USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 48
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nal service has amply proven its worth in affording warning to mariners and in enabling them to avoid dangerous coasts; and to these excellent cautionary advantages are to be added the salutary operations of the Life Saving Service, whose beneficent effort serves to mitigate the evils of dis- aster.
Among the shore dwellers along the coast, and especially upon that portion stretching away from Little Egg Harbor to Cape May, were those who formed a peculiar class, and, indeed, these constituted nearly the en- tire population. They were fishermen. Their toils were arduous, fraught with much danger, and were poorly rewarded. Far removed from the marts of trade, they subsisted principally upon fish which they took, and such hard bread and few other articles of food as constituted the diet of sailors upon the smallest and most meagerly provisioned vessels. Their clothing was of the coarsest, women often wearing the same as men, and was worn so long as the garments could be held together by dint of patch- ing and darning.
To these miserably conditioned people a shipwreck was as a merciful dispensation of Providence. The food and dress stuffs cast ashore came to them as unlooked-for fortune, providing them with unheard of luxuries for their tables and persons. At times, too, they saved from the seas some rich article of silverware, china or furniture, which was curiously out of place in their hovel-like dwellings, but which delighted their eyes, even though they were unaware of its use. Hence it followed, what with their necessities and their curiosity, that they were kept in continual wonder- ment as to what new treasure would come to them from that world of which they knew nothing. Perhaps there was some foundation for the story told of the fisherman's child who was taught to pray : "God bless mam, pap, and all us poor, miserable sinners, and send a ship ashore be- fore mornin'." Or that other, which averred that in the cupola of the first church erected in the neighborhood of Absecon Beach was stationed a look- ont during the hour of service to acquaint the congregation of a vessel drifting in, in order that the Barnegat and Brigantine Beach people should not forestall them in reaching the scene of disaster, and appropriating the best of what the waves would wash in. It is due to these people, however, to acknowledge that as a rule their humane feelings moved them to the rescue of life before they attempted the saving of merchandise. There were many such noble accomplishments during all of the years prior to the es- tablishment of the Life Saving Service, and in some instances the rescuer came to his death while engaged in his mission of mercy. .
It was not long until the fishermen became also wreckers, and many made more of a business of wrecking than they did of fishing. These
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conditions were early recognized by the provincial government. In 1696 Andrew Hamilton, Governor of the Province of East and West Jersey, ap- pointed agents, whom he authorized "to look after wrecks which might come on shore, and to Dispose of the same according to his Deschresion and to account to me for the same." The share coming to the wrecker was pitifully small. He took desperate chances in his contest with the elements, and in contact with the flotsam and wreckage which the tempestuous waves hurled against him. Did his life pay the penalty of his daring there were none save his fellows, as poor as himself, to succor his widow and orphans. And so, and it was to be expected, the law became practically inoperative. The spoils of the seas were in greater part appropriated by the wrecker, and in this he was justified by the practice of the times.
Despite their poverty and necessities, the wreckers as a rule kept within the pale of the unwritten law which governed their calling, and con- tented themselves with the goods which came ashore, or which they brought from the wrecked vessel after its abandonment by the captain and crew. But the life was demoralizing. Familiarity with scenes of destruction and death were dulling to the sensibilities, begetting contempt for human life and a rapacious desire for plunder. There were instances where the wreckers became lost to all sense of honor, even between themselves. In the winter of 1830 the ship "George Cannon," from Liverpool, laden with dry goods and hardware, came ashore on Absecon Beach. The shore people scented the prey and came in throngs, eager for the spoils, and cu- pidity reigned unrestrained. Neighbor robbed neighbor. Boxes of goods were buried in holes made in the hills, and while the hider was gone in quest of more plunder, another would dig them out and take them to other places of concealment. The night was bitterly cold, and two men perished in such undertakings.
