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Wrecks y
Massachusetts
Coast K gushing
* ®Jr RIP&WAY co
t HEROIC BATTLES OF Tie ■)
V LI FE-»B SERVICE^
4
IF YOU run through the history
of the United States life saving
eervice, you will find that, with
the exception of occasional
widely separated years, the
coast of Massachusetts lays
claim to more disasters than
any stretch of seaboard within
the scope of beach patrol, Long
Island and New Jersey not ex
cepted. This Is partly on ac
count of the particularly heavy
sea-traffic in the vicinity, but it
is chiefly due to Cape Cod. It
is this crooked finger of land that has beckoned
a thousand ships to their doom and which in the
hollows of its dunes holds many a tragic story
of lives snuffed out in desperate grapple with
wave and wind.
The night of Tuesday, March 11, 1902, was
wild and storm-strewn. Running up along the
coast, the ocean-going tug Sweepstakes was mak
ing bad weather with her tow of the two big
barges, Wadena and John C. Fitzpatrick. For
hours the triple-expansion engines of the tug had
been churning her screw in the drift of the
heavy head sea and shortly before daylight her
captain discovered that she was making no head
way. He then decided to lie to and, while feel
ing about for an anchorabe In the gloom, the
barges ran aground on the edge of Shovelful
Shoal, off the southern end of Monomoy island,
Massachusetts.
When daylight cdme, the crew of the Monomoy
life saving station boarded the barges, but finding
it impossible to float them on the flood tide, took
their crews ashore.
It was six days later that the disaster oc
curred. Wreckers sent from Boston were at
work on the barges. The tug Peter Smith was
on the ground, having replaced the Sweepstakes.
On the night of the 16th the weather thickened
and a gale swept in from the sea.
The night passed without incident, but early
on the morning of the 17th Keeper Eldridge of
the Monomoy station received a telephone from
the. captain of the Smith asking him if ..every
thing was all right on the Wadena. This alarmed
Eldridge, as he did not know any one had been
left on the barge all night. He started at once
for the point of the island, three miles away, to
look over the situation. The Wadena lay half
a mile off shore from the point. She seemed to
be riding easily on the bar, but the distress was
flying from her rigging. This was a signal Eld
ridge could not ignore.
It was a terrific pull through the breakers that
rolled in across the shoals to the Wadena, but
the life-savers accomplished it and put their boat
under the lee of the barge at about noon. Keep
er Eldridge then directed the men to get into the
Burfboat and told thm that he would take them
ashore. The rail of the big barge was a dozen
(get from the water and it was here that the
trouble began.
The men on the barge lowered themselves over
side on a rope, but as Captain Olsen, a very large
man, was halfway down, he lost his hold and fell
on the second thwart of the lifeboat, breaking
it, and making it impossible for the rowers to
use it. In addition, the boat was crowded and
the wind, which had been momentarily increas
ing, was tumbling huge combers into the wind
ward of the barge. It was into this maelstrom
of breakers that it was necessary for the handi
capped crew of the life-saving station to pull
their overloaded boat, and they made a swift
and able attempt to accomplish it. At the instant
the starboard oarsmen were swinging the head of
the life-boat to meet the sea, a giant comber lifted
under the quarter and dashed a barrel of water
Overside. That was the signal for a panic among
the rescued men that, before it subsided, cost
twelve Ilves.
The Portuguese wreckers, in a frenzy of fear,
st&od up in the boat, rocking it to and fro in
their endeavors to escape the momentary inrush
of water, and though the life-savers fought to
force them into the bottom of the craft, tnls
could not be done before the next shouldering
wave caught the bow of the boat, swung her
broadside and turned her over.
Then ensued a desperate struggle for life. A
hundred yards to leeward the breakers were
smashing themselves into white foam on the bar.
