Omaha daily bee., 1911-01-11
LIFE BOATS ARE UNAVAILABLE
Guards Stand on Beach Unable to
Render Assistance.
CRAFT HELPLESS AGAINST GALE
Breakers Responsible for Large Prop
erty Loss in Addition.
ALL ARE BROKEN TO PIECES
stranded Vessels Are Quickly Torn
Asunder by Fifty-Mfie Gale
and All Hands on Board
Are Lost,

HIGHLAND LIGHT. Mass Jan 10.-'rhe
worst disaster off the coast Of Cape Cod
in many years occurred today on the bars
off the Peaked Hills. The life guards
stood on the beach with their boats and
other apparatus unable TO render assist
ance. while three coal-carrying barGes
were hurled to destruction and seventeen
men lost their lives in the surf.
The barges were the Treverton Corbn
and Pine Forest valued together at S125 OOo.
With the exception OF Captain Brown OF
the Treverton, who belonged in Lincoln
vile, Me, and Captain Hall OF the Pine
Forest, a Provincetown man, the drowned
sailors were Philadephisns.
As two of the barges, the Treverton and
COrbin, broke up very quickly, It is be-
lieved twelve lives were lost within an
hour after the barges broke away from the
tug Lykens this morning and went into
the breakers. Five other seamen were seen
clinging to the Pine Forest until mid-fore-
noon. when in attempting to reach shore
in their own little boat they we're hurled
into the pillows and lost.
The tug Lykens started from Philadelphia
last week with the Freverton for Portland,
the Corbin for Portsmouth and the Pine
Forest for Marblehead.
Hawscr Breaks.
The Lykens, with its tow. was off Nesett
late in the evening. II later met the fun
force OF the gale in the arm of the cape.
The llfe-saving patrol saw it standing off
shore TO avoid the Peaked Hin bars, but
darkness blotted It out four hours before
dawn. The gale increased in fury and
about 3 o'clock the long hawser astern of
the tug parted. The Lykens was then a
mile or more to the westward of the Peaked
Hill llfe-saving station.
The last watch OF the night patrol was
starting out from the Peaked Hin station
when he discovered wreckage in the
breakers. The crew was quickly sum
moned, but II was too dark to make out
anything. More flotsam came tumbling
on the beach, but there was nothing to
identify It.
At dawn a stranded barge, with single
mast. could be seen far out in The break
ers on the outer bar, while in the offing
hovcred tug, which afterwards proved to
be the I.yloens. The life savers soon real
ICED that no lifeboat could traverse those
500 yards of cross-whirling billows. Two
men were seen clinging to the rigging and
three others holding on to the house.
The other two barges had long since
broken up. The Lykens could not render
assistance on account of the heavy sea
and started for Princeton.
Last Fight for Life.
Shortly before 10 o'clock the men on the
Pine Forest were seen TO gather in
bunch. Before those on the shore realized
their purpose the little boat on top Of the
barge's house was cut loose. The five men
then tumbled in for the last fight for life,
but before they had grasped their oars a
big comber came rolling round the stern
of the barge and over them. That was the
end.
The Treverton was the largest barge OF
the three and carried a crew of seven men.
with Captain F. l. Brown of LincOlnvilie,
Me. in command 1t was bound TO Port
land.
The Corbin carried a crew of five men,
and was commanded by Captain c. M.
Smith of Philadelphia. It was bound to
Portsmouth, n. II.
/ The Pine Forest which was the smallest
OF the tow, and carried five men, was
commanded by Captain NJ W. Hall of
Princeton. and wss bound for Marblehead,
Mass,
vessel stranded orr Atlantic city.
! ATLANTIC CITY, n. j., Jan 1O.-Signals
/ from members of the Barnegate life saving
crew at sea established the identity of the
vessel that stranded last night off that
station as the Harold b. COusens Captain
A. c. williams OF St. Johns, N. B., bound
from Portland for Washington with a
! cargo Of laths. The schooner carried a
| crew OF seven men.
The Cousens is deep in the sand The
crews OF Forked river, Loveladies island
and Barnegate life saving stations stood
| by the stranded craft all night Attempts
to pull it off when the sea calmed shortly
after high tide this morning proved futile
II is feared the Cousens will go to pieces
! before Wrecking tugs reach IL