Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1904 — FIFTY-FOUR LIVES SAVED [ARTICLE]

FIFTY-FOUR LIVES SAVED

Men on Two Strnuded Vessels Are Bet cued by the Life-Savers After Being ill Deadly I’eril. New York. Dec. ao.— After being iraprisoiied ou a wave-swept stranded steamer ever since Christmas morning the crew of the 1 ritisli steamship Drumelzler has been taken off by the lifesavers, every man drenched and hall frozen. The captain was offered the opportunity to desert the ship soon after she stranded, but true to the tradition* of the seu, never to desert ship until it was absolutely necessary. be refused. At this time the rescue ot the crew would have been easy, but later the wind increased in force and for a couple of days it would Lave been impossible to have reached the ship. Had she gone to pieces during that time thirty-two lives would have been lost. The wind, however, abated and the ship having four feet of w'ater in her hold, her bulkheads stove and her engines loosened. Captain Niebolsen abandoned her. Norfolk, Va„ Dec. 30.—For thirtysix hours the oil steamer Northeast ern pounded the Diamond shoals off Cape Hatteras, where ahe ran aground in a fog, with great seas sweeping her from stem to stern. From 11 p. m. until daylight no one ashore knew of the wreck. Then she was sighted by the life-savers, nine mile* off shore. But the life-savers were helpless. To attempt to go to her meant certain death to those who want. Finally a lull came in the storm and the life-savers, after repeatedly trying to launch a boat, got three off and after a perilous trip brought from the wreck the exhausted captain and crew—twentytwo souls in all. The ship is a total lose.