The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-21
DEATH ALWAYS
CLOSE At HAND
ShipWreCking One of the Most
Dangerous Occupations
Followed by Man.
RISK PROVES ATTRACTIVE
PAY NOT LARGE, BUT PLACES
ARE ALWAYS FILLED.
RISK PROVES ATTRACTIVE

New York, Dec. 20.-RObbing DaVy
Jones locker-that is the business of the
-.yrecker," whose profession is at once
The most romantic, the most thrilling anG
the most dangerous of all which are piled
ou the Seven Seas. His part it is to res
cue ships which have been wrecked. sunk
-n or beached by the storms which they
encounter, and to bring to profitable seFv-
ise once more the vessels at which the
ocean has grasped. His il is to Crap
pie with and thwart Father Neptune.
Hundreds Of thousands OF persons
throughout the country have read, for
Instance. Of the recent wreck of the Unit
ed States cruiser Yankee on the Hen
and Chickens reef on the Cape Cod shore.
To pull her from the rocks on which she
was impaled the government has spent
over 100000, only TO see the vessel, once
saved, turn turtle and sink, thus neces-
stating raising her again. So much the
public knows. But of the men who
snatched this vessel, and who annually
snatch thousands of vessels from the de-
vOuring NAV of the ocean. and of their
profession, not one person in ten thousand
knows.
the coast line of this country. Atlantic
Gulf and Pacific. the wrecker is plying
his romantic prOfCsSivn-the most danger
GUS, as II is the least known. of all ma
rine trades. For the ship WreCkeT has
profession which he carries out on the
wreckIng shin where he lives. What his
career is. its dangers and work, are de-
scribed by A w Rolker in Appleton's
Magazine
Always in Danger.
nc career of the ship wrecker." saws
Mr.. Rolker consists Of a series of hard
ships and adventures and accidents and
narrow escapes from the first day he
cnlists with q big Wrecking COMPANY up
To the time he is brought ashore from
the grim ship he calls home crippled
or fatally injured. OF all the professions
that demand heavy toll of human life
none. not even mining or powder max
ing, IS as dangerous as the one of these
wreckers- Every year these daring men
who brave storm and wave and tempest
10 save the stranded liner to raise the
suuken ocean greyhound to rescue the
ship impaled upon rocks and. if nothing
else. TO SdlVc what valuable cargo may
bc removed from helpless wrecks. meet
death by the score. Many of them ex-
posed often for days and nights to the
icy blasts of winter seas. to driving bliz--
yards and to drenching storms that bite
10 the marrow. Succumb to pneumonia.
others at work on pitching tossing
harges have legs or arms shattered du-
ring the risky operations of removing
masts or of singing wrecking pumps or
other castings that weigh tons. Others
have hands or feet so dreadfully frozen
that they must be amputated And still
others are wiped out of existence after
suffering hours Of untold agony and ex-
poSure before the eyes of their helpless
comrades"
Job Proves Allurinq.
How human creatures may be induced
10 accept such life Of hardship and TO
lake the risks OF working in a profess
sion where IL is almost nothing but a
mere question OF time before they look
mutlatton or a narrowing death in face
seems no less than a psychological prob
lem. sun, despite the fact that the wages
OF the average wrecker are not more than
ne can earn as a sailor before the mast
none of the big Wrecking companies ever
runs short Of good men. The very dan
ger and the very excite ment of Juggling
with death lures strong men into the
Wrecking crews, just as il lures thousands
To enlist in regiments during time of war
lust as II lures men TO risk burial alive
within the shield Of an under-river tun-
mel Like these tunnelers, the wrecker
has long since ceased to think of the
chances he is taking. He has risked so
successfully that he begins to regard the
danger OF his work as a mere everyday
affair, and when. once in while. he is
10lted to the soul by seeing his COM
rades perish miserably before his ewes
even then 70 his unimaginative brain
there seems no extraordinary chance of
danger.
OF what type Of men do these wrecking
crews consist OF several distinct tyDaS.
in general, of the sort born 10 live nv
Drawn and muscle. Of unafraid men who
seem 10 DEFY the uncomfortable clements
men who sometimes for months live To-
eether aboard a wrecking schooner with
out setting foot on shore; men who would
not close an eye in a decent bed for want
Sl LhS Ieel OF a pitching, plunging board
bunk beneath them.