecking tug that has borne her COM
pany.
The first batch of the crew to leave
the stranded vessel consisted Of fifteen
sailors and tiremen and two boys. They
were taken off by the life savers from
the Sandy Hook Station under the com
mand of Captain Patterson. and were
brought to New York Harbor on the
ocean going tug Catherine Moran. OF
the Moran Towing Line, which landed
them at the Atlantic Dock in Brooklyn
att o'clock in the evening.
1t is now conceded that the Drumel-
zier will be complete wreck.
1t will, in the opinion of the life saw
ers and surfmen, take weeks to remove
the cargo, as it will be possible to
work only between the oft-recurring
storms which sweep the Atlantic coast
at this season of the year.