Such occasional scenes were an inspiration for the sensational news- paper writer and lurid novelist of the period, who improved the occasion to the utmost. According to their telling, cold-blooded deceit was practiced to bring ashore vessels for sake of gain. False lights were displayed by night and false hails were given by day to lure to wreck the mariner who . had wandered away to an unfamiliar coast. Even then, the annalist averred that it was to be said, in justice, that the treacherous wrecker at times permitted his humane instincts to prevail, and hastened to save those. whose lives he had brought into peril before seeking the flotsam upon which he was at heart intent. But then followed the relation of scenes of shocking inhumanity and lawlessness-the despoilment of corpses, with- out regard to sex, and to the point of utter nakedness. Passengers and sailors were frequently made to give up the money and valuables upon
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their persons. In sonie extreme cases, where resistance to the act of rob- bery was attempted, the unfortunate cast-away was subjected to personal violence, even to the extremity of murder.
Such charges as these were of frequent repetition, particularly be- tween 1830 and 1835, and at intervals thereafter. In 1832 a pirate, Panda by name, attempted a horrible crime on the high seas. Having captured the brig "Mexican," of Salem, Massachusetts, he drove the crew between decks and battened down the hatches. After removing to his own craft treasure amounting to twenty thousand dollars, he fired the captured ves- sel and sailed away: Providentially, one of the sailors left in this miserable plight found his way to the deck and removed the hatches, releasing his fellows, who put out the fire and brought their vessel safely into port. The news of this affair and a description of the pirate ship went to all parts of the globe, and two years afterward she was captured by a British man-of- war off the African coast. Seven of the pirates were brought to trial in Boston, where they were fully identified by some of those whom they thought they had burned to deatlı, and their execution speedily followed.
This affair had excited the public imagination and indignation to tlie utmost, and for some years nearly every disaster on the coast was magnified into a crime perpetrated by shore-dwelling pirates. One case was that of the schooner "Henry Franklin," cast ashore on Barnegat Beach, on the night of March 17th, 1834, and another was that of the "James Fisher," which was stranded near Barnegat Inlet, on October 12th following. A number of persons were indicted for stealing merchandise from one or the other of these vessels, and six men were convicted and sentenced to fine and imprisonment. There was no charge of decoying the vessels ashore and the convictions were for stealing and plundering. But news- papers and novelists made the most of the case, and "New Jersey Land Pirates" became a familiar term.
Charges finally became so specific that in 1846 a committee of the New Jersey Legislature was appointed, pursuant to a resolution reciting an allegation that at the time of the distressing wreck of the "John Min- turn" and other vessels, February 15th of that year, on the coast of New Jersey, some persons on shore neglected and refused to render relief and assistance to the perishing passengers and seamen, and that some plun- dered the bodies of the dead of valuables, and exacted money for the de- livery of the bodies.
The committee assembled in Freehold, and thence went to the shore. which was traversed for a distance of twenty-one miles, from a point near Sandy Hook to a point four miles south of Squan Inlet. Investigation was made of the many wrecks which occurred on the date designated, and
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thirty-six witnesses, shore dwellers and shipwrecked people, were privateiy examined under oath. Through this evidence it was shown that in the case of the ship "Pioneer," stranded eleven miles south of Sandy Hook, the crew were rescued by shore dwellers and received humane treatment. The schooner "Register" was stranded one mile farther south. The cargo lay scattered along the beach for two miles, and there was no evidence that any portion of it was illegally taken. One passenger was drowned, but there was absence of suspicion that his person was robbed. The schooner "Arkansas" was stranded four miles yet farther south. One boy was drowned in the cabin, but all others on board were rescued. To the south, the seven people on the brig "Antares" were saved. The "New Jersey" and the "Lotty" went ashore eight miles north of Squan Inlet. All but one on board these vessels were saved, and there was no suspicion that property was improperly appropriated. The schooner "Alabama" ran ashore imme- diately south of Squan Inlet and went to pieces during the night. Her plight was not discovered until morning, when she was going to pieces rapidly, and all on board perished, notwithstanding every effort was made to reach her with a boat from the shore. In the case of the "John Min- turn," laden with a valuable cargo and having fifty-one souls on board, the shore people labored all day to reach the wreck, but with little success on account of the heavy sea, and many sailors and passengers were lost.
