OCR Text |
Show I THE AYRSHIRE f AND THE IRON CAR g How a Newfangled Invention Saved 200 Lives By C. H. CLAUDY. ?P 7 (Copyright, by Rldgway Co.) EMORIES of a horror are I T M i usua"y more nighly col i ivJL ored than descrii)tiona ILianua writteu at the time' "e tr-jjr-'l might discount the story tiftJ of the storm of January ..rSrwiif 12 1850, if it came from eye-witnesses, recalling at this far-distant far-distant date the blinding snow and the mountainous waves, but when the sober so-ber encyclopedia and the local histories histo-ries both speak of this tremendous blizzard as of "unheard-of violence" and "beyond the power of words," It is a fair inference that It really was remarkable as a storm, even an Atlantic At-lantic winter storm. The snow was both thick and whirled in great clouds by a terrific gale, which parted the white flakes one minute for a gaze far to sea, only to hide the waves themselves from those on shore the next. The cold was bitter, and the wind such that men had difficulty standing in it. To walk with a long coat or oilskins-was impossible. The sea, according to description, de-scription, was "such that no boat could live, no matter what brave hearts her crew might carry." In this storm the British ship Ayrshire, Ayr-shire, carrying immigrants to this country, foundered and struck, two hundred yards from shore at Squan Beach, New Jersey. Government life-saving life-saving service there was none at that time, such wrecking service as was done being managed by individuals and charitable organizations. The government had not yet awakened to the need of coast protection for its shipping, nor were life-saving devices perfected, then as they are now. Of self-baling, self-righting and buoyant life boats there were none. No one had ever heard of power life boats. But luckily for the two hundred and one people on the Ayrshire one James Francis, who invented corrugated corru-gated iron, had made what he termed a "life car," which was stored in a shed near the beach, waiting some such opportunity for demonstration. The Ayrshire and the "Crazy" Car. The life car was not .looked upon with favor by those stout hearts which had been accustomed to brave the sea in open dories, doing what rescue work they could with inefficient equipment equip-ment and depending on high courage and strong arms to snatch live bodies from wreck and sea: it was "newfangled;" "new-fangled;" it was a "foolish idea;" it was "not strong enough or big enough" to do the work. But on this twelfth of January not the stoutest heart that ever beat could take a dory through the breakers, nor any strength in human arms beat out to sea against such wind and waves. So that when John Maxon, "wreck master," proposed using the iron car, there were willing if incredulous helpers help-ers in plenty to try the forlorn hope. The car was dragged from its shed, the mortar made ready the Lyle gun had not then been invented and the round ball with its slender line rammed home. And If those on the shaking hulk six hundred feet away caught glimpses of activities on the beach, it is doubtful if they had either hope of rescue or comprehension of what was being done, for it needed no mariner to say this was no ordinary storm. The most ignorant of immigrants immi-grants must have known that his chance of reaching in safety that new country he had come so far to seek was small, though but a short distance remained of the oversea journey. As for knowing what they were about no one had ever heard of a life car at that time. But they knew on shipboard what to 'do with the ball and line when it came aboard, which it barely did, after several trials. It seems a peculiar coincidence co-incidence that the utmost strength of powder they could exert was just so balanced by wind that the ball should fall directly on the deck of the Ayrshire Ayr-shire and not short, or beyond; yet so it was. as after events proved. The light line yielded a heavier one, the heavier one hauled out a cable and a whip. Luckily the Ayrshire was stout and strong, and had struck too far in and with too much force to pound. She was safe enough for a short time, strongly built, and deep enough in the sand to form a firm support sup-port for the car and the ropes. One can imagine the joy of the ignorant igno-rant at having communication thus established es-tablished with the shore, and the added horror to captain and crew, who knew well enough that neither breeches buoy nor boat could live iu that sea, cable or no cable. Nor would there be time for breeches-buoy work There were two hundred and one passengers pas-sengers and crew, many of them won;- en and children, and the breeches buoy takes one at a time. An Aerial Bean Pot. But meanwhile the life car was bent into the whip and willing hands hauled it