The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1917-02-02
about twoal ndred feet away.

dDOuL TWO IlulCu 1CSt onoss
Finally al. vas ready and the rescue
began; the;tirst two trips of the buoy
it broughtlfa man only, after that
two men; ~ ,ok twelve minutes to
make the RI I'd trip or six minutes to
the man, vs. can figure on how long
it would re to rescue 400. About
so men pulled on the shore end of the !
life line to ieap it taut but could
only partially do it for when the ship
rolled seward the line would be
taut and the men would be under
water; some of the men were dragged
half the distance from the ship under
water; 40 or so men would take the
life line and go on the run, others
would go out in the water and catch
them as they came in, and take them
out of the buoy; some would be so
near gone they had to be helped to
the fires, others would pull themselves
out and go licketty split for the warm
spot; the spectators had built great
fires of drift wood and had hot coffee
ready for them. By this time the
sea had become much rougher and the
surf was very haevy, the line of
breakers ran far out and when the
big rollers struck the ship the spray
would 90 almost as high as the masts.
The sun shone bright and the sea be-
yond the breaker line was vivid
Green. 1t was seen this method was
too slow and as two life boats had
reached the scene the life savers
manned one and volunteers the other
and then began the most exciting
part of the rescue; the rowers wear
ing heavy cork life belts would take
their places in the boats other men
would stand by and on an incoming
wave would give shvve and the fight
was on; the breakers would toss them
about like egg shells, the current
would throw them from side to side
broncho busting looked tame to it
sometimes they would be thrown back
, almost to the shore, but they would
+ keep at it till under the lee of. the
. cruiser when the sailors would slide
Town ropes and drop into the boat;
4 and the return would be just as ex.
a citing as going out. Fortunately ne
o boats were overturned. On the sec
o ond trip of the life boats little ter
( Ter dog-the mascot-was lowered
: from the upper deck by rope ani
s brought ashore anc sailor was seer
f coming ashore with the head of ;
n little kitten protruding from tn
d bosom of his blouse. The Cheyenne
e and Iroquois came inside the bay ant
: about 4 o'clock their crews-all ex
81 perienced oarsmen-took the boat
l. and the work of rescue was great,
" expedited. The first man came dow
A the life line about 2 o'clock and tn
n last came off in the surfboat abou
v $3.50. The beach for a mile was line
d with spectators who built great fires
d hundreds stayed till the last man wa
Ie ashore.
l. Today thousands visited the wrec
d excursions from every direction
D. In putting line ashore some day
10 ago the Milwaukee's boat was over
re turned and a seaman drowned; hi
ii body was picked up on the beach
lp few hours after the wreck. TIL
lie whole fleet was not worth that on
is young mans hfe.
L. Tie Milwaukee was launched
rs 1906, cest S3,900,0OO.0O and the built
ID ers it is said lost S1,000,000.0O. Sh
" was recently overhauled and the GOV
st eminent estimated that she was wort
ne seven million dollars-ship and arms
xt ment-but | hope the time will 500
ne come when such expensive luxurie
K will be done away with. The worl
ne over | would like to see the crew
p taken off and the ships run up on til
tn beach in this manner. This wreck
ne is supposed will cause much red tar
Sc to unwind in Washington enough
a go around the earth two and ha
a times. The local firm has been give
sc the contract on the old figure SIS
ne 100000 to salvage the H-9 by draggir
ne it across the sand spit and relauncI
1g ing in the the bay but Uncle Sam
as fine seven million dollar ship wrec'
to ed by such gross inefficiency will r
to main forever on Samoa sands.
mt was said today she pounded on Il
sand ten minutes before they -four
en- out what was the matter, thinking