The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-17
SAVED FROM GROUNDED SHIP.
TWENTY-THREE PASSENGERS GET
ASHORE FROM THE CEARENSE.

aNNSs NbF
Needed-Passengers Wait TIL Sea Goes
Down n Little, Then Are ROwed TO
Beach and Their Baggage After Them.
The Booth Line steamship Cearense, four
teen days from Para, with twenty-three
passengers and a cargo Of rubber, sugar,
coffee and nuts, grounded on Island Beach.
New Jersey, between the Toms River and
Island Beach life saving stations, at 4 o'clock
yesterday morning in a binding snow
storm.
Her skipper, Capt. w. 8. Mason, had lost
his bearings in the observation Of more than
two days Of dirty weather, in which he had
had no glimpse Of the sun. He thought he
was much nearer to New Sandy Hook than
he really was and was surprised when dawn
came to find himself within several hundred
yards Of the booming surf, which he and
his passengers could plainly hear. Although
the skipper had made soundings at fire.
quent intervals he was unawar OF the
nearness Of the Jersey beach until a sudden
shoaling made him put his helm hard over.
He was too late. The steamship had straight
ened out parallel with the shore a~ndploughed
deeply into the sand with her bow to the
north.
The patrol Of the Island Beach station
had seen her dimly a few minutes after she
struck and he burned his Coston signal and
ran back to his station. The surf was then
very rough, as a no~rtheasterly gale had been
flashing it into fury for two days. Launch-
ing a boat was out of the question. The
life savers cart with the brooches buoy
apparatus was run down to a point OPP
IA ~ t---l~I .Ltn onI m limo xpad
shot across her. She burned a flare light
to show her location. The wind began to
die down after daylight. however. and
Capt. Mason decided it was unnecessary
to take his passengers of by the breeches
buoy line which had been rugged between
ship and beach. A member Of the crew
came ashore, getting a duoking as he shot
through the breakers, and telephoned to
the agent of the Booth line at SO Gold street.
The passengers were not ambitious to try
the novelty of reaching safety by breeches
buoy and they waited until the afternoon,
when the surf had gone down enough to
allow the life savers to go to the Cearense
in their boats.
All the passengers we're landed at Sea-
side Park in the surf boats. Among them
was the daughter of the G overnor-Genera
Of Barbados, where the Cearense stopped
on her way from Para. The passengers
said that they had had a very rough ex-
perienoe in the two days preceding the
stranding. The ship had run into the big
storm that r%ecurved, after getting down
to Texas from the Pacific, several days
ago, and swept across the Southern States
into the Atlantic, roaring up the coast.
There was no panic aboard when the ship
struck, but there was much excitement.
All the passengers were awakened by the
shock Of the impact.
The Merritt Chapman Wrecking Com
pany sent the steamer I. j. Merritt to the
Cearense and she got there before the pas
sengers had been taken off. The sea was
then comparatively smooth, last night
the Cearense was broadside on the beach
and was heading south, having been swung
around by a strong tide and wind in the
early morning. The skipper and crew de-
cided to stay aboard.
The wreckers said that the Cea rense was
in a bad position and that much of her cargo
would nave to be lightered before she could
be hauled off. The !. j. Merritt and the
tug North America from the Delaware
Breakwater made f~ruitless efforts to move
her at high water yesterday afternoon. The
wrecking tug Chapman, with two barges
to receive the cargo, went down to the Gear
ense last night.
j. G.. W Havens, superintendent of the
life saver Of the district, Capt. Hulse and
Capt. Ware, respectively Of the Island
Beach and Toms River stations, made
all the passengers who did not come to
this city comfortable in the stations. They
also brought ashore baggage needed by
the passengers. There was no time after
the stranding that the passengers and
crew were in real peril, although many
thought they we're.
A report that the surf was so heavy that
all hands had been taken off in the breeches
buoy came to New York and was published,
but Supt. Havens declared that it was not
30. The Merritt Chapman company said
that when their wrecking steamer went
alongside the Cearense late in the morning
the sea was very smooth, although the surf
was rather rough. The life savers already
had launche ed their boats, and there was no
reason except extreme care why they should
have rugged the brooches buoy. They had
rugged it UP 80 they would be sure of get
ting of all hands in case sea and gale had
not moderated.
The wreckers think that it will be several
days before the Cearense can be wormed
out Of the grip Of the sand. Hedge anchors
have been set out seward and cables laid,
and at high tide this morning the ships
Own winches and the power OF the tugs
will be used simultaneously in an effort to
get the liner into deep water. She is a steel
ship Of Las tons and was formerly the
West Indian. She was built at Barrow in
1891.