Evening star., 1914-11-24
|SH|P ON REEF SINKS,
| 15PERSONS DROWN
Waves Pound HanaIei to
Pieces as Line From
Shore Parts.
43 ARE SAVED AFTER
A NIGHT OF TERRORS
Revenue Cutter Picks Up Boatload
of Victims From Water-Some
Drift Ashore.

SAN FRANCISCO. November 24-The
steam schooner Hanalei, ashore on
Duxbury reef. broke in two just before
dawn today
Forty-three survivors and fifteen
dead had been accounted for at 10
| m. today. OF these thirty were towed
| ashore by lifelines or struggled
| through the smother of surf by their
own strength and thirteen were car
ried aboard the revenue cutter McCul-
loch; The fifteen dead also were on
the McCulloch.
| 4N the vessel had sixty-two persons
| aboard all told. the list of dead and
living left but four unaccounted for.
These figures did not include. how
ever, five men of the Fort Point life-
saving crew. San Francisco, who were
swamped last night. Two of these
were known to have come safe ashore
but the remaining three were variously
reported as aboard the McCulloch, and
Hanalsi broke up. They could not be
counted with any certainty among
either the dead or the living.
Among those washed ashore unaided
Harold. eight years old, of Windsor.
Cal Oil from the oil tanks of the
smashed ship coated the sea and made
Shiny the rocks of the beach, adding
to the difficulties of the rescuers
Ehe schooner. which had been pound
ed by the surf since yesterday noon.
when she ran ashore in fog. went all
to pieces. Her bow. which hung over
the reef and had been twisted to
right angle, slid into the water and
drifted to within 100 yards of the beach.
The quintet who first came ashore
swan from this wreckaga
Vessel Breaks Apart
A few more hours would have saved
every soul aboard. An hour would
have saved many. After all hope had
been given up ashore and on board the
wreck the sixth line fired by the
Golden Gate Park life-saving crew. un-
der Capt. Norman Nelson. went over the
vessel. A breeches buoy was rigged
and then the line parted. Almost inn
mediately thereafter the Hanalei broke
apart amid cries which rose above the
thunder of the surf.
The revenue cutter McCulloch. which
has been standing by the Hanalei since
yesterday, sent a wireless message say
ing she had picked up boatload of
survivors from the wrecked steamer.
Capt. Alger of the McCulloch asked that
the revenue cutter Golden Gate be sent
with doctors, nurses and emergency
hospital equipment, as the survivors
were in a bad way.
Efforts to take off the Hanaleis pas
sengers and crew from shore began
had tried to reach her, and were pre-
vented by fog and surf. The Fort Point
life-saving crew from the beach fired
lines. which fell short, until in des-
peration they double charged their
mortar and it burst.
An effort to launch boat from the
| Hanalei failed and a passenger was
| drowned. sailor tried to swim
ashore with line, and men on the
beach could see his arm swing above
| the waves, but at the line of breakers
he sank and his body drifted out to
sea. A passenger. Elwood Schwerin of
Berkeley. Cal, took a line and got
ashore, but the line became unfastened
as he swan.
Life Savers Wrecked.
One other man. it was reported. also
reached shore. \ life-savinS crew which
went out toward the wreck was upset.
The capita n reached shore and the re-
manning five men got aboard the Hanalei
Two later were washed off and drowned
and there seemed no hope for any rescue.
At O'Clock in the morning the Golden
Gate life-saving crew with a larger NOR
tar appeared. Through the enterprise OF
local newspaper 1t had been ferried
across San Francisco bay loaded On a
motor truck and sent ten miles over
mountain roads. 1t began to shoot lines
toward the wreck as the tide rose. Alter
the tn rd shot the water was waist deep
on the schooner and the wireless oper-
ator who was sending with an irnprc-
vised outfit held in one hand, reported
| that the passengers were desperate.
| I'VE will get ashore as best we can,
| he reported. I'VE cannot stay here"
| But they dared not trust the waves.
Hurry! Hurry" Last Words.
Try once more. Hurry! Hurry"
called the operator a little later.
The Hanalei was a wooden vessel of
666 tons. built for the Hawaiian sugar
trade, in 1901, and later diverted to
coastwise traffic, running between San
Francisco and Eureka. She left
Eureka Sunday. She was owned by
the Independent Steamship Company.
Duxbury rec is at the end OF a
deep and narrow channel running
north from San Francisco harbor, along
the very edge of the cliffs. Big and
little boats follow it in and out to
avoid a big welter of shoal water
known as the Potato Patch" which
begins just beyond the channel and
runs for miles to sea. In clear wealth
er it is easily navigated.