Arizona republican., 1919-01-04
OVER TWO THOUSAND TROOPS TAKEN FROM
 WRECKED TRANSPORT
Republican A. p. Leased WireJ

FIRE ISLAND, N. Y, Jan. 3.-Plans for removal tomorrow of 200 seriously wounded soldiers still aboard the stranded transport Northern Pacific were disrupted when a driving north east snow storm set in at 9:30 o'clock tonight. Coast guard officers feared that unless the storm abated it would be impossible to take off the wounded men.
 As the blizzard developed the lights of the rescue fleet standing by outside the bar were obscured and even the powerful Fire Island light, visible un- der normal conditions for ten miles, could not be seen from the shore watch stations a mile away.
 FIRE ISLAND. N. Y, Jan. 3.-Ex cept for 200 wounded men, every one veteran of European battlefields and more than half of them helpless On their cots, all the 2,500 soldiers who were passengers on the stranded army transport Northern Pacific were safe ashore or aboard naval vessels tonight. at the close of the second day of one of the most remarkable marine rescues in the history of the Atlantic coast. l When darkness began to fall, enforc- | ing suspension of trans shipment oper- i ations, craft of the -avy and coast guard had taken off the liner 2.04I ] troops, in addition to 259 soldiers and 1 Red Cross nurses carried ashore yes 1 terday in surf boats and the brooches i buoys.
 The operation was completed without an accident, except for the capsizing of a lifeboat, and without the loss of q single life. The Long Island coast guar, won the honors in yesterdays rescue work and performed valiant service ;n assisting the navy today. But it was the sailor men skilfully maneuvering in a choppy surf who carried their khaki- clad brothers to safety today From early morning until dusk the rescue craft piled between the stranded troop ship and the fiotilla of cruisers destroyers and tugs anchored just out side the treacherous sand bars that brought the Northern Pacific to griei within a mile of Fire Island light
 Light draft submarine chasers nosed against the liner and took off 150 mer at a time. The launches carried ten tC thirty at trip and the whale. boats and life savers surf boats a lesser number. according to their size.
 Sixteen ladders were dropped over the transports side and down them ths able bodied soldiers scrambled. Tn, wounded were lowered over-side n baskets. or, in a few cases, where shat tered limbs had not knitted, were car ried down gangways to launches
 Hour after hour the trans shipment!
 went on, with a cold wind driving anC
 spume drenching all hands. Tn,
 wounded were hoisted aboard the hos
 pital ship Solace, without the injury o
 a man, naval officers said, and the wei soldiers climbed the sides of destroyers yachts and tugs. six of which steame, toward New York before nightfall.
 If the present weather continues north wind was blowing off shore am the surf was moderate as night set II the transfer of the remaining 20
 men will be completed before noon 10 morrow. naval officers said.
 . The Northern Pacific. standing al
 most upright in the sands 200 yard off shore, was in no danger tonight, ac t cording to Captain J. D. Meade, coas 5 guard officer.