Norwich bulletin., 1914-05-05

shook her up. Various minor storms dis turbed the vessels equanimity not at all, but in the storm Of, February 14 of this year the clements went after her hard. Read this portion of the report of Charles L. Swanberg, master of the vessel, and draw your own conclusions as to the comfort or living on Iightship:
 T respectfully report to you that all day yesterday and all last night we had the heaviest southeast gale that I have experienced here About midnight she was breaking all over the ship. One sea came over and carried away the two wholesalers on the port side; the after one went over, but the forward we man aged to save. She broke in the two after engine room skylights and broke off the after part of the forward railing on port side, but we managed to keep on the station and the light and fog signals go- ing all night. Everything that we are able to will be put in order. All is well on board"
 Columbia river light vessel No. Ss, stationed near the entrance to the Colum- bia river and off the Oregon coast, a 1 station of many storms and great danger, | seems 10 get rather more than her share or pad weather, judging by the records in | the lighthouse bureau The chief engi- neer of this ship, by the way, is Michael | Rourke, the same Michael O'Rourke l Wno mas figured, without disguise of naine' Iii a series of popular fiction stories 1 written about the work of the lighthouse service. ORourke is the same philoso- SopnIcal, witty character in real life that | ne IS pictured in fiction.
 In reporting on the storm of Januarv last the master of this vessel terse1y described how the seas that came a,,'aaI auoaru smashed his pilot house, carried away considerable of the superstructure or the ship, tore the bridge binnacIe rom the deck, flooded Mickey O'RourI,e,s enslne room, cut Seaman C. Carlson anout sro,,l the head with bits of flying glass rom a broken lantern and washed Sea man H. K Hansen away with the wreck or the whee1house. Hansen grabbed 4he ra,1las ralnd as ne was starting overheard and
 Tn the record of the previous year-6scaI year 1el3-the crew of this Columbia river Hshtship gets notice for having ..brought lo hsht vessel part of crew of steamship Daisy Freeman, which had stranded. n That was hazardous and heroic bit of Work, taking off in a high sea men from ship which was being pounded to pieces on the beach.
 The same Iightshfp crew also is men, toned for the care it took of the Survivors Of the wreck of the steamship Rosecrans and the crew of the Port Adams life saving station, all of whom took refuge on the lightship and were cared for until weather permitted them to get ashore The Rosecrans was wrecked off the Co., lumbia river bar in a storm of extraor- dinary fury. The Port Adams lfesavers went to her rescue. but could not make their way back through the cross seas They and those who were rescued finally were gathered in by those efficient mariners, Capt .kenney and Engineer O'Rourke. While this was going on, the lighthouse tender Kanzanita risked the roughness of the bar-windswept until it was almost bare in places-and rushed to the Rosecrans. She stood by, but the | lifesaverS had got the survivors off by l that time.
 i Cape Lookout shoals light vessel, off the coast of North Carolina, has had almost as much wild adventure as the Columbia river ship. July p five of her crew in | her whaleboat were attempting to put the 1 mail from the lghtship aboard the steam CT City of Atlanta while a high sea was 1 on. The steamer ran down and crushed | the boat and all five men were drowned. | In the gale of February 24 the ship was | dragged from her anchorage and for four days she made a desperate fight against l the wind and waves to keep near her station. So thick was the weather that | it was impossible to see more than 200 | yards. Battling every moment of the time against wind and tide, the ship
 heavily powered as she is. managed to l keep within a few miles of her proper
 position ard finally got back there.
 The annals of the lighthouse service are | full of tales of heroism. Not month l passes put mas nurnDer or these re- 1 corded. The bureaus annual report for | the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, con- | tains, in terse, official language reports l of ninety-two of these cases. Since that l date almost as many more have been placed on the records. Here is one that is typical:
 January 13, 1914, at 30 am, five men | from the disabled schooner John Paul | were taken on board relief light vessel | No. g. on station at Cross Rip, Mass. un- der command of Richard E. B. RbiIIips. master. Owing to the extreme cold the
 men were in a helpless condition when
 taken on board the light vessel one of
 the crew having died before reaching it.
 They were given food and dry clothing
 and taken care of until the morning of
 the 14th, when the tender Anemone ar
 rived and took them to Vineyard Haven. Mass"
 Here is the official statement in repar rd
 to the case of Robert Allen, keeper of tbe Presque Isle pierhead light station. Pa
 dramatic in the very curtness Of it's
 phrasing: Rescued two persons whc
 were about to drown while bathing in Lake Erie. Life saving medal awarded by Treasury Department
 : Here are the bones of a story of dra. l matic human interest: Henr% R. Revry : keeper; Alfred l.. Cornell, first assistant keeper; Royal G. Petersen, second as.