The citizen., 1912-08-02

Island and New Jersey not ex.
XA VA cepted This is partly ac-.
A& count Of the particularly heavy
zr,SssuSszuvwr..u seatrafc IN the vicinity. but 1t
IS chiefly due to Cape Cod. 1t
is this crooked finger OF land that has beckoned
a thousand ships to their doom and which in the
hollows OF its dunes holds many a tragic story
Of lives snuhed out In desperate grapple with
wave and wind
The night OF Tuesday, March II. 1902,
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
baIges, Wadena and John c. Fitzpatrick. For
hours the triple expansion engines OF the tug had
been churning her screw in the DRIFT OF the
heavy head sea and shortly before daylight her
captain discovered that she was making no head
way He then decided to lie to and, while feel
ing about for anchorabe in the gloom, the
barges ran aground on the edge. Of ShovefuI
Shoal, off 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 flood tide, took
their ashore.
1t six days later that the disaster
Cured Wreckers sent from Boston at
work on the barges. The tug Peter Smith
on the ground, having replaced the Sweepstakes
On the night of the 18th the weather thickened
and gale swept in from the sea.
The night passed without incident, but early
on the morning OF the nth Keeper Eldrdge Of
the Monomoy station received a telephone from
the captain OF the Smith asking him ii every
thing was all right on the Wadena. This alarmed
ElGridge, as he did not know any had been
left the barge all night. He started at
for the point OF the island, three miles away, to
look the situation The Wadena lay half
a mile off shore from the point. She seemed to
be riding easily the bar but the distress was
Y rip was sis
ridge could not ignore
1t a terrific pull through the breakers that
rolled in across the shoals to the Wadena, but
the nfe-savers accomplished it 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 dozen
feet from the water and it was here that the
trouble began
The men on the barge lowered themselves over
side on rope but as Captain Olsen, very large
man, was halfway down, he lost his hold and fell
on the second thwart OF the lifeboat, breaking
It. and making it impossible for the rowers to
use It. In addition the boat crowded and
the wind which had been momentary increas-
ing was tumbing huge comhers into the wind
ward Of the barge. II into this maestrom
Of breakers that it was necessary for the handi-
capped crew 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 lifeboa to meet the sea, giant cOmber lifted
under the quarter and dashed a barrel of water
oversize. That the signal for a panic among
the rescued that, before it subsded, cost
twelve lives.
The Portuguese wreckers, in frenzy of fear,
stood up in the boat, rocking it to and fro in
their endeavors to escape The momentary inrusb
of water, and though the lifesavers fought to
force them into the bottom of the craft, this
could not be done before the next shouldering
caught the bow Of the boat, swung her
broadsde and turned her over
Then ensued desperate struggle for life. A
hundred yards to leeward the breakers
smashing themselves into white foam on the bar.
There was just one chance in a million that the
boat could be rghted before the sea carried her
into them once she reached them it would be
all over. Hampered by the wreckers, the life
fought desperately in those few minutes
left before the combers should be reached Three
times they righted the boat and stroye herOiCally
10 bail her. but each time she was again over
turned. They were fighting the last tragic fight
when they swept into the smothering foam
of the bar
At that instant seven men, including all from
the Wadena, went to face their maker. Five Of
the hardest of the lifesavers still clung to the
capsized boat They were Keeper Eldridge and
surfmen Ellis, Kendrick. Foye and Rogers. BY
superhuman effort Kendrick Crawed to the bot
tom of the overturned craft, but the next sea
swept him to join the seven who had gone mo-
ment before Foye the next "Goodby,
boys" he gasped as a smother Of foam took him.
That left Ellis. Rogers and Eldrdge the keeper,
and Edridge was fast losing strength.
In brief lull in the wash Of the sea, Ellis
crawled to the bottom of the boat Below him,
foot away, the keeper, friend since boy
hood At the risk of his own life Ellis dropped
into the water again, pushed Eldridge up the
bottom with his last strength and again crawled
out himself The next second a sea washed both
off and the keeper, after losing and regaining his