Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1893 — CAST UP BY THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

CAST UP BY THE SEA.

The British Ship Jason Goes Ashore fnaStagaa. Bat On* Survivor of * Crew of Twenty- . ‘ Tuesday was a tcrriffic day on the eastern seaboard. Near Provincetown, Mass., the Pamet river life saving crew were in their clothes and sea boots all day. A blinding snow storm hid their little cabins from view. The patrolman on the beach knowing It was a day for wrecks never relaxed his vigilance. k. Suddenly a dark outline sprang up before him seaward. It was without form at first, but through the lull he saw a tossing ship. She was near those sand hills. She ought to have been miles further to windward. But worse than all, the patrolman saw her sails in tatters. He knew what that meant. Hours of hard wearing, beating off lea shore, had been too much, for her canvas had at last succumbed. He saw men in the ship working apparently with the ship’s sills or remnants thereof, and after that other sails were loosened. She was struggling with all the resolute persistence of a bird to dive in the gale and save herself from destruction. Rushing to the hut where his companions were he gave the alarm. Every man knew that destruction awaited the ship. In a moment they were in action, but the storm rendered their efforts useless. It was like working In the dark. As night settled down fragments of the wreck began to come ashore. At midnight a splintered spar was cast at the feet of the hardy watchers. They rushed to it and caught it as the undertow almost snatched it from their grasp, and there,

clinging to the fragments of the ice-cov-ered cloth, they saw a boy. Seaman Perkins saw him first. He dashed into the sea and seized him, and the rest of the men hurried him into the shelter of the apparatus. His eyes were closed, he spoke not, and they thought him dead. They worked over him for half an hour and then he opened his eyes and spoke. He told the simple story very soon. The British ship Jason was a ghastly wreck. Why he was not lost was the surprise of all. He only knew that he was in the rigging wsth what remained of the twen-ty-five men who had manned the ship. She struck, the spars came crashing down and the men went with her. He held on for life and that was ail he knew. He knew no more until he found himself in the life-savers’ but. The ship was bound from Calcutta for New York with a cargo of jute. The Jason was owned by A. & J.H. Carmichael, of Greeuock, Scotland. Cargo was partially insured. The rescued boy gave his name as Samuel Evans, aged nineteen. To an Associated Press reporter he said the ship left Calcutta in February last. When but a few days out they encountered a cyclone that took away the masts. After a protracted stay at the Isle of France for repairs they again set sail for New York and encountered good weather until Tuesday.