Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-04

against the rocks With force that unstepped the
manmast instantly killing of the crew.
In that moment OF blind terror. one man kept
his head The second mate was a man OF resource
He instantly set about making the murderous Jetty
a of escape. wicked surf was running on
the rocks; but, with courage born OF despair, the
mate plunged overheard with line and contrived
ride in safety the back of a breaker, and
climbed to the trestle of the jetty, where he made
fast his line calling to his sh1pmates to come over
the rope. 1t not an inviting excurslon but,
partly bv passing hand over hand across the line,
and partly hauled across in rude rope sling, seven
people. woman with broken spine, managed
Il land the etty-a frail open, timber affair,
slippery with spray. and trembling under the shock
of the At this point the line gave way, and the
poor fellows still left were once more cut OFT from hope
Meanwhile the lite savers OF the Humboldt Bay
station stralnlng every nerve to reach the
wreck Again and again the current turned them
aside, and when at last they succeeded in landing
the foot of the etty there remained the task OF
hauling their heavy apparatus up the rocks to the
treste, twenty feet above, and making their way,
SO burdened, out on the slippery horizontal ladder
through the darkness of the night. SuTtman Nelson
undertook the journey with the Lyle gun-one hun
dred and seventy-five pounds dead weight-on his
shoulder and brought it safely abreast of the wreck
trestle already crowded with distracted men and
women would seem we'll nigh impossible task;
yet somehow the incredible thing was done. line
made fast to the wreck, the breeches buoy
rugged, and fourteen men-all that were left on
board-were hauled across the boiling surf.
Bat they were not yet saved There was still
they would be firm ground. The ties We're
fully three feet apart and quite invisible in the lnky
blackness and below them sheer fall OF twenty
feet They had to creep by sense of feeling along
one slender stringer with the strong surf lea olng
about their feet. Deafened by the howl of the tenn
pest moving each foot in dread, they crawled IN
forlorn procession through the night, the surfnen
carrying the in ured woman and fireman with
broken leg. The treste seemed to have end.
Again and again it seemed that they must give up;
but dire necessity drove them Dazed, exhausted,
sick with terror. they yet neither slipped broke
down 1t is matter of record that the last of that
miserable company finally crept into safety
Keeper Griesser's Heroism
TT was during of those ugly gales which lash
Lake Erie to fury, that man was reported cling
ing to piles five hundred feet from shore.
No boat could ride that If the man to be
saved, it must be by swimming the vicious, lashing
surf between. Unwilling to order out any member
of his crew Keeper Griesser of the Buffalo station
took line himself and called for one volunteer.
At the first trial of the surf the two were hurled
heavily back on the beach In they went again,
and this time the surfman flung against pile
and disabled; but the keeper stuck it out. Now
forging ahead, swept resstlessly back making
fifty feet to lose hundred now cutting through the
breakers to get into the friendly pull of the under
tow. it cost him almost an hours fight to make that
five hundred feet.
Not daring to approach the piles, he flung the
man a line, bidding him secure it round his waist
and let go. By superhuman effort, for he
the edge of exhaustion, the man obeyed but in
so doing fouled the rope on the piles Just at this
moment struck the keeper full and knocked
him shoreward two hundred feet at one blow. But
there fight left in Gresser still Painfully work
ing his way back he managed after fifteen minutes
maneuvering to free the line. Shouting to the
wretched fellow to jump he signaled to the beach,
and saw the unconscious man drawn into safety
before he himself swan YEARLY back to land, to
sink exhausted at the waters edge.
Ten Men Saved by One
DERHAPS the most spectacular bit of life saving of
recent years achieved by Surfman Erasmus
S Midget of the Gull Shoal station, Hatteras. On
the night of August II, 1900, the full fury of the
hurricane that ended the Reppard was central off