The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-09-06
American Ships And Marines
Concentrated For Any Possible
Emergency In Cuban Situation
o.. Haskins Relates Story
OF Stranded Cruising Party

ant engineer of the p. and O. ship
Governor Cobb. gives a brief out
line of the troubles experienced
by the party of Key Westers who
went to Tortugas on fishing trip
and was stranded for several days
at Sand Key.
While at Sand Key it became
necessary to enter the lighthouse.
How and why this was done is
shown in the report which was
sent to the superintendent of
lighthouses. This was incumbent
on Mr.. Haskins, who was in charge
of the party.
The story as related by Mr..
Haskins follows:
Captain Ed. Saunders, owner
of motor boat Harlan; MacDono-
van, first officer, p. & o. S. S.
Florida; Eddie McGetrick, first as
sistant engineer, p. & o. S. s..
Florida; o. j. Haskins, first assist
ant engineer, P. & o. S. S. Gov
ernor Cobb, and j. F. Haskins,
second assistant engineer, Cylde-
Mallory S. S. Brazos, and Bill
Manuel, cook, left Key West Tues
day afternoon, August 20. 1888.
for ten-day cruise along the
Florida Keys as far. as Tortugas. i
eve arrived at Tortugas We'd
nesday morning about 10 o'clock,
and remained there until Thurs
day morning. The mosquitoes were
so bad at this place that we decid-
ed to proceed towards Key West,
! trolling along the reefs as we came
along. We arrived off Sand Key
l.. H. that afternoon about 6
o'clock and as weather was threat
ening we decided to spend the
night there and proceed to Key
West in the morning.
eve stopped in the boathouse.
During the night the wind kept on
increasing instead of diminishing.
Unfortunately, Captain Saunders,
in the hurry to get away, had for
gotten to bring his barometer
aboard, and as the radio we had
did not work we were unaware
that a storm was approaching. We
thought it was local squalls.
"By morning the weather was
too bad to attempt to reach Key
West and about IL A. NJ. our boat
broke away and went adrift. Aft
er losing our boat, the sea and
wind increased to such an extent
that it appeared TO be unsafe to
remain on the dock. Besides our
boat being adrift we had no means
of getting to Key West. We knew
that there was phone at Sand
Key connected with Key West,
and therefore we removed the
patterns from one of the windows
and went inside the station. We
tried the phone as soon as we got
in but could get no reply.
"The wind and sea kept on in
creasing until that night when it
gradually subsidized. We had
brought provisions ashore with US
so we had sufficient food to last
as for a few days.
Saturday morning we found an
American flag in the station and
hoisted it Union down. but Is no
vessel passed within few miles
no one noticed our signal Of dis
tress. Being unable to get word
to Key West we remained at the
station until Monday, September
About 1i:30 A. N. that day
the phone bell rang. McGetriek
answered. 1t was . call from Key
West making inquiries 10 find out
IL we were at Sand Key. Ar
rangements were then made for q
boat to come down and get US. q.
S. Coast Guard boat arrived At
30 r. ". We cleaned up the
station. battened up the windows
and doors and proceeded 70 Key
yv.wt ,,.h.~n sea nrr4vsd ak.cus 9.90