Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-05-10

lSN&I beaches bulwark Long Island
$50 proper from the fury of the sea
in winter, and since the early
days of Atlantic commerce they have been the
final resting-plaees of countless craft and crews
To protect the lives of seafaring men from the
treachery of this coast the United States govern
ment has built and manned thirty-three life-sav-
ing stations along its length The crews of these
number two hundred and sixtyfour men, seven
men and keeper, captain, to each station
On the eighth day of February 1896 the Their
mometer at the weather bureau in New York
city stood at zero. In Florida the temperature
was the lowest ever recorded there 1t was the
coolest day of the year from the Gulf to Maine
and a screaming hurricane was raging along the
entire Atlantic seaboard.
The Louis " Place, three-masted schooner
sailed from Baltimore for New York on January
2Sth. On board were Captain William Squires
and seven men.
The Place left the mouth Of Chesapeake Bay
Monday February 4th. The wind was strong
from the southwest and heavy swell was run
ming. An hour after reaching the open sea the
gale hauled to the northward and freshened
alarmingly while the sky became overcast and
all signs of storm were evident At daybreak
the storm had become reality, and the sails of
the Place We're close reefed, with the execution
of the oresail which was stiff with ice that 1t
could not be handled by the sailors
AS the heavy seas drenched over the forward
part Ol lue SCHOOHSr lney IrOz0 TO everything
they touched
Through the day and night all hands waro
kept on watch ready for emergency while the
vessel labored nearly helpless in the bitter tom
pest On the morning of the sixth she was dis
covered to be leaking, and Captain Squires real
lied that the situation was grave. He held the
craft as we'll as possible to her course and on the
next day she met the full fury Of the hurricane.
which added the last touches to her desperate
condition.
By this time her crew were in helpless CON
dlton lettering about the decks, worn out from
seepess watching and dulled by the fearful cold
There was but thing left to do Captain
Squires believed his ship to be near Sandy Hook.
the water was not too deep he could anchor
and chance riding out the storm. He cast the
lead and found eight fathoms. Then he called
the crew aft, told them his intention, gave each
double portion of grog, and sent them forward
to the cables
But the ice had bound the anchors so deep that
try as they might in their weakened condition,
tne men could not chop them out, and after fu-
uie attempts the captain called them aft again.
heallzing now that the prospect was hopeless, he
told them to shift for themselves
ihey had not long to wait. Lifting above the
rush OF the gale, the crash Of breakers soon came
from ahead, and the sound told all that their fate
was at hand. A moment later the Place lay ham
lherng across the bar just east of the Lone Hill
mesaying station on Great South Beach, Long
Island coast. Gigantic waves combed her decks
rom stem to stern, and her crew fed to the
shrouds for their lives
Inc lfe-savers of the Lone Hill station had
sone eastward earlier in the morning to assist the
men OF the Blue Point station in landing the crew
from another schooner which had stranded dur
1ns the night. Consequently there was no one at
Ions HUI save one man, Surfman Saunders who
aO oeen left on guard. Hardly had the Place
TIuoh When she was discovered by Saunders
,. teiepnoned the Blue Point station imme-
the west
nve minutes the Lone Hill and Blue Point
Ie"s having finished with the wreck of the first
schooner, were fighting their way back westward
u the face of the hurricane
me Place lay three hundred yards from the
Ia oaeh on the outer bar giant gray seas sweeping
,al way up her masts as they broke astern of
tL ei' AT times sba was invisible in the scud and
~ ele ieaden rush If the snow Through lus in
re storm the life-savers on the beach occasion
1a g caught ghmpses of her crew in the port miz.
III Hgglng where they Were clinging for their
go. mere appeared to be eight in all. Two
9'g 10, on the crosstrees, six in the shrouds
INT enree life-saving crews at once grasped
=, c-'s desperate chance. A surf gun was placed
~ - posluon, but before it could be fired cry of
-otfof went up from those on shore Through
FL - me whirling storm, the two men lowest in
t shrouds of the doomed vessel were seen to
~. vanished in mountainous sea that swept
AFi lore and aft
III N instant later the gun was fred. carrying
IN ne across the foretopmast stay out Of reach Of
or. men who remained in the mizzen rigging.
in INES We're at once fired, falling almost with
H. - n reach of the shipwrecked sailors but
tbo, made no effort to secure them Evidently
fbey r ele SO stifened from the intense cold that
1tfe unable to move from their positions
l,s IN came. The snow flung along the beach in
crs1 ..Hs sheets. So heavy was the wind that the
c-caol ol the me-saving stations were forced TO
fro,a !, DOWN at times to keep from being blown
was cue ne O'Clock in the afternoon another shot
vas.3 Gu but the line did not fall aboard the
.Essel Almost Immediately the storm sbnt IN
sf,es' eoneealing the Place from view until late
When the next Iun came IT was seen