Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-08-02

- uuuxv- seatrafac in the vicinity, but 1t
is chiefly due to Cape Cod. It
Is this crooked finger of land that has beckoned
q thousand ships to their doom and which in the
hoows of it's dunes holds many tragic story
of lives snuffed out in desperate grapple with
and wind.
The night of Tuesday March II, 1902,
wild and stormstrewn. Running up along the
coast the ocean-gong tug Sweepstakes was max
ing bad weather with her tow of the two big
barges Wadena and John G. Fitzpatrick For
hours the tripleexpansion engines Of the tug had
been churning her screw in the drift of the
heavy head and shortly before daylight her
captain discovered that she was making no head
way He then decided to lie to and, while feel
ing about for anchorabe in the gloom, the
barges ran aground on the edge of Shovefu
Shoal, off the southern end of Monomoy island,
Massachusetts.
When daylight came, the Of the Monomoy
life saving station boarded the barges, but finding
1t impossible to float them on the flood tide, took
their crews ashore.
1t six days later that the disaster
Cured. Wreckers sent from Boston were at
work the barges. The tug Peter Smith was
the ground having replaced the Sweepstakes
On the night of the 10Th the weather thickened
and a gale swept in from the sea.
The night passed without incident, but early
on the morning of the 18th Keeper Eldrdge Of
the Monomoy station received telephone from
the captain of the Smith asking him If every
thing was all right on the WaQena. his alarmed
Eldridge, as he did not know any had been
left on the barge all night He started at
for the point of the island, three miles away, to
look over the situation The Wadena lay half
a mile off shore from the point. She seemed to
be riding easily on the bar but the distress was
flying from her rigging This was signal Ed
ridge could not ignore
1t was a terrific pull through the breakers that
rolled in across the shoals to the Wadena, but
the lifesavers accomplished it and put their boat
under the lee of the barge at about noon. Keep
er Eldridge then directed the men to get into the
surfboat and told TIM that he would take them
ashore The rail of the big barge was dozen
feet from the water and it here that the
trouble began.
The men on the barge lowered themselves over
side a rope, but as Captain Olsen, very large
man was halfway down, he lost his hold and fell
on the second thwart of the lifeboat breaking
it, and making it impossible for the rowers to
use it. In addition, the boat was crowded and
the wind which had been momentarily increas
ing was tumbling huge combers into the wind
ward of the barge 1t was into this maelstrom
of breakers that it necessary for the handi-
capped crew of the lfe-saving station to pull
their overloaded boat, and they made swift
and able attempt to accomplish it. At the instant
the starboard oarsmen were swinging the head OF
the life boat to meet the sea- giant comber lifted
under the quarter and dashed a barrel of water
oversize That the signal for a panic among
the rescued men that, before it subsidized cost
twelve lives.
The Portuguese wreckers in frenzy of fear,
stood up in the boat, rocking it to and fro in
their endeavors to escape the momentary thrush
of water and though the life-savers fought to
force them into the bottom of the craft, this
could not be done before the next shouldering
wave caught the bow of the boat, swung her
broadside and turned her over.
Then ensued desperate struggle for life.
hundred yards TO leeward the breakers were
smashing themselves into white foam on the bar.
There was just one chance in million that the
boat could be righted before the sea carried her
into them. Once she reached them 1t would be
all over Hampered by the wreckers, the life
savers fought desperately in those few minutes
left before the combers should be reached Three
times they righted the boat and strove heroically
to bail her but each time she was again over
turned They were fighting the last tragic fight
when they were swept into the smothering foam
of the bar.
At that instant seven men, including all from
the Wadena, went to face their maker. Five of
the hardest of the life-savers still chung to the
capsized boat They were Keeper Eldrdge and
Surfmen Ellis, Kendrick, Foye and Rogers. BY
superhuman effort Kendrick craw1ed to the bot
tom Of the overturned craft, but the next
swept him to join the seven who had gone
ment before Foye was the next "Good-by,
boys he gasped as smother of foam took him.
That left Ellis, Rogers and Eldridge the keeper.
and Edridge was fast losing strength.
In brief lull in the wash of the sea, Ellis
cYawled to the bottom Of the boat. Below him,
foot away, was the keeper. a friend since boy
hood. At the risk of his own life, Ellis dropped
into the water again, pushed Eldridge up on the
bottom with his last strength and again crawled
out himself The next second sea washed both
OF and the keeper. after losing and regaining his