In summing up, the committee found that forty-five dead bodies had come ashore that dreadful night on the short stretch of coast which came under its investigation. It reported no evidence that money was exacted for the delivery of bodies. It believed the charges of wholesale plunder- ing to be utterly untrue, but stated that it was to be expected that some purloining occurred, as the evidence showed. The amount taken was esti- mated at about $300, a trifle, when it is said that the vessel cargoes were worth $84,000. The committee further said the charge in public journals that people on shore had been in the habit of raising false lights to decoy vessels ashore was disproved as far as it could be by testimony.
The Revolutionary war period was marked by numerous disastrous wrecks, but accounts of these are necessarily meager.
So late as in 1855 were to be seen in Amboy Bay the remains of an old ship, the "Caledonia," once commanded by Captain Drummond. It is presumed that it was abandoned as unseaworthy in 1715, and that a storm broke it from its moorings, and drifted it to wreckage. Relics from this vessel have been preserved in the belief that it brought immigrants from Scotland as early as 1685, and it is known that it brought Scotch !
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families over in about 1715, and among them were undoubtedly some who became connected with the Old Scots Church near Freehold.
Shortly before the Revolutionary war the ship "Ellis," bound from Liverpool to New York, was stranded at Absecon Inlet. She was loaded with tea, and among her passengers was a British official charged with the enforcement of the obnoxious stamp act, which was so important a factor in inciting the colonies to revolt against the crown.
The ship "York," Captain Gibson, bound from Barbadoes to New York, was wrecked on Absecon Beach, January 4, 1750. The crew and a portion of the cargo were saved.
The French sloop "Mary Magdelene," Captain Duryea, was lost on Absecon Beach in a severe storm, March 10th, 1753. The captain, four white men and a negro were lost, and two men were saved by a whale-boat.
The British ship "Faithful Steward" came ashore September 9, 1765, on Absecon Beach, and a number of passengers were drowned by the swamping of the ship's boat. The vessel carried a quantity of stamp act paper.
The sloop "Sally," Captain Pike, outward bound from New York, was lost, near Barnegat, September 3, 1769. Six men were lost and their bodies were brought ashore and buried.
The British transport "Mermaid," with troops from Halifax to New York, struck and bilged at Egg Harbor, March 31, 1779. Boats from the shore rescued forty-two out of the one hundred and eighty-seven men aboard. The lost included thirteen women and seven children.
The British brigantine "Delight," twelve guns, Captain Dawson, bound from Tortula to New York, went ashore at Peck's Beach, in a fog, June 3, 1779. The American militia took possession of the vessel, and sent the crew to Philadelphia under guard. Many years later, during a very low tide, a cannon thrown overboard was found by Uriah Smith and brought to land.
Among the most noted wrecks on the coast was that of the brig "Per- severance," which for many years furnished theme for novelist and poet. The vessel was sailing from Havre, France, to New York, and was laden with a cargo valued at $400,000, and in December, 1815, was spoken by a passing ship and informed that she was but two hundred miles distant from Sandy Hook. The captain of the "Perseverance," in his anxiety to reach port, despite a wind amounting to a gale, spread all his canvass and drove his ship on, and at three o'clock in the morning she went ashore on Peck's Beach, off Beasley's Point. The long boat was put overboard, but it was held to the vessel by its tackle and was capsized, and the eight people it contained were drowned. The remainder of the passengers and
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crew, nine in number, took to the rigging of the vessel. From daybreak until noon the shore people endeavored to reach the wreck with boats, but ineffectually. Four of the shipwrecked people succumbed to exhaustion and fell into the sea and were drowned, and Captain Snow perished in his endeavor to swim' ashore. Four poor wretches were finally dragged to land, and with them was brought the body of a young French girl, the only female on board. She was daintily clad, and wore costly jewels. Dr. Maurice Beasley, who witnessed the sad scene, said "She was the concen- tration of all the graces of the female form. Her body was interred in the Golden family burying ground near Beasley's Point, where three days later was also buried her uncle, Mr. Cologne, who died from exhaustion. The Seven-mile Beach was strewn with the cargo of the ill-fated vessel, con- sisting of silks, satins, china and other rich merchandise.
