The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1905-01-05
RESCUED BY LIFE SAVERS
After Three Days Of Suspense the
0rumeIzier's Crew Go Ashore.
THE STEAMERS BACK BROKEN

Steamship Strikes Fire Island Bar on
Long Island and Sticks Fast-HerC Cap.
tain and Crew Stand by Her Until the
L~ast-Sandy Hook and Oak Island Life
Savers Called Upon.
New York City. = Leaving their
stranded ship, a battered, rudderless
derelict, with Il 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
lsh freighter Drumelzier by the life
savers of the Sandy Hook and Oak
Island stations, after three trips which
are likely to so down in the annals of
such deeds as among the most perilous
on record.
Ii was not until late in the afternoon
that Captain Nicholson showed any dis
position to give up the lila battle
with gales and ocean he had been
waging for three days for the mastery
of his Inflated vessel. By that time
he had been deserted by nearly all his
crew with the exception OF the officers
and Il small apprentice, who, with the
determination of a man, vowed that he
would stick with his Captain to the
end. and resisted all the pleadings OF
the life savers and his superiors, in
GLIDING Captain Nicholson, who asked
him TO leave.
Ry the time Captain Nicholson, who
was the last man on board his snip,
decided that he a enough, it had
,.,n3n nlain IN nVnrE man on 0Oar0
the Drumelzier that the ship was
doomed. At daybreak on the second
day. while laboring heavily among the
breakers that san mountain high and
pounded the bed of sand under her
hull. the crew heard a cannOn-lKe re-
port way down in the depths.
The next moment there was a sud-
den buiging up of her decks amidSh1ps,
as though a volcanic eruption had Oc-
CURED in her hold. The engine was
torn from its fastenings and slid SIX
feet aft. The boiler slid forward a
like distance. The stern buried itself
deem 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
DrumeIzier had broken her back and
that his fight with he ocean had been
lost.
There were six feet, of water in the
forward hold of the vessel n eight
feet aft. The stOrerOOm, where the
Ship's provisions were kept, had been
Hooded, and there was hardly anything
on board for the crew to eat. Never
theless, when a string OF bunting was
discovered f1uttering 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 of until after nightfall.
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 he only ray
OF hope for the ships, company shone
out 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 firemen and two boys. They
were taken off by the life savers from
The Sandy Hook Station under the COM
mand of Captain Patterson, n 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
at Z o'clock in the evening.
1t is now conceded that the Drumel-
zier will be a 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 his season of the year.