out. Nor -was there hesitation hesita-tion about opening or getting into the queer contrivance the little, flat-topped, flat-topped, round-bellied, corrugated iron pot, that looks scarce big enough for one, yet in which seven grown people can be packed through the tiny hatch, to be shut in helpless, sardlned against the iron walls, chilled to the marrow and all but suffocated with little air. Yet there, those who use the life car are safe from drowning, for though air can get in, water in quantities, cannot. For this is the merit of the life car: suspended from a cable and hauled back and forth by hand, it rides either over the waves, on top of the waves, or through the waves, and at times all . three, one after the other. The breeches buoy drowns a man who is dragged through too much water, killing while saving him. To be safe over a bad sea, the breeches buoy must be hung high. And here on the Ayrshire, with no masts left and a two-hundred-yard pull to shore, there was no way to hang the cable high. So the little life car made its first trip under the water, invisible and smothered in foam. You can be very-sure very-sure it was q.uicltly opened when it came to the beach at last, and the cheer they gave for the seven who were hauled out, almost frozen, stiff and pale with the pallor of too close an approach of death, has left an echo wherever the iron car is used. Two Hundred Saved. Not seven only, but over two hundred, hun-dred, did this, the first, life car save that day. Twenty-nine trips it made through the impassable waves and the indescribable storm. For every trip John Maxon tallied seven lives saved, save once only. That was when some man hero who gave his place to a woman or coward afraid to wait his turn, who can say now? mounted the top of the car after the metal, hatch was closed and left the Ayrshire clinging to the hatch. No one saw him go nor knew how long he clung, buffeted and beaten, beat-en, on the perilous perch. The car came in as before, with seven within, who told ot the man wno could noi wait. The crowd on shore pulled and hauled on the ropes until their hands were blistered and sore: fast, fast, foi the wreck was breaking up and tht mass ot immigrants seemed scarcely diminished on the low decks when a rift in the flying snow showed the Ayrshire's Ayr-shire's white, shrouded form to those on shore. To drag a heavy car su hundred feet out, and then haul i( home again, laden and low no wonder won-der their hands got sore and their arms gave out! Then John Maxon brought his oxen into play and the two plodding beasts walked uncomplainingly uncom-plainingly back and forth, back and forth, all day long, until the car had made twenty-nine trips and every last man, woman and child on board, save the one who could not wait, were pulled by main strength from a watery grave and set on shore, cold, shaken, frightened, but safe! A Record Rescue. The life-saving service has many brilliant rescues In its history and many a hero on its rolls. But never before or since this time have so many people been rescued from so bad a wreck in so terrific a storm. And this fact was recognized at the time: that here was a happening which was likely to stand unique for hundreds of years. So the little life car, no longer new and shapely, but dented and buffeted buf-feted by wave and sand and many heavy loads of human lives, was retired re-tired from active service, its honors won in this one day's work, and now rests, an object of curiosity and of veneration, in the United States museum mu-seum at Washington, for all to see who look. The sand buried the Ayrshire, as if the ocean, cheated of its human prey, would at least take what it could. Thirty years after, the tide perhaps the ocean forgot its vengeance! uncovered un-covered the bones of the Ayrshire, and in them was found the ball which fell on deck, bringing the light line which spelled life for two hundred. That ball, now suitably engraved, is one of the most, if not the most, cherished cher-ished possessions of the life-saving service, which grew with the years and necessity' into its present huge proportions. There are still life cars in the stations sta-tions of the service. For many years after this demonstration they played a big part in saving life, and probably will again. Of late years improved life boats, better facilities for erecting and using the breeches buoy, and finei life-saving methods have made its use less common. But it is always ready the last resort of the crews when all else fails, and no matter what the conditions con-ditions or how bad the storm, there u always the memory of this story and the Ayrshire which every surfman knows to prove that, be conditions what they may, while there is life vx save and the life car to save it wit.h: there is still hope. |