Italian Ship Sinks off Race Point

The bark grounded on the bars, it being low water at that time. As soon as the vessel was seen from the station, preparations were made to rescue the crew. The mortar, shot lines, and hawsers (cable or rope used in mooring or towing a ship) were taken out, and the station men started for the wreck. It was heavy and toilsome work dragging the cart along the shore as there was a heavy ice wall along the beach at high water mark. The wreck was not reached until after 5:00, taking over 3 hours to make the distance. The crew from the Highland Station were at the scene of the wreck but without any of their apparatus. A consultation was held by the two captains, Atkins and Worthen, and it was thought best to go to the latter's station at Highland and get the life car. Leaving one of the men at the wreck, the rest of the station men went after the car. During their absence the steward and boatswain of the bark put a plank overboard and tried to reach the shore. The plank was turned over and over but the men clung to it with desperation until they reached the breakers on the beach when the boatswain lost his hold and was drowned. A young man of this place named Bernard Jacint, tying a line around his body while the other end was held by some of the people on the beach, rushed into the surf and grasping the steward both were hauled safely back ashore out of the undertow. The station men, hauling the life car through banks of snow three and four feet deep, assisted by some of the people from Pond Village, arrived at the wreck at 11:00 that night. It was then so dark that the vessel could not be seen. A fire was kept burning on the beach and the station men went to their station for something to eat, leaving a watch on the beach, knowing that it would be impossible to do anything until daylight. As soon as daylight dawned, the vessel was seen in the same position she was in at dark, apparently uninjured. The mortar was loaded and a shot, with line attached, fired, but it fell over 60 feet short. Another and another were fired, each one falling short of the mark; at last the ammunition giving out, the station men and spectators that had gathered on the beach were talking of coming in to town for a boat. During the time of firing the shots, only one man was to be seen on the wreck standing in the port main channels. When the firing ceased, the crew, who had been under the topgallant (designating the mast above the topmast, its sails or its rigging) forecastle (section of a ship's upper deck situated at the bow forward of the foremast), came out one by one; going up the fore rigging, they went out on the fore yard arm and dropping overboard, endeavored to reach the shore by swimming. Not a soul reached the beach alive. Some would stay up for some time but would be seen to throw up their hands and go down never more to rise. One man, supposed afterward to be the captain, kept on top of the waves for nearly three quarters of an hour, but such was the stength of the current and undertow along the shore, that when he sank he was no nearer the shore than when he went overboard. His body was picked up about one mile westward of the station and when found was clad only in his underclothing. The rescued steward was able to identify him as the captain. It was a heart-rending sight to witness the death of these men without the power to save. Shortly after the crew went overboard, the vessel began to break up and in less than an hour there was nothing visible of the wreck but a portion of the bow. The shore for miles along the beach was strewn with the cargo and the debris of the wreck. The steward was named Salvadore Chappira. Thirteen lives were lost in the wreck. The vessel was also poorly built and bilged on the bar, which was the reason she never came in any nearer to the shore. Had she come up on the beach there is no doubt but every man would have been saved.