Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-03-22
LIVES AND
 VESSELS That Went Down Before inc New England Storms the Past
 Winter 199 PERSONS DEAD Fifty Four Ships Lost, While Many Others We're Driven Ashore or on the Rocks and Badly
 Damaged.
That Went Down Before inc New
1ss PERSONS DEAD

Boston, March 22.-An appalling total of 199 lives and 54 ships have been sacrificed to the storms and treacherous coasts of New England and the maritime provinces for the winter just ended, according to sta tistics compiled by the Associated Press to-day. Of the ships, no ac- count has been taken of the dozens that have been driven ashore but later fioated and repaired at an ex- pense including the charges of the wrecking companies, but little less than the cost of a new craft, and the figures do not include the loss in Connecticut waters. The long list of dead is swollen out of all proportion to those of many previous years by the sinking of the steamer Larch- mont in Block Island sound the night of February II with an estimated loss of 150 lives. This was the one great disaster of the year in these waters, the remaining victims of the winter having been picked off princi- pally in ones and twos, the largest loss of life in any other single wreck occurring in the laundering this month of the Newfoundland schooner Harry Louis with her entire crew of eight men.
 While the winter has been one of the coldest and most clustering for years on land, seldom has the ex- treme cold affected the mortality rec ord of the sea more than the season just passed. In the medical report on the Larchmont horror the physi. clans found that in nearly all in stances the victims had met their death by freezing. In the provinces particularly has the cold finished the work of the waters and sailors reach. ing shore from their stricken shir have succumbed to the icy blasts or some bleak and uninhabited beach.
 Next to Block Island sound with the overwhelming balance of the Larchmont victims to its record, and with only two other lives lost in its waters. comes the wild coast of New. foundland with nineteen lives sacri. feed. Cape Cod and Massachusetts, bay have been responsible for the loss of thirteen lives, Nova Scotia eleven and Maine four.
 As usual. the Nova Scotian coast has proved the most disastrous tC shipping, this year claiming sixteen vessels. Newfoundland was not faI behind with fourteen craft. Nine vessels have been wrecked in Massa' chusetts waters, six on the granite ledges of Maine. eight within the vi cinity of Rhode Island and one or the limited coast of New Hampshire In nearly every instance the loss has fallen upon the coastwise fleet vessels of American register being the heaviest losers, with thirty-five ships and 175 lives. while the British loss was eighteen ships and twenty. four lives. The French are the onl, other nationality represented in the list, the barkentine Emile and Req having been wrecked on the Nova Scotian coast in December. The schooners being in greater numbers have suffered the most. thirty-si, being lost as compared with twelve
 barges. five steamers and the bark. entine above mentioned.
 February was the stormiest month when 166 lives were lost. and ever excluding the Larchmont list it still had sixteen to compare with thirteen iI,ao tNss sx, ranuarx th. aawt xaoi- ing month in point of severe weather and casualties.
 That more lives have not been losi has been due largely to the govern ment's elaborate system of safe guarding shipping through the weather bureau with its storm warn ings and the coast guard. Rarely has the courage and devotion of the members of the United States life saving service been better demon. strated than in the work of the Block Island life saving crews in the Larchmont wreck. The I.archmoni was rammed by the schooner Harry Knowlton off Watch Hill. and while the crew of the knowlton succeeded lu tdftnE NHtu-rft. Ul their vessel. the Larchmont went down inside of half an hour. The night was one of the coldest of tho winter. Of the scores of passenger and crew who left the ship in boats on rafts and pieces of vrecksge dozens died from freezing and ths survivors. nearly dead themselves drifted heIplessly ashore on BIoek Island Here for over forty-eighi hours with their clothes frozen ts their bodies. without sleep and vitf little to eat. the life savers paced their beats or vaded into the icy surf waist deep to drag ashore som. survivor or some corpse in it's cofir of ice Of more than 15o people or board the Larchmont. ninefeer reached shore alive and two diet later.
 Among the other examples of th. heroism of z body of men may bs mentioned the pluck of the engineer. and nremen ef the British sseamel Strsfhcona. to whom thirty-eishi passengers owe their lives The ves se, piled between HalIfsx. N. S. ana Cuyrboro. N- g. On the ni<kt oI Derpnber f2 nre broke oat On n, s1sanes and with 1anes ssrrosn1in1 ] t1s engine roon- the nen sts<k c < ..