There was just one chance in a million that the
boat could be righted before the sea carried her
into them. Once she reached them It would be
all over. Hampered by the wreckers, the life
savers fought desperately In those few minutes
left before the combers should be reached. Three
times they righted the boat and strove heroically
to bail her, but each time she was again over
turned. They were fighting the last tragic fight
when they were swept into the smothering foam
of the bar.
AU that instant seven men, including all from
the Whdena, went to face their maker. Five of
the hardiest of the life-savers still clung to the
capsized boat. They were Keeper Eldridge and
Surfmen Ellis, Kendrick, Foye and Rogers. By a
superhuman effort Kendrick crawled to the bot
tom of the overturned craft, but the next sea
swept him to join the seven w'ho had gone a mo
ment before. Foye was the next. “Good-by,
boys,” he gasped as a smother of foam took him.
That left Ellis, Rogers and Eldridge the keeper,
and Eldridge was fast losing strength.
In a brief lull, in the wash of the sea, Ellis
crawled to the bottom of the boat. Below him, a
foot away, was the keeper, a friend since boy
hood. At the risk of his own lire. Ellis dropped
into the water again, pushed Eldridge up on the
bottom with his last strength, and again crawled
out himself. The next second a sea washed both
pS and the keeper, alter losing and regaining bis
grasp on the gunwale several times, disappeared
In the maelstrom of water. That left Ellis and
Rogers, a big and very strong man.
In this desperate moment: Rogers threw his
arms around the other surfman’s neck in a death
grip. For moments, while the sea battered and
the foam strangled them, they fought the last
grim fight for life, Ellis to break the grip of his
frenzied comrade, Rogers to retain it. Suddenly,
when It seemed that both must drown, Rogers’
strength left him. His arms relaxed; his eyes
glazed. “I’m going!” he gasped and sank.
A moment later the boat drifted inshore of the
outer breakers and for a brief space was in
smoother water. Ellis once more crawled out on
the bottom and succeeded in pulling the center
board out so that he could hold on to it and bet
ter maintain his position.
Now, you will remember that at the time of
the stranding of the Wadena, the John C. Fitz
patrick, her sister barge had also gone aground.
She had gone over the outer bar and was lying
between it and the inner breakers. On board ber
was Capt. Elmer F. Mayo, of Chatham, who was
in charge of lightening her. The Fitzpatrick was
so far away from the Wadena that Captain Mayo,
and two other men who were with him, did not
see the life-saving boat go out, nor did they have
any knowledge of the grim tragedy that was being
enacted, until, glancing over the rail, Captain
Mayo saw an overturned life-boat with a single
man clinging to it.
The capsized boat was some distance from the
barge, but Mayo did not hesitate. “I’ll get that
fellow,” he announced coolly.
On the deck of the Fitzpatrick lay a small
twelve-foot dory, the only boat aboard, a totally
unfit craft for the furious sea that was thundering
across the shoals. Kicking off his boots, Mayo
and the other men, who begged him not to go as
it would be certain death, ran the dory overside.
How the captain of the wrecking crew kept his
fragile craft afloat, those who watched him from
the Fitzpatrick could nover understand. But he
did keep her afloat, and the set of the tide and
the gale carried him down toward the capsized
life-boat to which Ellis clung now with the last
of his ebbing strength.
The life-saver said afterward that he saw a
dory thrown over the side of the Fitzpatrick as
he drifted near her, but that a moment later the
scud and the spindrift were driven so thick and
ceaselessly before his eyes that he saw nothing,
until suddenly out of the mist a tiny, bobbing
boat loomed a dozen feet away. Then the occu
pant of this boat shot her skilfully alongside the
swamped life-boat and the exhausted surfman top
pled into her.
Mayo, with the half-conscious life-saver lying
limp in the bottom of the dory, had kept his word
to his mates on the Fitzpatrick.
Necessarily, the most thrilling stories of the
coast-watchers are -those in which loss of life Is
entailed and therefore, in a measure, (hey are
accounts of the failures of the men of the serv
ice. But they are stories of noble failures and
behind some of them Ue tragedies other than
those of death.
