The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1912-06-13

and the beach that lay before It was yell.nigh
impossible. After twenty minutes of grim effort
II was finally gained only to find that the vessel
had passed it 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 pers which beset them never
slackened moment. The wheels OF the cart
in coast phrase, 'sanded down rapidly-that
is sank quickly In the infltrated soil-that the
conveyance had to be kept the move lest 1t
should be lost. Often the cart had to be partial
ly unloaded and portions of the apparatus
ried by the 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 capslzed 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 men could keep their feet
In this constant onslaught and pelting Of drift
wood But not man fell away or hnched 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 II Is difficult to understand how they
trived it; for. aside from the number of actual
frings, wherever momentary pause OF the yes
sci as she grazed bottom, or a slowing of her
motion. offered opportunity for action at least
dozen times, and probably more, the cart was
hurriedly unloaded on the nearest emlnence, the
gun planted and the shotlne arranged for the
effort, when the wreck would suddenly roll away
upon her course, and the men would have to re-
load the cart and toll again after her. In this
way and with these Interruptions, they worked
down along the beach to station No. ~ and
quarter of mile beyond It, when chance Of
fered for another shot, but the line parted. The
stubbOTnlv was
noon, and suddenly the man long seen hang
ing in the rigging fell into the sea and gone.
The still followed the vessel with unslack-
ened activity. Half hour later they saw an
other man drop lifeless from the ratnes
"Laboring forward now for the rescue Of the re-
naming hve they suffered misfortune In stag
gerlng and iounderng through one of the worst
sluiceways with the cart, the gun toppled of into
the food and lost. A desperate search was
made at once and finally It was found in four or
five feet Of water fished up and wiped dry. and
carried thenceforth by the stout keeper his
shoulder A man was dispatched back to No IL
for dry shotline, while the crew, moved on to
point three-quarters OF a mile below the sta.
tion where they got another chance to fire a
shot. which, however, fell short, the tide having
forced the firing party farther and farther back
on the hills as they advanced. and the line, too,
being weighted with moisture.
The cart again reloaded, and the march
resumed. mile below the station the man over
took them with the dry shotline and, chance Of
fering. the last shot fired This time It was
a SUGGEST The line few between the foremast
and the jb-stay, and, the cut sweeping the blight
OF the line in to the side Of the vessel the sailors
got hold Of It and fastened It TO the fore and
main rigging.
"As the schooner still continued to 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 held
Of the shore end OF the shot-ne, and kept pace
with the wreck in leash. At the end of another
quarter OF a 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 whp-line, with its appurtenances. was bent
on TO the shOtline, hauled aboard, and made fast
by the tail Of the block to the manmast head,
The wreck now slued around broadside to the
sea and rolled frighuuly. The hawser followed
the whip-line on board, and the breeches-buoy
was rigged on, but the vessel rolled so that It
was impossible to set the hawser up on shore in
the usual manner, II was rove through the
bull'seye In the sandanchor while several men
held on TO the end to give and take with each roll
OF the vessel The work Of hauling the sailors
from the wreck 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 a man in II swung In the offshore roll
fully fifty feet In the air.
The strain and friction upon the hawser were
so great that the lignum-vitae buseye through
which 1t ran at the sand-anchor, despite the hard
ness OF the wood. fully half an inch
deep during 80 minutes Of use. Within those 80
minutes, however. the fve 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, is spoken OF casually
as "A nights work on the Jersey coast"