The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1912-06-06

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and the beach that lay before it was well-nigh
impossible After twenty minutes Of grim effort
it was finally gained only to find that the vessel
had passed 1t and was drifting on.
Perhaps the best account Of the remainder OF
the terrible march to its ultimate end is given
in the report Of the service Of 1880, which says
Of It:
From first to last the difficulties Of the life
savers and the perils which beset them never
slackened moment The wheels Of the cart,
in coast phrase, 'sanded down rapidly-that
is, sank so quickly in the nltrated soil-that the
conveyance had to be kept on the move lest 1t
should be lost. Often the cart had to be partial
ly unloaded and portions Of the apparatus car
Eied by the crews to tighten 1t sufficiently to make
progress possible. and at other times the men
would have to fling themselves upon the wheels
and hold them with all their strength to prevent
the cart from being capsized by the inequalities
Of the submerged ground or the overwhelming
inburst Of the sea rushing high over the axles.
"The escapes were numerous. 1t was with
great difficulty that the could keep their feet
in this constant onslaught and pelting Of drift
wood But not man fell away or finched from
the work before him.
"Not the least difficult of their tasks was that
Of keeping the lines, and especially the guns and
powder, dry in the universal drench around them,
and it is difficult to understand how they con.
trved it; for, aside from the number of actual
f1rings, wherever momentary pause of the YES
sci as she grazed bottom, or slowing Of her
motion, offered opportunity for action, at least
a dozen times, and probably more, the cart was
hurriedly unloaded the nearest eminence the
gun planted and the shotline arranged for the
effort, when the wreck would suddenly roll away
upon her course, and the would have to
load the cart and toll on again after her. In this
wav and wit into
down along the beach to station No. 10 and a
quarter Of mile beyond 1t, when chance Of
fered for another shot; but the line parted. The
crew again moved stubbornly It was now
noon, and suddenly the man SO long seen hang
ing in the rigging fell into the and was gone.
The crew still followed the vessel with unslack-
ened activity. Half an hour later they saw
other man drop lifeless from the ratlines
"Laboring forward now for the rescue Of the re-
naming ive they suffered misfortune In stag
gerng and floundering through one of the worst
sluiceways with the cart, the gun toppled off into
the flood and was lost. A desperate search was
made at once and finally 1t was found in four
five feet of water fshed up and wiped dry, and
carried thenceforth by the stout keeper his
shoulder A man was dispatched back to No. IL
for dry shot-line, while the crew, moved on to
a point three-quarters of mile below the sta
ton, where they got another chance to fire q
shot, which, however. fell short, the tide having
forced the firing party farther and farther back
the hills they advanced, and the line. too.
being weighted with moisture.
"The cart was again reloaded, and the march
resumed. A mile below the station the man over
took them with the dry shot-line and, chance Of
ferng, the last shot was fired. This time 1t was
a success! The line flew between the foremost
and the jib.stay, and, the cut sweeping the blight
of the line in to the side Of the vessel the sailors
got hold Of 1t and fastened 1t to the fore and
main rigging.
tho ccho stin IN drift and
ROLL nothing could yet be done, but while the
greater part Of the force loaded up the cart and
trudged on with it, three or four kept fast hold
of the shore end Of the shotline and kept pace
with the wreck in leash At the end of another
quarter Of mile the vessel suddenly struck the
tide setting NORTH stopped, swung head offshore
and worked back to her anchors under the comb
of the breakers. The time had come at last; and
the whip-ine, with It's appurtenances, was bent
to the shot-line, hauled aboard, and made fast
by the tail of the block to the mainmast head
1.-THE wreck now slued around broadside to the
sea and rolled frightfully The hawser followed
the whip-line on board, and the breeches buoy
rugged on, but the vessel rolled that it
impossible to set the hawser up on shore in
the usual manner, so 1t through the
buls-eye in the sand-anchor, while several men
held to the end to give and take with each roll
of the vessel The work of hauling the sailors
from the wreck was now begun with electric en-
ergy After two men were landed, the vessel
took the ground, but the circumstances increased
rather than diminished her rolling, and some con-
ception of this powerful motion may be derived
from the fact that in one instance the breeches-
buoy with man in 1t swung in the off-shore roll
fully fifty feet in the air.
"The strain and friction upon the hawser were
so great that the lignumvitae bull'seye through
which it ran at the sand-anchor, despite the hard
of the wood, was worn fully half an inch
deep during 30 minutes of Within those 30
minutes. however. the five men were safely land
ed. the last man getting out Of the buoy at half
past two"
And so closes the story Of that which In the
department at Washington, IL spoken Of casually
az "A nights work on the jersey coast"