New Britain herald., 1915-09-29
STEAMER ISABEL
 AGROUND 0N REEF
Reached By Captain After Strik-
 ing Obstruction in Sound

ValuaDle cargo or general HleICldh-
 disc piled on her upper decks to es- ! cape damage by water, the steamer Isabel of the Norwalk Steamboat line was hard aground on Cow Reef to- 1 day about half mile or little less off Sh1ppan Point. She was beacheo during the night by her captain George H. Rowland, to prevent sink ing in Long Island Sound after she | had struck an obstruction off the south end of the reef while bound from New York to Norwalk.
 The tug Annie ", of NorWalk went 1 cut to the stranded vessel this fore 1 noon to assist in the transfer or the ! cargo to the Cim bria of the same line. l 1t is believed that after the cargo mas been removed the Isabel VIII oe | taken off, unless storm comes up. .z Struck an Obstruction. Captain Rowland, who came ashore today for a short time told Manager George Foote of the company that l last night when the Isabel was off the southern end of Cow Reef sne struck an obstruction. He though 1t | must have been a submerged wreck A hole was torn in the vessel through which the water began to pour in such volume that it was apparent the
 Isabel would go down in a few mo- ment's unless she could be beached. Captain Rowland said he was fa-
 maliar with the surroundings ana he at once turned her nose toward { shore and ran his vessel aground on the reef. When the crash came and nasty investigation showed the ves-
 seps danger, he said, Second Engineer
 George Brown and six members of
 the crew took to a life-boat and
 made for the light off Shippan point.
 The remainder of the crew and
 ships officers remained on board and
 after the Isobel had been beached
 set to work piling up the cargo on
 the upper decks to protect it from
 damage by water. When this was
 done early today the crew came
 ashore in the small boats but several
 of the officers, including the captain remained on board. The steamer is sea is calm, and it was believed that the vessel was in little danger unless conditions changed.
 Returns to Ship.
 Captain Rowland remained ashore l only a short time and then returned l to his ship.
 1 When Second Engineer Brown and bis party reached shore they told a 1 story of having left the vessel only l about ten minutes before she went down as a result of a collision with
 some underwater object. Brown was l of the opinion that the captain and 1 rest of the crew had also taken to l the boats but he could not tell any l thing more about them. Later when l it was found that Brown was laboring 1 under a misapprehension of the con- l ditions, President Aiming J. Smith of the company said he believed that the story told by Brown was due to l the excitement under which they had been laboring.
 President Smith went to New York today to arrange for the taking off of the Isabel.
 The stranded steamer is 155 feet long, has gross tonnage of 421 and l is valued at about $40,0O0. The dam age to her was estimated today at about s1,000. The Isabel is a pas senger-carrying steamer with ca pacity of about 800. During the sum-
 mer she plies between New York and Rockaway Beach. She was sub 1 stituted recently for the freighter Marion which is in dry dock.