Perhaps one of the greatest of these is woven
about the career of Captain David H. Atkins, un
til November 30, 1880, keeper of the Peaked HUI
Bar station, Cape Cod.
This man had followed the sea from boy hood,
whaling, fishing and coasting. In 1872 he became
keeper of the Peaked Hill Bar station.
Then came a wild day in April, 1879, and, as
it appears in the chronicles of the department
at Washington, “a blot fell across the record of
Keeper Atkins.”
On this April day the Schooner Sarah J. Fort
stranded near Peaked Hill Bar. A terrific sea,
coupled with an onshore hurricane and a tempera
ture very low for the time of the year, faced At
kins and his crew as they discovered the schooner
and took their apparatus to the beach.
Without hesitation the keeper ordered the surf
boat launched, but the sea w» s so heavy that it
was thrown back on the beach. Time and again
in the twenty hours of watching and battling with
the storm that followed the keeper led' his men
Into the oreakers with the boat, but each time
they were beaten back, drenched with the winter
sea which froze in their clothing, cut and bruised
from the buffeting they received.
"And then,” says the Service Report of the oc
currence, “the last time the launch was attempted
the boat was hurled high on the shore, her crew
were spilled out like matches from the box and
the boat was shattered. And Captain Atkins and
his men, having eaten nothing since the even
ing before, spent, faint, heart-sick, had been baf
fled and had to endure the mortification of see
ing a rescue effected by an un-worn volunteer
crew in a fresh boat brought from the town. The
Investigation revealed that the men upon the
wreck might have been properly landed Jsy the
life-lines but for Keeper Atkins’ failure to employ
the Lyle gun which had recently been furnished
the station, through a singular inapprehension of
its powers.”
It was a bitter pill for the service—the defeat
of its men by a volunteer crew.
The night of November 30, 1880, was clear but
windy. A heavy gale was piling the surf over
the outer bar off the Peaked Hill Bar station.
Surfmen Fisher and Kelley left the station at four
o’clock to make the eastward and westward
patrol. Kelley started from the door first. As
he did so he heard the slatting of sails and the
banging of blocks above the wind. At the west
ward he saw the lights of a vessel close inshore.
Shouting to Fisher to give the alarm, he ran
down the beach, burning his Coston light. Keep
er Atkins glanced at the surf and ordered out
the boat. The men dragged it eastward until
they were opposite the stranded vessel, which
proved to be the sloop C. E. Trumbull of Rock
port. The crew manned the boat.
The story of what took place out there under
the darkness on Keeper Atkins’ last errand of
rescue is best told, perhaps, in the personal ac
count of Isaiah Young, one of the survivors. The
narrative of this man, in his own words, is taken
from the Life Saving Report of 1881. It reads:
“When we launched, the vessel was still some
to the eastward. We went off in this manner to
take advantage of the tide that was running to
the eastward between the bar and the shore. It
was low tide. The sea was smooth on the
shore, but on the bar, where the vessel lay, It
was rough enough to be dangerous.
“We hauled up from the boat until the bow
lapped on to her quarter. Keeper Atkins called
to them to jump in.
“We landed four persons. This trip could not
have consumed more than fifteen minutes.
“When we pulled up again, after being thrown
back, Taylor stood in the bow with the line ready
to heave. I cautioned Keeper Atkins to have a
care for the boom. He said, ‘Be ready with the
boat-hook; I wiil look out for the boom.’ I was
just taking up the hook when a sea came around
the stern, threw the stern of the boat more
toward the boom as the vessel rolled to leeward
and the boom went into the water.
“As the vessel rolled to windward and the boom
rose it caught under the cork belt near the
stroke rowlock and threw us over, bottom up.
