The New York herald., 1922-03-03
28 SOLDIERS FIGHT
FOR LIFE ON REEF
Shipwrecked During Gale in
New York HarbOr They
Face Hours of Peril.
WOMEN ESCAPE DANGER
Fort Totten Men Buffet Seas
Alone-PhOne Aids Rescue,
Boat Saved, All Happy.

Shipwrecked in New York city
marooned upon spit of rock in Long
Island Sound. between Stepping Stone
Light and the Long Island shore
twenty-eight coast artillerymen, includ-
ing a captain. from Fort Totten joked
cold and storm buffeting yesterday
morning. and came out of the adventure
none the worse for their extraordinary
experience.
The soldiers at Fort Totten have a
basketball team. Challenged by the
Fort Slocum outfit. they went there on
Wednesday evening. using the big army
launch L-51. In charge of the party
was Capt Harold Embree. u. S. A..
coach of the team. and under him was
Sergeant John Freel, in direct command
of the launch, with Private Chris
Schwaderman as engineer and Private
Felix Schlick as deckhand. With the
party went several women folk OF the
fort and nearby mainland, wives or
sweethearts OF the Totten athletes and
their supporting rooters, with a few
civilians, including Tommy Kearns. ref
cree, OF Whitestone.
Fort Totten in a fast and snappy
game put it all over Fort Slocum by
score of 81 to 27 and after the game
the Slocum folk entertained with din
ner and a dance. The fun would have
lasted late in ordinary circumstances,
but Sergeant Freel who had been
shifting at the weather, urged an early
departure. So twenty-eight men and a
dozen women bundled into the seventy
five foot motor launch and put from
shore just as snow began to fall heavily
about 10 p. NJ.
Having landed the women in the teeth
OF the rising storm, the artillerymen
started again. confident that they could
find their way across the Sound and
through the tangle of islands and reefs.
BY midnight the thickly falling snow
was a blanket that obscured all signal
lights. The Sound was whipped so
savagely by the wind that seas broke
necessarily over the launch. drenching
the men and keeping them busy at bail
ing. Suddenly the L-51 stopped with
violent Jerk and jar, and the men who
were standing were pitched in a heap.
One of the numerous reefs that skirt
the buoyed channel had claimed the
launch and held her fast
At 2 A. NJ. Freel took the launch's
small boat, using planks for oars, and
started for land with Schwaderman and
Schlick as aids A dozen times they
were nearly capsized. Finally Freel
saw gleam of light. The boat was
driven toward the pale glow and pres
emily the dinghy beached on Hunters
Island and the three weary, half-frozen
men we're pounding upon the door OF the
old Hunter mansion, In whose upper
windows was a light.
John Carroll and his son Joseph an
swered the knocks and cries and did the
best they could TO get some warmth into
the callers. Freel and his men were
thinking more about the plight OF their
comrades left behind upon that sea-
washed. wtnd-swept jag OF rock, the
stranded motorboat likely at any time.
so Freel feared. to wash off and sink.
The telephone soon set the wheels NOV
ing for the rescue of the marooned ones.
Police Launch was first TO sight the
shipwrecked gunpointers. and the police
passed out hot coffee and sandwiches
before anything else was attempted.
Then the Harts Island boat. the Rikers
Island. steamed up and the men were
taken off.
Three men. QUILTED with dry, heavy
clothing. were left aboard the launch.
which later was pulled off the reef upon
a rising tide. At the fort last night 1t
was said that nobody had suffered even
n bad cold.