Subsequent to the Revolutionary war and prior to the effective estab- lishment of the Life Saving Service in 1871, there were many wrecks, some of the most notable of which are given below.
The British ship "Guatamozin," sailing from China with a cargo of tea and silks, went ashore on Seven-mile Beach, near Townsend's Inlet, in February, 1809. Near by was a hut temporarily occupied by three hunters, Humphrey Swain, Nathaniel Stites and Zebulon Stites, who assembled some farmers from the mainland and effected the rescue of the ship- wrecked crew. The ship cargo was entirely lost, and this disaster was the costliest shipwreck upon the Cape May coast in many years.
About 1850 Captain Caleb Grant, of Toms River, during a voyage from Charleston to New York, encountered a hurricane. He discovered an English vessel flying a signal of distress and instantly went to her relief. Finding that she could not be boarded by the use of small boats, he boldly decided to drive his vessel upon the disabled craft "bow on." To the surprise of his own crew he was successful and rescued a large number of persons. As a token of the appreciation in which this act of bravery was held by the British Government, Captain Grant was presented, through the British Minister, with a magnificent gold watch, suitably inscribed with a record of his heroic deed.
The schooner "Manhattan" was cast ashore on Long Beach, above Little Egg Harbor, in a severe storm, April 16, 1854, and all on board except one sailor ,were lost.
The ship "Powhatan," with three hundred and eleven English immi- grants, was wrecked April 16, 1854, in a violent storm, on Long Beach, two miles above Little Egg Harbor, and all on board perished. Many bodies were washed on shore and were buried near the beach.
The ship "Mortimer Livingston," bound from Havre to New York,
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came ashore on Ludlam's Beach, January 24, 1863. All the three hundred passengers on board were saved except two who were drowned by the capsizing of a boat.
In June, 1860, about three o'clock in the morning, as Captain Shep- pard S. Hudson, front' Mays Landing, of the schooner "R. G. Porter," was running before a gale off Absecon Beach, he was startled by appalling cries of distress from drowning men, struggling in the waves all around him. The United States steam revenue cutter "Walker" had been sunk a few minutes previously by collision with the schooner "Fanny." Captain Hudson, with great labor and risk to his own vessel, remained until he had rescued fifty-one out of seventy-one persons.
On Great Egg Harbor bar are the partially submerged remains of the "Angela Brewer," which went ashore in 1864. No lives were lost. Among those on board was the captain's wife, who was a skillful navigator, and part owner of the vessel.
The ship "Electric," from Hamburg to New York, was wrecked on Peck's Beach, December 19, 1867. The ship and cargo were lost, but all lives were saved. In the same storm the Russian bark "Johanna Lang" was stranded, and eighteen men and women were safely landed from her.
The schooner "Alice M. Ridgway," Captain Thomas McKean, Jr., sailing from Cape May to Philadelphia, was stranded near Fishing creek, March 20, 1868, and all on board were lost.
The ship "Electric," from Hamburg to New York, was wrecked on the coast of Cape May, December 21, 1868, and all the three hundred and sixty-three passengers on board were saved.
A famous Cape May pilot of the early days was Captain Mathew Hand, who on one occasion saved from shipwreck Captain Decature. Ac- cording to the account given in the "Pennsylvania Gazette," of February 6, 1788, "Captain Decature got safely into Hereford Inlet after a passage of seventy-two days from Demarara, with the sloop "Nancy." He had been on the coast since the previous Christmas, and had been blown off fifteen times. His mate and all of the crew had been washed overboard. and another man had an arm broken. Captain Decature had despaired of reaching land, his vessel being in a very leaky condition and his provisions being exhausted, when Captain Hand fortunately fell in with him."
One of the life saving heroes, before the days of an organized life sav- ing service, was Judge Richard C. Holmes, of Cape May county, who was, in the days when he was incapacitated for personal effort in braving the elements, the inventor of an admirable life-boat. One of his noblest and most successful feats, undertaken at the imminent risk of his own life,
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was told in a volume published in 1852, but neither date nor name of vessel are given. The following is a condensation from the narrative contained in the work cited :
On a dark and stormy night, Captain Holmes heard signals of dis- tress from seaward, and he aroused a number of men to man his surf boat. It was so dark and the weather was so thick that nothing could be seen, but the crew; of the boat pulled steadily on, guided only by the compass, and by the low and distant booming of the gun. After an hour or two the sound of the gun seemed to come nearer, and at length could be faintly seen the flash beaming out for an instant before the report, in the midst of the driving rain and flying spray which filled the dark air before them.