"We rolled the boat over, right side up, and I
was the first to get into her. Others got in; 1
am not positive how many. She did not keep
right side up more than two minutes when a sea
rolled us over again. We got on again and were
washed off two or three times before I struck out
for the shore. I asked Mayo to strike with me,
as I knew him to be an excellent swimmer; but
he said that we could not hold out to reach the
shore and he would stay by the boat.' Keeper
Atkins was holding by the boat.
“Kelley had already struck out. I heard Taylot
groan near me as I started, but did not see him
“I saw a gap in the beach which must have
been Clara Bell Hollow, two miles from Station
No. 7. When about three seas from the shore
my sight began to fail and soon I could see noth
ing; but I kept swimming.
“I recollect Surfman Cole saying, 'For God’s
sake, Isaiah, is this you?’ and of his taking mo
up. I knew nothing more until I found myself
in the station, after being resuscitated. I should
think that I remained by the boat half an hour
before I struck out. The cork belt was all that
enabled me to reach the shore. The cork belts
in the boat are a good thing and should be kept
on.”
Thus Keeper Atkins died with his boots on, as
be said he would die if; necessary, in the per
formance of his duty. /
FOIICOMHOIEII
OF AGRIGOLIURE
! HON. A. O. BLALOCK OF FAYETTE
COUNTY.
Hon. Emmett Cabiness of Oglethorpe
County for Assistant Com
missioner.
Hon. A. O. Blalock has represented
his county and senatorial district in
the Georgia legislature almost con
tinuously for the past twenty years,
and has made a record for himself
as a representative of the people and
their best interests, second to no
public man in Georgia. He has al
ways- taken an interest in the wel
fare of the farmers of Georgia, and
. .... i
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is especially fitted for the posit'on to
which he aspires. I-Ie has an army of
friends all over the state who are
actively interested in h>s election,
and, if elected, the department over
which he will preside will have a
most capable and efficient head.
The farmers of the state are vi
tally concerned in one of the meas
ures before the present legislature,
championed by Senator Blalock, the
bill being known as the “pure fertili
zer bill.” This measure provides that
cinders, sand and other substance of
no commercial value shall not consti
tute any part of the commercial fer
tilizers offered for sale in this state.
The passage and enforcement of this
bill would save the farmers of Geor
gia not less than five million dollars
annually in freight, sacking, hauling
and distributing. This amount seems
' large, but, when it is realized that
$25,000,000 are paid for fertilizers an
; nually, then figuring one-fifth —or
from 4.00 to 500 pounds of worthless
filler having no plant food, in each
ton —it is evident that this estimate
is approximately correct.
The fertilizer trust is now. as al
ways, actively fighting ally measure
’ to raise the standard of fertilizers,
whereby worthless substances can be
eliminated. The small m’xers, who
, are not using worthless fillers, are
generally for this measure. If Sena
tor Blalock is elected commissioner of
agriculture, he will see that this
measure is thoroughly enforced, as
well as giving to the office a practical,
business administrat’on. This office
was created especially for the pro
. tection and benefit, of the fanners.
During Senator Blalock’s service in
• the general assembly, he has favor
' ed the pensioning of all Confederate
. soldiers, being the author of the bill
। pensioning the widows of Confederate
soldiers, and he stands for the liberal
and prompt payment of teachers of
। the public schools.
। Hon. Emmett Cabiness is a “hog
and hominy” farmer, who believes in
and practices raising at home every
thing for the support of roan and ani
. mal —corn, oats, wheat and hay. As
president of the State Farmers’ Un
ion. he actively aided the formation
of Boys’ Corn Clubs all over the
state, and is one of the successful
farmers of Georgia.
He is a member of the agricultural
committee of the house, and was the
author of the bill which was so stren
uously opposed at the last, session
by the fertilizer trust, providing that,
the different ingredients of all fertili
zers offered for sale in this state
should be printed or branded on each
sack or tag. Representative Cabi
ness and Senator Blalock are using
their best efforts to pass measures
insuring the people pure fertilizers
in this .state. As the consumer pays
a tax of more than SIOO,OOO annually
for the inspection of fertilizers,
' Messrs. Blalock and Cabiness believe
that the farmers are entitled to the
1 most rigid inspection of fertilizers
sold in Georgia, thus guaranteeing
• that the farmer will get what he
■ buys.
