The Washington herald., 1908-05-09
SAVED FROM WRECK
All Aboard the Peter Rick
merS Are Rescued.
SHIP IS A SORRY SIGHT
Night of Peril Followed by Moders-
tiOn OF Sea So Boats Could be
Launched - Survivors Exhausted.
seventy-three Men in All Were
on Board the Battered Hulk.

Freeport, Long Island. May s.-All
! those who were imperiled yesterday
aboard the German ship Peter Riekmers.
which has been stranded off Short Beach
1 for week, got ashore safe this morning.
/ Altogether there were seventy-three
men on board during the storm which
/ battered the vessel, and the only one to
show an injury was a Norwegian seaman,
/ He was thrown to the deck by big
wave yesterday. and had trouble in walk
ing to-day.
! OF the men on board, thirty-three were
of the Rickmers crew and forty were
Merritt Chapman wreckers. The wreck
| ers came ashore this morning in their
own boats, which they had strung to the
/ ships davits. The crew, with Capt
/ Bachman and two mates in the last boat.
were brought to the beach by the surf
boat of the Short Beach station. This
boat was IN charge of Capt. Steven Aus
tin, of the Point Lookout station
ship Is a Sorry Wreck.
The Rickmers is now somber spec
tacle. She lies about 500 yards off shore.
broadside to the beach, headed little
south Of east. She is mass Of tangled
rigging and tattered sails. The sails were
| furled, but tore out of their lines Her
lower masts are standing, but the upper
masts, with the exception OF the jigger
| topmast. have fallen. and hang inertly
to the deck.
/ The masts and yards were of steel. and
when they crashed down yesterday they
punched through the deck houses like
paper. Marvelously no one was killed in
/ the rain Of tremendously heavy pieces
/ One OF the yards plunged through the
/ pilot house amidship wrecking the steam
/ steering gear and also piercing the deck.
'She is a proper wreck on deck, said
/ James Reid, a Scotch sailor. one of the
! first ashore this morning. Reid also said
/ that when the pumps were sounded this
/ morning there were twenty-one feet Of
water In tie hold
THree Pigs Left on Board.
After the last boatIoad had been brought
ashore by the life-savers the only living
thing left on board were three pigs. small
/ porkers that had been intended for the
captains table ON the trip TO Rangoon.
/ From the peak lines the German ensign
/ few at half mast. The weather was still
bad. A frothing surf rolled in noisily
over the bar, hurting great quantities of
water over the vessels outer rail The
/ sky was a duh gray ami the combers of
shore CHASTITY white. A northeast wind
/ bore along a misty rain. and when the
+ people struggled across the wet beaches
1 toward the lfe-saving station the bedrag-
Z 81 fin FU,g
The Captains story.
! When Capt Bachman landed from the
surf boat he was a sorry man. He shook
/ his head when asked if he thought the
/ vessel could be recovered Il don't
know" he said; there is seventeen or
eighteen feet Of water in her hold"
! Capt Bachman is about ifyy-two years
Old man with a small. sandy beard and
mustache. He had been walking about
distractedly yesterday. wringing his
hands. with the crew stunning the old
man az much as possible.
What could We do?" said he to-day
referring to his ships first stranding.
| We had a fair wind in thick weather
/ and saw no land. We were about TO wear
| ship when we struck"
The Peter Rickmers is the largest sail
/ ing vessel that ever grounded on the
| Long Island shore. She was a four
masted, squaTe-rigger. built of steel. and
Of 2,S25 tonnage Her length was S32 feet,
and she was built in 1859 at Port Glas-
gov, Scotland. at cost Of &60000.
She left New York the last OF April
bound for Rangoon Burmah. with
cargo Of III, eco cases of oil, under charter
10 the Standard OF Company. She
grounded on a bar off Zachs Inlet on
April 80. when only a few hours out.
The Rickmers has changed position
several times since she struck, each time
being driven farther inshore. She now
lies a scant quarter OF a mile of the
Short Beach life-savng station. and q
little to the west of zach's Inlet She is.
therefore about twelve miles west of
Fire Island Inlet and a few miles east OF
Jones Inlet which is the entrance 10
Hampstead Bay.
The sand bars off the south shore OF
Long Island are famous graveyard for
vessels and the roll Of the blackened
hulls which lie buried there is a long
one.