Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-04-13

the wrecked vessel.
All efforts through the night and the
forenoon following failed. The wind,
was too high. Then at 0 o the
masts, except the foremost,
which all OF the crew save one had
taken refuge. crashed overheard. This
man went down in q weltcr Of wreck.
age. and to those on shore 1t seemed
as II be must surely be battered to
death. but as the breakers raced in
they saw him clinging to a plank that
had been swept away with him.
A furious surf was running. and tim
Der with which the Cromwell had been
laden was pitched up on the beach.
10 add to the danger thick ice cakes,
heaved by the breakers. lifted their
jagged ends high in the air aud crashed
splintering n upon the other.
and always the awful drive Of snow
and sleet. ripping the onrushing waves
into tatters of foam and spindrift
Surely no man could live in that
Instnctively the life savers moved
nearer the edge Of the surf and peered
ahead for some sign Of life. The beach
was fringed with skim ice. sharp and
pointed. that cut through rubber boots
and clothing as IL through parchment.
Helpless to aid the man whom they
knew must be plunging somewhere out
in that angry water. they huddled to-
gether as men will when a lifeless
body is about to ~ cast up before
them. They heard ~ aud wrcckage
grind harshly: scattered debris washed
up to their feet Brave men all. yet
they saw nothing to do. They knew
not to what lengths the ocean would 80
before giving up It's Victim.
At this juncture a figure sprang from
among them and, wrapping a line about
his waist, ran to the edge Of the surf.
He was Frank Rayner Of the Blue
Point station, and he was about to
commit what the other surfmen in
stinctively told themselves was suicide.
The service demands courage, not fool.
hardness. For a moment Keeper
Rorke hesitated, undecided whether to
order Rayner back to the beach or not,
but he couldn't find it III his heart to
do it. 1t was a venture, too heroic, too
splendid. %,n~'' '~s" ' 80
They watched Rayner as he stood
in the whirl Of icy spray awaiting his
chance. He was half naked. His
clothes he had thrown OF as he ran.
The cold. biting into bis nesh. tortured
him. Still the chance held of. Then
1t came-the bit Of wreckage, the cling.
ing sailor. crashing into the boiling
breakers, and Rayner dashed forward.
Foot by foot through that roaring tn.
mutt Of water, Of p|unging beams and
timber, lodging the s%plintered spars
that, leaping from giant combers, made
as IL to pin him, Rayner worked to.
ward his man. To those on shore he
was hidden the greater part of the
time. Finally they saw his head bob
above a big. billow. Near him noated
the wreckage bearing its stin, motion.
less burden. The next instant Rayner
vanished. swept under by a tremen.
dous wave " =
From the huddled group on shore
men started forward, but Albert La.
than, also Of the Blue Point station.
was first to plunge into the tumbling
seas. Tearing through them. he
reached Rayner, who, Just crestfng a
breaker, snatched at the sailor, now
unconscious. And together these he
roes Of the coast hauled their man
through the rearing timbers and ice to
the beach and to safety. ~e.:
Not ten minutes later the Cromwell
broke in pieces. From shore, the life
savers saw men fall from the rigging.
five OF them. who fell, n by one, ike
black plummets into the sea AOnefre-
NAMED aboard. Then he went. too
a dark form c]ingtng to the wrecked
mast, now adrift. And again Rayner
and Latham plunged into the surf.
Now, Weakened by their efforts ard
the cold, they faced an even harder
task. The man torn from the mast
nearly drowned them with bis fren.
lied struggling. For twenty minutes
the uneven tight between the sailor
and the surf on one side. and thetwc
Weakened life savers Oh the other
was waged. Then . great green
conlbef iifted beneath them and bore
all three through the foaming sea to
the shore.
For weeks Latham lay abed. and
Rayner never performed duty again:
subsequently commended BY Wash.
inrton. they considered that honor suf.
dcient.
Such IL the typical HE saver, the
man who patrols the coasts from Ban.
FOR to Galveston. from Seattle to Eos
Angeles. Hes q part Of a wonderful
system.-New York Sun.