June 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


The year’s record shows that of the 1743 vessels included in the tabular statement, 1,364, or 78 percent valued with their cargoes at $6,032,935 and carrying 5,168 persons, were assisted only by the crews of the service, 307 vessels, valued with their cargoes at $7,785,205 and having on board 3,270 persons, were assisted by the service corps working in conjunction with revenue cutters, wrecking vessels, etc., 33 vessels, with total value of $1,353,455 and 376 persons on board were assisted only by private agencies, while 39, totally valued at $451,555 and carrying 227 persons, got out of danger unassisted or suffered destruction before assistance could reach them. In addition to the services performed by the life-saving crews as already set forth, aid was extending to 288 vessels fi nding themselves in divers situations of need of assistance, though not in immediate danger. The services thus afforded consisted largely of emergency piloting, carrying persons to and fro between ship and shore caring for sick and injured offi cers, seamen, etc. Warning signals were given also, to 182 vessels running into danger. Of these 117 were steamer. On 147 occasions these warnings were given in the night. The general superintendent states that there is an demand for power craft to replace certain of the larger types of service boats propelled by oars. This demand is being met as rapidly as appropriations will allow, but does not indicate a corresponding increase in the number of casualties to vessels along our coasts, but rather the ability of the corps, with their improved boats, to cover more territory than formerly. Of the 4096 endangered persons taken ashore or to other places of safety by the life-saving crews during the year, 2748 were transported in the power boats of the service.


The general superintendent calls attention to certain features of the work of the life-saving corps not related to disasters to vessels. The most important work of this character consisted of the rescue of persons from situations of danger or distress in the water and on land. The records show the saving of 106 persons, mostly bathers and swimmers; 96 cases of fi rst-aid administered to sick and injured persons; shelter and subsistence afforded to 116 persons detained upon the beaches by inclement weather and


for other reasons, and succor provided to 3,037 victims of the fl oods in the Middle West; the saving, upon 157 occasions, of personal property.


The general superintendent gives considerable space in his report to the need of immediate action by Congress giving retirement pay to the life-saving crews. The net expenditures for the maintenance of the service during the year were $2,204,074.50.


7 January 1914


Capt. Gunter Tells of Wreck Rescued Master of Oil, Steamer OKLAHOMA and Seven of Crew Arrived in Boston


Boston, January 7 – Capt. Alfred Gunter and seven other offi cers and men of the oil tanker OKLAHOMA arrived here early Wednesday morning on the Hamburg- American liner BAVARIA, which had rescued them from their striken craft off Sandy Hook, Monday morning. The story which they brought to port contained little to explain the mystery of how an apparently sound craft should be (?) in two. There was no explosion (?), Gunter declared. He would advance no theory as to the cause of the buckling. Some of the under offi cers expressed the opinion that a weakness was developed amidships in the big tanker under the pounding of the heavy seas.


Only two lifeboats survived the wreaking of the gale before the steamer broke, Capt. Gunter said. These were put overside, during a storm of driving sleet and a biting wind. The fi rst, in which were 11 men, was swamped soon after it reached the angry seas and fi ve of its 11 occupants were brought to shore in New York Wednesday. “Thank God! Too bad that more could not have been so fortunate,” exclaimed Capt. Gunter, when he heard of the deliverance of these fi ve men.


As to the breaking up of the steamer, Capt. Gunter said:


“I was standing on the bridge with the storm raging about us when there was a slight tearing sound. The sound increased, the ship seemed to be torn in two, and the fore and after parts fl oated clear of each other.” This was early Sunday morning. Later that day the Spanish steamer MANUEL CALVO, came up alongside the tanker.


“That Spaniard just fooled around,” Capt. Gunter exclaimed. “He put over a boat and then fooled around some more, fi nal he packed up his boat and went away.” Capt. Gunter had high praise for a fruit steamer believed to be the TENADORE of the United Fruit Co. which stood by while the BAVARIA rescued the eight men left aboard the steamer.


For the work of rescue accomplished by


the boat’s crew of the BAVARIA as a result of which the eight men slid down a hawser to safety in a lifeboat, Capt. Gunter had words of highest praise.


The boat which reached the


OKLAHOMA’s men was in command of Third Offi cer Richard Knoeckel, of whom Capt. Gunter said, “That man ought to have a Carnegie medal. His watermanship was perfect and he had the coolest head I ever saw.”


Capt. Gunter told of how the little boat, manned also by Quartermasters Glaff and Frey and Hustedt, Meinert and Wachter of the crew labored up to the bow of the sinking tanker. The hawser was stretched between the OKLAHOMA and the lifeboat, and the OKLAHOMA’s survivors slid down into the lifeboat.


Of the eight men rescued only two


showed serious effects of the experience when the BAVARIA tied up at docks Wednesday morning. These were Mates Iverson and Dahla, who were suffering from frozen arms and legs.


13 January 1914 Schooner JOHN PAUL, Ellsworth, Lost Vessel Found Abandoned in Nantucket Sound by the Cutter ACUSHNET


Crew is Missing and Search is Fruitless British Schooner GRETA Sighted Flying Distress Signals Monday Night is Missing


Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, January


13. – A search was made in Nantucket Sound Tuesday by the revenue cutter ACUSHNET, for the crews of the schooner JOHN Paul of Ellsworth, Maine, and the British schooner GRETA of Dorchester, N. B. The PAUL was picked up abandoned by the cutter but later sank off here. The GRETA was at anchor Monday night off Cross Rip with her foremast gone and distress signals fl ying but could not be seen Tuesday.


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The JOHN PAUL, which left Stockton, Maine, two weeks ago for New York with a cargo of granite, was picked up Monday in Nantucket Sound by the ACUSHNET. She was nearly awash at the time and was evidently leaving. There was no trace of her crew, and it was believed they were either taken off by a passenger steamer or were carried off shore while attempting to reach Nantucket in their own boat. The ACUSHNET took the PAUL in tow and was well up to this port when the schooner foundered four miles off Hedge Fence lightship. The GRETA, bound from Perth Amboy for St. John, N. B. put in here Saturday and sailed again on Sunday. She was caught by Monday’s storm off Cross Rip lightship where she lost her foremast and had her mainboom broken. She was sighted at dark last night, at anchor close to Half Moon shoal and fl ying signals of distress. After the ACUSHNET had lost the PAUL and had run in here for a new hawser, she started down the Sound on another rescue mission Lieut. Wiley as her commander, headed the cutter down the Sound before the gale. On reaching Cross Rip, the ACUSHNET hailed the lightship and learned that the GRETA had disappeared during the night. About the same time there came a radio message from shore stating that a ship’s long boat had been driven inshore off Monomoy Point, ten miles to the eastward. The cutter cruised about Half Moon shoal for an hour, but could fi nd no trace of the GRETA. The ACUSHNET was then headed for Bass River to help several schooners.


Lieut. Satterlee hoped to go over the shoals later in the day and assist two schooners at anchor off Chatham.


* * * * * Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts,


January 13 – The three-masted schooner JOHN PAUL of Ellsworth, Maine, sank in Nantucket Sound early Tuesday while in tow of the revenue cutter ACUSHNET. Word of the sinking came in the following wireless message from the ACUSHNET. “Schooner JOHN PAUL sunk four and a half miles southeast by east of Hedge Fence lightship. Position only approximate owing unfavorable conditions for taking soundings.”


The message made no mention of the


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