It was on May 1,
1909 that the five masted schooner “William Carnegie,” bound from
Norfolk, Va. To Portland, Me., went ashore on a sand bar off East
Moriches at about the same spot where the “Miles M. Merry” was
wrecked a short time before. She was sighted very early in the
morning, dangerously close to toe beach, and the usual custom
signals were burned by the life saving crew on shore to warn the
crew of the schooner of her danger, but the schooner soon struck the
bar.
Three life saving
crews from the Moriches, Potunk and Forge River stations assembled
on the beach but they were unable to launch their boats due to the
heavy seas. Repeated attempts were made to launch a boat but each
time it was capsized. Attempts to shoot a line over the stranded
schooner also failed as the outer bar where she grounded was about a
half mile off shore. Seeing that all efforts to reach the stranded
schooner were hopeless, word was sent for the revenue cutter
“Mohawk” stationed at Staten Island, to come to the rescue.
Seeing that all
efforts of the life saving crews on shore were hopeless, Capt.
Mitchell Reed and mate George McClellan, with their crew of nine men
launched a small boat with the 11 men in it and put out to sea
beyond the line of breakers, as their vessel was getting such a
pounding by the heavy seas that she was liable to break up at any
time. Head on to the sea the yawl could be seen riding safely
anchored nearly a mile off shore, but as far from help as though in
mid-Atlantic.
Capt. Charles T.
Gordon of the Moriches life saving station was in charge of the
combined crews, as the Carnegie struck in his district. Capt. Isaac
Gildersleeve of the Potunk station was the first to volunteer to try
to get the Moriches station’s self bailing life boat through the
surf. With the aid of the three crews the boat passed the first
line of breakers but was capsized before she reached the inner bar.
The life savers tried nine times to shoot a line with the Lyle gun
to the stranded craft, but were unable to reach her. When the
schooner’s crew left in the small boat they took with them a dedge
anchor and after getting about a mile off shore anchored head on to
the seas and waited for rescue for the seas to go down so they could
land on shore. The failure of the life savers to get their boat
through the surf showed them that any attempt to land with their men
aboard would be useless.
The “Mohawk” left
Stapleton, S.I., about 11 and reached the wreck late in the
afternoon. Three times they tried to come alongside the small boat
so as to take the crew aboard but were unable to do so on account of
the heavy seas. Then a large quantity of oil was poured on the sea
and it smoothed the crests of the waves like magic, and at the
fourth attempt they were successful in taking the weary men aboard
the cutter and gave them food and dry clothing, as they had been
unable to get anything to eat for 13 hours. The “Mohawk” landed
safely the entire crew of the Carnegie at Stapleton the next
morning.
The “William C.
Carnegie” was built in Bath, Me., in 1906, and was rigged as a
five-masted schooner of 2,380 tons displacement. Her owners were J.
S. Winslow & Co. of Portland, Me., who were heavily interested in
shipping and owned more than 40 schooners of various sizes. Capt.
Clark of Portland, representing the owners, gave the life saving
crews all that remained of the wrecked ship. The deck houses were
washed off and the hull badly broken, but the spars remained in
position with some of the sails still hanging.
This was another
chapter in the history of the many ships being wrecked along the
southern coast of Long Island around the turn of the century, and of
the thrilling attempts at rescue made by the heroic crews of the
life saving stations along the ocean beach.