Encouraged by this the oarsmen pulled at their oars with new energy and soon came in sight of the hull of the distressed vessel, which now began to rise before them, a black and unshapely mass, scarcely distinguish- able from the surrounding darkness and gloom. The boat was to the lee- ward of the vessel, but so great was the commotion of the sea that it was not safe to approach even near enough to communicate with the people on board.
Captain Holmes gave up the attempt, and fell back again, intending to go around the windward side of the ship, hoping to be able to com-" municate with the crew from that quarter. In the meantime daylight began to appear and the position of the ship could be seen more distinctly. She lay upon a shoal, held partly by her anchor, which the crew had let go be- fore she struck. Thus confined she had been knocked down by the seas, and now lay thumping violently at every rising and falling of the surge, and in danger every moment of falling to pieces. She was covered with human beings, who were seen clinging to her in every part, each separate group forming a sad and frightful spectacle of distress and terror.
He succeeded in bringing the surf boat so near to the ship on the windward side, as to hail the crew, whom he directed to drop a line from the end of the main yard to leeward. The crew heard this order and com- plied, when he ordered the surf boat to be pulled away from the ship again, intending to drop leeward once more, and board the vessel by means of the line, but the boat was swept so far away that it was an hour before the oarsmen could get her back so as to approach the line. It seemed then ex- tremely dangerous to approach it, as the end of it was flying hither and thither. The boat, however, approached the line, and Captain Holmes, when he saw it within reach, sprang forward to the bows, and after a moment's contest between an instinctive shrinking from the gigantic lash which was brandished so furiously over his head, and his efforts to reach it, at length succeeded in seizing it. He grasped it by both hands with
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all his force, and the next instant the boat was swept away from beneath him by the retreating billows.
The intrepid adventurer, when he found that the boat had surged from beneath him and left him suspended in the air over the raging and foaming billows, felt that all danger was over. To mount the rope, hand-over- hand, till he gained the yardarm, to clamber up the yard to the mast, and then descend to the deck by the shrouds -- all this was done in a moment, and Captain Holmes stood upon the deck, entirely overcome by the appalling spectacle of terror and distress that met his view.
The crew gathered around the stranger, whom they looked upon at. once as their deliverer. He informed them that the ship was grounded on a narrow reef, and that there was deeper water between them and the shore, and he counselled them to cut loose from the anchor, presuming that the shocks of the seas would drive the ship over the bar, and that . then she would drift rapidly in upon the shore, where, when she would strike upon the beach, means could be found to get the passengers to the. land.
This plan was decided upon. The cable was cut away, the ship was. beaten over the bar, awakening, as she dashed along, new shrieks from the terrified passengers at the violence of the concussions. Once in the deep water she moved on more smoothly, but was driven at a fearful rate toward the land. The surf boat accompanied her, hovering as near to her all the way as was consistent with safety.
After much difficulty the seamen succeeded, with the help of the surf. boat, in getting a line from the ship to the shore by means of which one party on the land and another on board the vessel could draw the surf boat to and fro. In this way the passengers and crew were safely landed." When all lives were thus saved, sails and spars were brought on shore, and then, under Captain Holmes's directions, a great tent was constructed on the sand, which, though rude in form, was sufficient in size to shelter all. the company. When all were assembled the number of passengers saved were found to be one hundred and twenty-one. They were German emi- grants of the better class, and they gathered around their intrepid deliverer with such overwhelming manifestations of admiration and gratitude as wholly unmanned him. They had saved money and jewels and such other. valuables as could be carried about the person. to a large amount, and they brought everything to him, pressing him most earnestly and with many tears to take it all for having saved them from such imminent and appar- ently certain destruction. He was deeply moved by these expressions of gratitude, but he would receive no reward.
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