Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1912-08-09


is this crooked finger of land that has beckoned
thousand ships to their doom and which in the
hollows Of its dunes holds many a tragic story
of lives snuffed out in desperate grapple with
wave and wind.
The night of Tuesday March IL, 1902. was
wild and storm-strewn. Running UP along the
coast. the ocean-going tug Sweepstakes was max
ing bad weather with her tow of the two big
barges, Wadena and John G. Fitzpatrick For
hours the trple-expansion 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 head
way He then decided to lie to and, while feel
ing about for an anchorabe in the gloom. the
barges ran aground the edge of Shovelful
Shoal, of the southern end of Monomoy island
Massachusetts
When daylight came the crew of the Monomoy
life saving station boarded the barges, but finding
1t impossible to float them on the food tide, took
their crews ashore.
1t was six days later that the disaster
CURED. Wreckers sent from Boston were at
work on the barges. The tug Peter Smith
on the ground, having replaced the Sweepstakes.
On the night of the 10th the weather thickened
and gale swept in from the sea.
The night passed without incident, but early
on the morning OF the 18th Keeper Eldridge of
the Monomoy station received a telephone from
the captain of the Smith asking him If every
thing was all right on the Wadena. This alarmed
Edridge. as he did not know any had been
left on the barge all night He started at once
for the point OF the island, three miles away, to
look over the situation The Wadena lay half
a mile on shore from the point. She seemed to
be riding easily the bar but the distress was
flying from her rigging. This a signal Ed
ridge could not ignore
1t was terrific pull through the breakers that
rolled in across the shoals to the Wadena. but
the lffe-savers accomplished 1t 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 thin 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
TAo men the barge lowered themselves over
side on a rope. but Captain Olsen a very large
man, was halfway down. he lost his hold and fell
the second thwart of the lifeboat, breaking
1t. and making 1t impossible for the rowers to
use It, In addition. the boat crowded and
the wind, which had been momentarily increas-
ing, was tumbling huge combers into the wind
ward Of the barge 1t into this maelstrom
of breakers that 1t was necessary for the handi
capped of the life-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 barrel of water
oversize That was the signal for panic among
the rescued men that, before 1t subsidized. cost
twelve lives.
The Portuguese wreckers, In a frenzy of fear.
stood up in the boat. rocking 1t 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 a desperate struggle for life. A
hundred yards to leeward the breakers
smashing themselves into white foam the bar.
There just chance in million that the
boat could be righted before the carried her
into them Once she reached them II would be
all over. Hampered by the wreckers. the lifeN
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 fighting the last tragic fight
when they were swept into the smothering foam
Of the bar.
At that instant men, including all from
the Wadena went to face their maker. FIVE of
the hardest of the life-sayers still chung to the
capsized boat. They were Keeper Eldridge and
5urfmen Ellis. Kendrick. Foye and Rogers. BY
superhuman effort Kendrick crawled to the bot
om Of the overturned craft, but the next sea
swept him to join the seven who had gone a mo
nent before. Foye the next. "Good-by,
boys. he gasped a smother Of foam took him.
That left Ellis. Rogers and Eldridge the keeper.
md Eldridge was fast losing strength
In brief IuIl in the wash of the sea- Ellis
IRA wled to thesbottom of the boat. Below him.
DOT away. the keeper. friend since boy
lood AT the risk OF his own life, Ellis dropped
INTO the water again, pushed Eldridge up on the
'ottom with his last strength, and again crawIed
tut himself The next second a sea washed both
II and the keeper after losing and regaining his