, 1906-01-10
The BOARD OF TRADE
MEETS In WILDWOOD
Congress Awards a Gold Medal to
Capt. John Leonard, of An
glesea, for Bravery
A PUBLIC

An important meeting of the Wild
wood Board of Trade was held in the
borough hall last Wednesday evening
and "a partial program was mapped out
for the work of the coming summer.
There was a pretty good attendance
despite the rainy night. IL. w. Ryan,
president of the organization, presided
and Secretary Mcknight read the
minutes of the last meeting. Others
present were George w. Banks, T. c.
Hamilton, Clarence G. Eldredge, J.
Thompson Baker, r. Edwards, Charles
Schuck, Rev. l.. Myers, Rev. Samuel
Ward, E. H. Ryan, Mayor Baker,
Thomas M~artindale, and Jed Dubois.
President Ryan stated that one of the
objects of the meeting was to arrange
for II public demonstration at the
presentation of a gold medal presented
by act of Congress to Captain John
Leonard of Anglesea, in recognition
of his bravery in saving the lives of
everal sailors from the tug Spartan at
the time of a terrible storm in the Della
ware bay in September, 1903. 1t devel-
oped at the meeting that Thomas Mar
tindale happened to be at Mace's pier
when Mr.. Leonard brought in the
rescued sailors, and hearing the thrilling
story of the rescue enlised the services
of Congressman George d. McCreary,
of Philadelphia, as well as of Congress-
man John J.. Gardner, of this district,
the result being that Congress voted
the medal to Captain Leonard, the
same being now ready for presentation.
Mr.. Martindale described to the meet
ing in a most interesting way how the
facts in the Cast were gathered together
and the tediousness involved in getting
the required affidavits setting forth the
valiant deeds of Captain Leonard. In
this recital Mr.. Martindale was sup
ported by j. Thompson Baker, who as
sisted in the preparation of the afi-
davits and the preliminaries required
to bring the matter to the attention of
Congress. They told of the extreme
modesty of Captain Leonard in his
description of the rescue, how he did
not seem to realize the danger in which
himself and crew were placed. While
his own BOAT and crew were i'm the
gravest danger he said that the men
floating around in the water were in a
worse predicament and that it was his
duty to put forth every effort to save
them. The following account of the
rescue is taken from the JOURNAL of
the date of September Is, 1903:
"About five O'Clock on the afternoon
of Wednesday, September 10Th, John
Leonard, one of our local fishermen
and boatmen, arrived in the Anglesea
harbor with ten seamen which he pick
ed up out OF the ocean and probably
days ago Mr.. Leonard left for the fish
ing grounds located several miles out
to sea and was overtaken by the
terrible storm. After the storm abated
Mr.. Leonard started for shore and
picked up the seamen n by one. They
proved TO be a portion of the crew of
the tug Spartan of Philadelphia, COM
manded by Captain Chandler, of
Frankfort, Del. The rescued men
report that the tug struck on the
Brandywine shoals and foundered in
side of four minutes. The survivors, are
George Hudson, Steward; Dan Lingo,
second engineer; James Chamberlain,
oiler; Charles Anderson, oiler; John
Carey, deck hand; Oscar Anderson,
mess boy, and four Austrians whose
surnames are unknown.
''rhe lacerated arms of Steward Hud-
son tells the awful story of his long
struggle for six hours in the water
hanging on to an oar. He says hesaw
the Captain in the water with a Life
Preserver on but appeared TO be
struggling against death. The mate
jumped into a boat, but there not being
any oars he didn't think he could
maintain a balance long. He says not
in his twenty odd years of seafaring
life has he experienced such a gale. 1t
was pitiful to hear the h~eartrending
stories of the lei survivors relating
their struggle for life in the water with
but slight hope of being picked up, as
they were constantly drifting seward.
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