Monday, January 2, 2012

Schooner William H. Davidson ~ 12 December 1910

Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911:

Shortly before daylight the south patrol of the Paul Gamiels Station (NC) discovered the three-masted schooner William H. Davidson stranded, 1-1/2 miles south of his station and 150 yards offshore. When the vessel struck her rudder was carried away, as was also the lifeboat and davits. The patrolman burned a Coston signal to inform those on board that assistance was near, then hastened to the station. After telephoning news of the wreck to the Kitty Hawk station, 6 miles to the southward, the Paul Gamiels Hill crew went to the wreck with the breeches-buoy apparatus. A line was fired squarely across the vessel. The breeches-buoy apparatus was quickly rigged up, and the schooner’s crew of 6 men were safely landed. The crew of the Kitty Hawk station did not arrive on the scene until after the rescue had been made, but they helped to save the personal property of the sailors, which was brought ashore in the breeches buoy. The schooner was totally lost, and but a small part of her cargo of lumber was saved.

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