Charlevoix county herald., 1912-06-08

beaches bulwark Long Island
$3.50 proper from the fury of the sea
in winter, and since the early
days OF Atlantic commerce they have been the
final restng-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 sixtyfour men. seven
men and keeper, or captain, to each station
On the eighth day OF February 1895. the ther-
mometer at the weather bureau in New York
city stood at zero. In Florida the temperature
the lowest ever recorded there 1t was the
coolest day of the year from the Gulf TO Maine,
and a screaming hurricane raging along the
entire Atlantic seaboard.
The Louis V. Place three-masted schooner,
sailed from Baltimore for New York on January
2Sth. On board were 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 reality. and the sails OF
the Place were close reefed, with the exception
of the foresail which was stiff with ice that ii
could not be handled by the sailors
AS the heavy seas drenched 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 grave. He held the
craft we'll as possible to her course and on the
next day she met the full fury of the hurricane
which added the last touches to her desperate
condition
BY this time her in a helpless CON
dition totterng about the decks, worn out from
seepess watching and dulled by the fearful cold
There but thing left to do Captain
Squres believed his ship to be Sandy Hook.
If the water not too deep he could anchor
and chance riding out the storm He cast the
lead and found eight fathoms Then he called
the crew 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 now that the prospect was hopeless he
told them to shift for themselves
They had not long to wait. Lifting above the
rush OF the gale. the crash of breakers came
from ahead. and the sound told all that their fate
at hand A moment later the Place lay ham
mering across the bar Just east of the Lone Hill
life-saying station Great South Beach, Long
Island coast Gigantic waves combed her decks
from stem to stern and her crew fled to the
shrOuds for their lives
The lfe.savers of the Lone Hill station had
gone eastward earlier in the morning to assist the
men Of the Blue Point station i'm landing the crew
from another schooner which had stranded dur
ing the night. Consequently there no one at
Lone Hill save one man. Surfman Saunders who
had been left on guard Hardly had the Place
struck when she discovered by Saunders
He telephoned the Blue Point station mme-
diately 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
I'm 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 they broke astern OF
her At times she was invisible in the scud and
the leaden rush of the snow. Through Sills in
the storm the life-sayers on the beach occasion
ally caught glimpses of her in the port miz-
zen rigging where they clinging for their
lives. There appeared to be eight in all. Two
stood on the crosstrees six i'm the shrouds
The three life-saving at once grasped
this desperate chance. A surf gun was placed
in position. but before II could be fired a cry Of
horror went up from those shore Through
rift in the whirling storm. the two men lowest in
the shrouds Of the doomed vessel were seen 10
have vanished in mountainous that swept
her fore and aft
An instant later the gun was fired carving
line across the fOretopmast stay out of reach OF
the men who remained I'm the miZZen rigging.
Other lines were at once fired falling almost with.
in arms reach Of the shipwrecked sailors but
they made effort to them Evidently
they were stiffened from the intense cold that
they were unable to move from their positions
Noon Gaze The snow flung along the beach in
binding sheets So heavy the wind that the
of the life-savng stations were forced to
crouch down at times to keep from being blown
from their feet
AT o'clock in the afternoon another shot
fired. but the line did not fall aboard the
vessel. Almost Immediately the storm shut I'm
closely, concealing the Place from view until late
afternoon When the next u came II was s-en