The Green Forest tribune., 1912-05-10

when the after masts fell, and caught and cung to piece of wreckage that was swept away simultaneously with himself.
 At the best the chance of the wretched sailor who had been washed away on the floating wreck age was almost hopeless. The lifesavers clus- tered on the shore powerless to aid, watching with eyes of horror for the moment his lfeless body should be crushed the beach or ground to pulp in the grinding wreckage At this crit ical moment when the hearts of strong men stood still, a figure sprang from the huddle of men on the beach, wrapped line about it's 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 life-saving service would have been authorized to ask him to risk. The service demands courage but it 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 keper could not find it in his heart
 For moment Raynor stood in the edge of the foaming whrl of icy spray waiting his chance, half naked, for he had thrown off his outer cloth ing Then it came AS the bit of Wreckage to which the sailor clung 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 plunging beams, diving beneath shat tered spars that, rising giant combers, threat ened to crush him. At times he was hidden from view for minutes.
 At last he was almost within reach of the drowning sailor and m that Instant he was swept beneath the wreckage by a ponderous sea. IL 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 face just in time to seize the unconscious man. The next second Latham. tearing wildly through the surf, at his side and rendering assistance. Together the two hauled the ex- hausted man to the beach, while a cheer went up from their comrades shore.
 In the brief ten minutes consumed in this res cue the ill-fated Cromwell had broken to pieces her foremast falling into the sea with the six remaining men upon it. The life-savers flew to their gun and tried to shoot line across the wreck of the mast, but failed, and one by one the men, 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 was given up, when again Raynor and Latham dashed to the front. Though exhausted and numbed, they plunged into the sea once more in time to reach the man just he was torn from his grasp on the mast
 Two of the most tragic wrecks that ever oc- 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 Ajace on Rockaway Shoals, March A. 1881, with all her ships company save 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 fulrigged ship Crcassian, which took place December 20 1S76 involved loss of twentyeight lives and was one of the sad dest in the history of the service
 Long Island is but tiny speck on the vast ribbon of sea and lake coast patrolled by the lfe-saving service and its wrecks compose a cor respondingly small proportion of those that the lfesaving crews called upon to face each year. Some of the most tragic struggles that the service has and lost have occurred along the Jersey and Massachusetts coasts and the lives that went out on the storm-winds in these bat ties have not always been those of the ship wrecked. In Washington there is long list of the watchers of the beaches who died with their hip-boots on in the performance of duty