The Watertown news. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1917-1919, 1919-01-02
us. TRANSPORT
GROUNDS WITH
2,481 YANKEES
Raging Gale and Thick Mist Bars
Rescue of Wounded
Men.
SURF SWAMPS LIFE BOATS
Sea Battering Big Troopship North
ern Pacific to Pieces About Mile
Off Shore Between Point of
Woods and Fire Island.

New York, Jan. 2.-In a thick mist
which enveloped the sea and blotted
out the shore lights, the United
States transport Northern Pacific,
having on board 2,481 American
troops, 1,671 of them i'll and wound
ed, went aground about a mile off
shore on sand bar midway between
Point of Woods and Fire Island.
The Northern Pacifc's position is
directly opposite the naval radio sta
ton. Embarkation officials at Hobo
ken expressed the opinion that the
heavy fog was entirely responsible
for the transports plight.
Trapped in "Graveyard."
The weather at the time the North
ern Pacific went off her course was
thick off Fire island, which is known
among mariners as the graveyard of
the Atlantic coast" A chilly south
wind was blowing and rain fell at
times.
She is still held fast, with heavy
seas running and a brisk southwest
wind blowing, making it impossible,
for livesavers from the coast guard
station and f1otilla of naval vessels
to effect a rescue of the troops on
board.
The transport pounded her nose
on the treacherous sand bar as she
was cropping her way in the heavy
fog shortly after three o'clock in the
morning, bound from Brest, France, to
New York
She was due at Quarantine at eight
O'Clock and expected to dock at her
pier in Hoboken, an hour later, in time
to land the soldiers so they could
celebrate New Years day ashore.
Instead, however, she is held hard
and fast off Fire island, with weather
conditions so unfavorable that there
is little, if any likelihood, of her get
ting off before today.
Rescue Made Impossible.
With the surf lashed into fury
by a stiff wind from the southwest,
coast guardsmen from the life-saving
stations along the Long Island coast
anu lHc uOtllId OI naval NcSScio
standing by have found it impossible
to attempt to rescue the 1000 odd
men marooned on the stranded trans
port
Rolling in the trough of the heavy
seas sweeping over her, the vessel
buried herself deeper in the sands,
and although wireless messages
flashed ashore made 1t known that
she was in no immediate danger, it
looked as If she might be pounded to
pieces unless the storm abated.
No apprehension for the safety of
the well and wounded troops on board
was entertained by the navy officials,
who sped to the scene with a flotilla
of vessels dispatched from New York
to go to the aid of the stranded ves-s
sci.
All efforts to take the men or were
Jnavailing, for the lifeboats laanched
Dy the coast guardsmen were
swamped in the surf Immediately
they left the beach, and the navy
craft, standing by to the windward,
could not dare venture in because of
the rising seas.
Fail to Reach Out Lines.
From the moment the coast guards
men, answering the distress calls that
were flashed to every life-saving sta
ton along the south coast of Long
lines out to the stranded ship, but
every one either snapped or fell short
until the keeper of the Point of Woods
station sent one whizzing through the
air that fell across the transports
bows.
BY that time, nine hours after the
Northern Pacific poked her nose onto
the sand bar, every preparation had
been perfected to send the troops
the wounded first, of course, ashore
in the life buoys.
Units Aboard Ship.
Washington, Jan. 2.-Treops aboard
the Northern Pacific are:
Fifth American Base Cemetery sec
tor, IT officers, 470 men; 81 per cent
Portland, Me-; IA per cent Jefferson
Barracks, Mo-; remainder scattering.
Eighth trench mortar battery, five off
GERS, 155 men; 100 per cent Vancouver
Barracks, Washington.
Casual officers, AS sick and wounded,
269 men. Others not requiring spa-
cial attention, 73 officers 1,402 men.
The units to which they belong are
not given by the war department.
U. S. Fleet Passes the Skavs.
Copenhagen. Jan. "A Franco
American squadron has passed the
Skaw (near Skagerak) en- route for
Bslttc waters.