The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1912-05-09

than there were only four left in the rigging
Two of the six last seen had gone to join those
who had pershed before them.
Hope of rescue before morning was gone
The lives of the four men who still remained
were in the hands of God. Could they live
throughout the frightful night? None might say
The watchers on shore at intervals burned signal
lights to let the miserable wretches on the Place
know they had not been abandoned.
At last day came. Twenty-four hours had
elapsed since the schooner stranded and those
on shore strained their eyes in the ragged light
to learn the toll the night had taken
1t was soon apparent. But two men remained
alive Two others had been claimed by the
storm.
The life-savers were themselves in a sad plight.
For more than thirty hours they had been on the
beach in clothes that were little more than
masses of ice, without food save pals of coffee
that were occasionally hurried from the station.
Often they totered unsteadily in their frozen oil
skins as they went about their duties But reel
ing staggering, they placed the surf gun and fired
a shot which fell within few feet of the two
poor fellows in the rigging of the schooner. But
the men made no effort to get the line.
Still hopeful another shot was fired laying
its line across the hull of the ship. And then the
men in the rigging appeared to give heed for the
first time to the efforts that were being made to
rescue them. Very feebly and slowly one man de-
scended the shrouds. The tide had fallen off, and
the section Of the ship where the line lay was
above water Working his way to the line, the
man pulled on it weakly but his efforts were fu-
tile. In few moments he crawled back to the
shrouds.
The breechesbuoy was then abandoned. The
short daylight died. Night came on again and the
gale abated slightly. There nothing left
but the surf boat. The feat was at least possible
now, for the sea was lower.
It was a splendid battle and fearful one. But
bod Half mad
boat lay alongside the shattered schooner; the
two men in the rigging relied to the rail of the
stranded vesesl and topped lifelessly into it. The
curtain fell on one of the grimmest tragedies OF
the service.
The rescued men were William Stevens and
Soren Nelson. They were nearly dead. Nelson's
feet were frozen solid in his boots During the
forty-eight hours they clung to the rigging of the
rfated craft while the life-savers battled to
save them, they had fought death by beating
each others faces with their fists to shake off the
lethargy of the cold. Stevens recovered, but
poor Nelson died after having his legs amputated
and lingering miserably for six months.
The wreck of the schooner Place is typical
example of what the men in the United States
Iifesaving service are called upon to face.
The night of February 81, 1904, was memorable
because of its extreme cold and wildness. Dur
ing the height of the storm, shortly before mid
night the schooner Benjamin C. Cromwell Of Port
land, Maine, stranded Just east of the Bellport
lifesaving station, Great South Beach. Three
crews of lfesaving stations hurried to the scene
to take seven men from the rigging of the wreck.
ed vessel All efforts to accomplish this, how
ever, failed, and at noon of the day following the
night of stranding, the vessels masts went by the
board with the exception of the foremast, in
which all the crew save one had taken refuge.
This single man who had not followed the ex-
ample of his comrades was washed overheard