The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-08
CAPT AIN REPORTS 0N SWAMPINC OF
 CUTTERS BOATS
Randolph Ridgely, IT,, De- nies Graft Were Lost
 in Launching.

Norfolk Va, March 8.-Captaln Randolph Ridgely, Jr., of the coast guard cutter Yamaeraw; in telling the story of the loss of ten of his crew who went to the rescue of the strand ed steamship Louisiana, denied em- phatically that the lifebeats of his ves- sel were swamped as soon as they were launched.
 Captain Ridgely, who has not been in command of the cutter long, said there were no officers in the boats sent to the ship by the YamacraW, and that the first boat was sent away in command of Ross Harris, gun ner, after picking up the s. O. $. call sent out by the Louisiana.
 we immediately made prepara- tiens for getting the boats away, Captain Ridgely said, 'GunneE Harris, an expert beatsman asked for six men. Eight volunteered and all went because they were anxious to go. R. J. Ora dy, master at arms who has been working the 'blinker,' and M. Cam borne, who had just come off watch, practically slipped into the surf boat. : The boat was then lowered and man ned by Harris, who was in charge. Grady and Camberne had stroke oars, G. " Jarvis and. R. C. .Garrish were at Nos 3, D. Fulcher and R. E. Sim mons at Mo- and M. L. Austin and T. l.. Midgett at the bow.
 Shortly after the boat got away something happened to the search light of the Yamacraw and the men in the boat signalled back to keep the searchlight going. Later was in the cabin, drinking coffee, when l look ed out the air port and saw for the first time that the sea was breaking. Then a 'blinker' from each end of the Louisiana began to signal frantl- cally.
 .I hurried on deck and asked if any thing had happened to the boat and was told that there had not. We then got the signal from the Louisiana Your boat has capsfzed and men are in the water
 "I asked if there were any avail- able men to man another boat. First Lieutenant J. H. Crozier mustered the men and saw no seaInen he could trust in lifeboat We got under way and worked down to leeward to pick alp any that might be afoat> We saw Grady and another seaman the lat ter floating in a life buoy. We ran the ship alongside of Grady and drop ped line over the bow, He was not strong enough to hold it. J, J, Ken nedy ,steerage cook jumped over board with line and succeeded in getting hold of Grady He worked him down to the gangway, but Grady again slipped.
 "I then ordered the .dingy lowered hoping that he could be grabbed by the men if unable to get a line around him. Lieutenant Kees&er and others had Grady up in the gangway when the ship took a deep roll, throwing Grady back into the water ,and all most carrying the other men with him,
 '9The dingy was then lowered, man. ned by J. A. Dugger, first class boy and William R. Hogart. of Virginia Beach, second class boy. They grab bed Grady, but were unable to hold him, and he again fell back into the water and disappeared All of this time the searchlight was skept on the man in the bouy, and Dugger and Hogart rowed down to him. They made an attempt to lift him into the dingy and said at the time to Lieu tenant Crozier that they would cap size the boat trying to get the men in.".