Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1912-05-10
flerOic Battles MMp
Life saving Service
~ Percv X. CUSHING
COPYRIGHT 81 Che PIDGWLAY CO. y

$50 proper from the fury of the sea
in winter, and since the early
days of Atlantic commerce they have been the
final resting-places 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 sxty-four men, seven
men and a keeper, or captain, to each station.
On the eighth day of February, 1895. the Their
mometer at the weather bureau in New York
city stood at In Florida the temperature
was the lowest ever recorded there. 1t was the
coolest day Of the year from the Gulf to Maine,
and screaming hurricane raging along the
entire Atlantic seaboard
The Louis V. Place, a threemasted schooner,
sailed from Baltimore for New York on January
18th. On board 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 a reality and the sails of
the Place were close reefed with the exception
of the foresail which stiff with ice that it
could not be handled by the sailors
AS the heavy seas drenched over the forward
part of the schooner they froze to everything
they touched
Through the day and night all hands were
kept on watch ready for emergency while the
vessel labored nearly helpless in the bitter tenn
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 well possible to her course and on the
next day she met the fill fury of the hurricane
which added the last touches to her desperate
condition
By this time her crew were in helpless con-
fnff ring about he 1o0lr
sleepess watching and dulled by the fearful cold.
There was but one thing left to do Captain
Squres believed his ship to be near Sandy Hook.
If 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 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 they might in their weakened condition,
the men could not chop them out, and after fu-
tile attempts the captain called them aft again.
Realizing that the prospect was hopeless, he
told them to shift for themselves.
They had not long to watt 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,
mering across the bar Just east of the Lone Hill
1ife-saving station on Great South Beach, Long
Island coast Gigantic waves combed her decks
from stem to stern, and her crew fed to the
shrouds for their lives
The life-savers of the Lone Hill station had
gone 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
ing the night. Consequently there was one at
Lone Hill one man. Surfman Saunders who
had been left guard Hardly had the Place
struck when she was discovered by Saunders
He telephoned the Blue Point station imme-
diatey. then called the Point O. Woods station to
the west.
In five minutes the Lone Hill and Blue Point
crews, having finished with the wreck of the first
schooner, were fighting their way back westward
in the face of the hurricane.
The Place lay three hundred yards from the
beach on the outer bar, giant gray seas sweeping
half way up her masts as they broke astern of
her. At times she invisible in the scud and
the leaden rush Of the snow. Through lulls in
the storm the life-savers on the beach occasion
ally caught glimpses of her in the port miz-
rigging where they were clnging for their
lives. There appeared to be eight in ALL Two
stood on the crosstrees, six in the shrouds
The three life-savng crews at once grasped
this desperate chance. surf gun was placed
in position, but before it could be fired a cry of
horror went up from those on shore Through
rift in the whirling storm the two men lowest in
the shrouds of the doomed vessel were seen to
have vanished In a mountainous sea that swept
her fore and aft.
An instant later the gun was fred. carrying a
line across the foretopmast stay out of reach of
the who remained In the mizzen rigging
Other lines at once fired falling almost with
in arms reach Of the shpwrecked sailors but
they made no effort to secure them Evidently
they were SO stiffened from the intense cold that
they were unable to move>from their positions
Noon came. The snow flung along the beach in
binding sheets. SO heavy was the wind that the
crews Of the life-saving stations were forced to
crouch down at times to keep from being blown
from their feet
AT one o'clock in the afternoon another shot
was fired, but the line did not fall aboard the
vessel. Almost Immediately the storm shut in
closely concealing the Place from view until late
afternoon When the next lull came ii was seem