Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1912-06-07

and the beach that lay before it was wellnigh
impossible After twenty minutes Of grim effort
it 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 it's 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 SO rapidly-tARt
is sank so 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 car
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 capsized by the inequalities
of the submerged ground the overwhelming
inburst of the 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 Delting OF drift
wood But not man fell away or 1inched from
the work before him.
mot the least difficult of their tasks 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-
trived it; for, aside from the number of actual
frings, wherever a momentary palse of the YES
sci as she grazed bottom, a slowing of her
motion, offered opportunity for action, at least
a dozen times and probably mora. the cart was
hurriedly unloaded on 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 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. 10 and a
quarter of mile beyond it, when chance Of
fered for another shot; but the line parted. The
crew again moved stubbornly 1t 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 an
other man drop lifeless from the ratlines
"Laboring forward now for the rescue of the re-
naming five, they suffered misfortune In stag
gering and foundering through one of the worst
sideways with the cart, the gun toppled off into
the flood and lost. desperate search was
made at once, and finally it was found in four or
five feet of water, fshed up and wiped dry, end
carried thenceforth by the stout keeper on his
shoulder. was dispatched back to No. ~
for dry shot-line, while the crew, moved on to
a point three-Q quarters OF a mile below the sta
ton, 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.
1.-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
fering, the last shot fired This time it was
a SUGGEST The line iew 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 it and fastened it to the fore ald
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 four kept fast hold
of the shore end Of the shOt-line, 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 whipline, with its appurtenances was bent
to the shot-ne, hauled aboard, and made fast
by the tail Of the block to the muinmast head.
The wreck now slued around bcoadside to the
sea and rolled frightfully. The hAwser followed
the whip-line on board, and the breeches-buoy
was rugged on but the vessel Fosled SO that 1t
impossible to set the haWseP up on shore in
the usual manner, it was rove through the
bull'seye in the sand-anchor, while several men
held to the end to give and tase with each roll
of the vessel. The work of hauling the sailors
from the wreck 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 tie breeches-
buoy with in it swung in the of-shore roll
fully fifty feet in the air
The strain and friction upon the hawser were
great that the lignum-vitae bulPs-eye through
which it ran at the sand-anchor despite the hard
ness of the wood was worn fully half an inch
deep during 80 minutes of USE Within those 80
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, Is spoken CO casually
as "A nights work on the Jersey coast"