Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1912-05-10

when the after masts fell, and caught and chung
10 a piece OF wreckage that was swept away
simultaneously with himself
At the best the chance of the wretched sailor
who had been washed aYaT o. the floating wreck.
age was almost hopeiess The llfe-savers clus.
tered on the shore. powerless to aid, WATCHING
with eyes o. horror Tor the moment HIS lifeless
body should be crushed on the beach or ground
to pulp in the grinding wreckage. At this crit
icSi moments 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 fe-saving service would
have been authorized to ask him to risk. The
service demands courage but 1t does not demand
suicide Keeper Rorke Of the Blue Point station
might have ordered Raynor back to the beach, but
the venture too heroic too splendid; the
keeper could not find 1t In his heart
For moment Raynor stood in the edge oil the
foaming whirl of icy spray waiting his chance
half naked, for he had thrown off his outer cloth
ing. Then 1t came AS the bit of 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
lodging plungng beams, diving beneath shat
tered spars that, rising on giant combers threat
ened to crush him. At times he was hidden from
view for minutes.
drowning sailor and in that instant he was swept
beneath the wreckage by ponderous sea- II
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 unconscious
man. The next second Latham tearing wildly
through the surf, was at his side and rendering
assistance. Together the two hauled the ex.
hausted man to the beach, while cheer went up
from their comrades on shore
In the brief ten minutes consumed in this reg
cue the Inflated Cromwell had, broken to pieces
her foremost falling into the sea with the six
remaining men upon 1t. 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 given up, when again Raynor and
Latham dashed to the front Though exhausted
and numbed they plunged into the sea once more
in time 10 reach the man Just as he was torn
from his grasp on the mast
Two of the most tragic wrecks that ever nc
CURED on the Long Island coast took place within
four years Of each other, one at the extreme
outward end OF the island the other far to the
westward.
The loss Of The italian bark Aiace on Rockawav
Shoals, March e. 1881, with all her ships company
save one COST thirteen lives, and brought to light
the story OF despair so terrible that it had
driven hardened sailors to suicide The other
wreck, that OF the fullrgged ship Circassian.
which took place December 20, 1876, involved a
loss Of twenty eight lives and was one of the SAT
dest in the history of the service
Long Island is but tiny speck on the vast
ribbon Of sea and lake coast patrolied by the
iife-saying service and its wrecks compose a cor |
respondingly small proportion Of those that the
hie-saVing crews are called upon to face each
year Some Of the most tragic struggles that tbe !
service has won and lost have occurred along the
Jersey and Massachusetts, coasts, and the lives !
that went out on the storn1-winds in these bat |
ties have not always been those of the shin !
wrecked. In Washington there is long list OF |
nip-boots on in the performance of duty.