।
' A. O. BLALOCK SPEAKS TO
LARGE CROWD AT DALTON.
Dalton, Ga., July 22. —(Special.)—
। Senator A. O. Blalock of Fayette coun
i ty spoke at the courthouse here to
-1 day to a large number of practical
farmers, and outlined his plan upon
which be is running for commissioner
1 of agriculture for the state of Geor
; gia.
The gist of Senator Blalock's argu-
I ment was that, if elected, he would do
’ all within his power to raise the
'■ standard of fertilizer which costs the
1 farmers of Georgia such an immense
; sum. and to prevent the shipping of
garbage from large cities into Geor
-1 gia to be sold to farmers as fertilizer
' and endangering them with disease.
MACON, DUBLIN AND SAVANNAH
RAILROAD COMPANY
LOCALIriME TABLE.
Effective July 2, 1911.
No.lß N 0.20 Statlons7~No.l9 No. 17
A.M. P.M. Lv. Ar. A.M. P.M.
~7:16 8:25 Macon 11:15 4:39
7:22 8:37 Swiftcreek 11:03 4:20
7:30 3:45 Drybranch 10:55 4:12
7:34 3:49 Atlantic 10:51 4:09
7:38 3:53 Pike's Peak 10:48 4:06
7:45 4:00 Fitzpatrick 10:42 4:00
7:50 4:04 Ripley 10:37 3:53
8:00 4:14 Jeff’sonville 10:27 3:42
8:10 4:23 Gallemore 10:15 3:30
8:20 4:33 Danvilel 10:07 3:22
8:25 4:38 Allentown 10:02 3:17
8:34 4:47 Montrose 9:53 3:08
8:44 4:57 Dudley 9:42 2:58
8:50 5:03 Shewmake 9:36 2:52
8:55 5:09 Moore 9:29 : 2:45
9:10 5:25 ar Iv 9:15 2:30
Dublin
9:15 5:30 lv ar 9:10 2:25
9:17 5:32 SouMD&SJct 9:08 2:23
9:21 5:36 NorMD&SJct 9:04 2:19
9:31 5:45 Catlin 8:54 2:09
9:40 5.54 Mintor 8:47 2:01
9:50 6:05 Rockledge 8:36 1:50
9:55 6:10 Orland 8:31 1:45
10:08 6:23 Soporton 8:19 1:33
10:19 6:34 Tarrytown 8:07 1:21
10:28 6:41 Kibbee 8:00 1:15
10:40 6:55 Vidalia 7:45 1:00
CONNECTIONS.
At Dublin with the Wrightsville and
Tennille and the Dublin and South
western for Eastman and Tennille
and intermediate points.
At Macon Iwth Southern railway
from and to Cincinnati, Chattanooga,
Rome, Birmingham, Atlanta and in
termediate points. Also the Central
of Georgia, G., S. & F. railway. Ma
son and Birmingham railway and the
Georgia railroad.
At Rockledge with the Millen and
Southwestern for Wadley and inter*
mediate points.
At Vidalia with the Seaboard Air
Line for Savannah and intermediate
points, and with the Millen and South
western for Millen, Stillmore and in
termediate points.
J. A. STREYER, G. P. A.,
Macon, Ga.
Foley’s
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Constipation, .Stomach and
Liver Trouble.
by stimulating these organs and
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dren as ORINO does not gripe
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Portable and Stationary
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AND BOILERS.
Bnw, lath and Shingle Mills Injeetera,
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ten. Shafts, Pulleys, Belting, Oaee
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LARGS STOCK AT
LOMBARD
Veoadry, Machine and Boiler Werts
Supply Store.
AUGUSTA. UA.
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Printing
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If it is worth
doing at all.
it’s worth do
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First class work
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