Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 253, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1913 — A HERO IN A SKIFF [ARTICLE]

A HERO IN A SKIFF

Cripple Rowed Through Gulf Storm to Save Ship. Thomas A. Wells of Texas Town Paddles Frail Canoe Eight Miles in Raging Sea to Get Help for Rudderless Vessel. Houston, Tex. —Thomas A. v Wells of Palacios, the heroic cripple, who paddled a frail skiff through eight miles of raging sea to bring rescue to seven men who were on a rudderless boat, is visiting an aunt near Houston Heights. The first statement Mr. Wells made was characteristic of the man. “It wasn’t much,” he said, when he was asked for an account of his perilous trip through an angry sea. “It wasn’t much” that seven men were saved from certain death because a little man no more than five feet high, walking on crutches, had launched a little skiff from the deck of the rudderless Mermaid in the raging Gulf of Mexico! “It wasn’t much” that he had calmly seated himself in that skiff and coolly looked death in the face as he worked his way to safety and to help! “I believed 1 could make the trip,” he said. “Soon after launching the skiff I found the current was running out to sea, while the wind was blowing shoreward. So. by turning my boat to catch all the breeze I could without shipping too much water. I managed to keep from drifting out into the gulf. I didn’t get more than two or three gallons of water in the skiff until I struck the breakers just out of Port O’Connor. But when I finally got to land the boat was more than half full. The sea was choppy there and it was impossible to keep the water out. “I couldn’t get anybody at Port O’Connor that night to go to the rescue of the men in the Mermaid. Finding I couldn’t get help there, I telephoned to Palacios, finally getting in touch with Capt. William Sutterfleld, who came as soon as he could get his boat in readiness. C. M. Rhea and C. M. Dunbar were on the Clairette with Captain Sutterfleld. Their boat had a hard time riding the rough sea, but it finaJlv reached the stranded Mermaid. “The sea was so rough that the men could not be brought on board Captain Sutterfleld’s boat except by ropes. A rope was thrown to them nnd they had to, one at a time, Jump into the water and be pulled up the side of the Clairette.” “How about your skiff? Looks like ' you would hav& had an awful time keeping it from filing up.” was venturned. “It wasn’t so hard when the big waves came at me.” he explained “When, two of them came together, each from a different direction, it was a little hard to decide which one to look for first.” “You would have had a nice time swimming to shore in that sea If your boat had been swamped.” was an observation of the interviewer. “I, can’t swim,” he replied nonchallantly, as If that were merely an unimportant detail. “I had a life preserver. I could have kept afloat with 4t" ' Certainly he could, and no one knew better than he where he would float to, with the current going inexorably out to sea.

There are now more than 200 species of birds which may be looked for regularly along the lake during the time of migration, Mr. Guelph reports. There are also about twenty species that can be seen occasionally, and twelve which have been seen but a few times and are rare. A Hudson curlew, a willet, and a knot, birds rarely found in western New York, were seen there this year, Mr. Guelph says. The knot is a bird that goes far into the Arctic regions to breed, and it migrates in winter to the extreme southern part of South America. A blue goose, one of the rarest of the larger water fowl, also was seen this year. There are only six records of its having been seen before in this state Gallinules, or “mud hens,” are more plentiful this season than for several years. Black ducks have been common throughout the season, Mr. Guelph says, and early ducks are more plentiful now than they have been for a long time. Mr. Guelph says that probably there will be good duck shooting when the season opens.