Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-05-10

when the after masts FELL and caught and clung
to a piece of wreckage that was swept away
simultaneously with himself
At the best. the chance of the wretched sailor
who had been washed away on the floating wreck
age was almost hopeless. The 1fe-savers clus-
tered on the shore, powerless to aid, watching
with eyes of horror for the moment his lifeless
body should be crushed on the beach or ground
to pulp in the grinding wreckage. At this crit
zeal moment when the hearts of strong men
stood still, figure sprang from the huddle OF
men on the beach, wrapped line about its waist
and ran to the edge of the surf. Surfman Frank
Raynor of the Blue Point station was about to do
what no keeper in the lifesaving service would
have been authorized to ask him to risk. The
service demands courage, but it does not demand
suicide Keeper Rorke Of the Blue Point station
might have ordered Raynor back to the beach. but
the venture was too heroic, too splendid: the
keeper could not find it in his heart.
For moment Raynor stood in the edge of the
foaming whirl of icy spray, waiting his chance.
hals naked, for he had thrown of his outer cloth
ing Then 1t came. AS the bit or wreckage to
which the sailor chung plunged into the mass OF
crashing debris in the breakers, Raynor dashed
forward, fighting his way inch by inch through
the roaring maelstrom of water and timbers,
dodging plunging beams, diving beneath shat
tered spars that, rising giant combers. threat
ened to crush him. At times he was hidden from
view for minutes.
At last he was almost within reach of the
drowning sailor and in that instant he swept
beneath the wreckage by a ponderous sea- 1t
looked as though he were lost, but at the crucial
moment Albert Latham, also Of the Blue Point
station went to the aid of his comrade Before
Latham could reach him, Raynor came to the sur
face just IN time to seize the now unconscious
man. The next second Latham. tearing wildly
through the surf at his side and rendering
assistance. Together the two hauled the ex-
hausted man 20 the beach, while cheer went up
from their comrades shore
In the brief ten minutes consumed in this res
the Inflated Cromwell had broken to pieces,
her foremost falling into the sea with the six
remaining men upon it. The life-savers few to
their gun and tried to shoot line across the
wreck of the mast but failed and one by one the
men, save one fell exhausted from it and were
drowned before their eyes.
The lone survivor held his place in miraculous
fashion while the gale and current swept him
down the shore at the edge Of the breakers Hope
for him was given up, when again Raynor and
Latham dashed to the front. Though exhausted
and numbed they plunged into the sea once more
In time to reach theA man just as he torn
from his grasp theAmast
Two of the most tragic wrecks that ever oc.
Cured the Long Island coast took place within
four years of each other, at the extreme
eastward end of the island, the other far to the
westward.
The loss of the Italian bark Ajace on Rockaway
Shoals March 4, 1884, with all ner ships company
one, cost thirteen ives, and brought to light
the story of despairMso terrible that it had
driven hardened sailors to suicide The other
wreck that of the fulrrigged ship Circassian.
which took place December 20, 1876 involved
loss Of twenty-eight lives and was of the sad
dest in the history of the service
Long Island is but g tiny speck on the vast
ribbon of sea and lake coqst patrolled by the
fesaving service and its wrecks compose cor
respondingly small proportion of those that the
lfe-saying crews called upon to face each
year. Some of the most tragic. struggles that the
service has won and lost have occurred along the
Jersey and Massachusetts coasts, and the lives
that went out on the ssorm-wfnds in these bat
ties have not always been those Of the ship
wrecked. In Washington there Id a long HIST bf
the watchers Of the beaches who died with their
hipboots on In the performanes az duty.