Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1892 — DROWNED. [ARTICLE]

DROWNED.

An Accident Near Boston Costing Nine Lives. Ap Instructor and Ten Pupils Capsized ' Two Only of Whom Reach Land. Sunday evening an instructor and ter. boys, connected with the Boston Farir School, at Thompson's Island, were capsized in.a sail boat and the instructor and eight of the-boys were drowned. The instructor had been to Boston during the day to attend -church, and the ten boys, constituting a regular crew of the school, left the Island at 6:30 to sail tc City point, to convey the instructor to the island. The trip is considered perfectly safe under ordinary circumstances.having been made for years, even during the winter months, without accident. As a precaution, however, in a i w of the breez , they took a single sail boat instead of a double sail craft, in which the trip is often made. The trip to the Point was made. -andLsoon after 7 p. m. the boat started oh the return trip. At. a point supposed to be between Specterlsland and Thompson Island, the boat was struck by a squall and capsized. The eleven occupants were; thrown into the ice cold water, but being accustomed to strict discipline and the exercise of heroism in the school, they all secured positions in which they could cling to the upturned craft, and then began a long wait for rescue, whiph to most of them was never to come. According to the testimony two survivors,they encouraged each other by words of cheer, occasionally shouting, *ln the hope that they might be heard by some one on shore. At one time a tug was seen in the distance, and they shouted with all their remaining strength, but could not attract attention. The night was cold, and shores and wharves were .abandoned. When the time for the boat to return to the island had passed,the Superintendent of the schoo],/jCh‘artes’ Bradley, went to the beach to scan the waters toward City Point to see if his boys were approaching. There was a fire on a neighboring island, and he got in the range of the firelight in the hope that it would aid his vision, but he saw nothing. The survivors say that they saw his form patrolling the beach, and felt sure that rescue would come, but it did not. . Finally the chill of the water and the exertion necessary to keep their heads above the Surface overcame the unfortunates, and one by- one they were compelled to release their hold. Theinstructor was thb first to go. Each offered a prayer or a word of farewell to the others as he gave up his hold on life. Some of them endured the unequal contest nearly four hours, and it was quite four hours, or about 11 o’clock, when the boat, with the two survivors clinging to it, but exhausted, drifted asfaqre, .