A THRILLING SHIPWRECK ON THE NEW JERSEY COAST.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 61, 2 August 1884, Page 6

A THRILLING SHIPWRECK ON THE NEW JERSEY COAST.

Barnegat City (N.J.), June 27. — One of tho most thrilling shipwrecks seen on this coadt for years occurred yesterday afternoon. Tho schooner L. and A, Babcock, hailing from Somers Point, and commanded by Captain Henry Babcock, which put out from Philadelphia a day or two ago, loaded with coal for Boston, sprung a leak when off the bay head yesterday morning about 4 o'clock, and the captain was compelled to run his vessel before the wind all clay, while the crew worked at the pumps. At i o'clock tho vessel A\as discovered to be making for Station 15, just north of Barnegat Inlet. The vessel was beached opposite the station in the hope of being relieved by the life-saving crew. The captain of Station 15, however, was not at his post, and as tho vessel began to go to pieces, Captain Joe Heed, of Station 13, three miles distant, rushed to the assistance of tho wreck, and arrived there in timo to shoot a lino over the vessel, but the members of the crew were so weak from working pumps they could not draw tho rope through the seif, and the vessel broke to pieces while they were endeavouring to do so. In one hour after tho vessel struck nothing could be discerned but a lot of broken pieces of timber. The first to go from the vessel wan Mrs Scarborough, wife of tho mate. She was struck by a falling spar while being held by her husband, and was knocked from his arms into the sea. Her husband immediately sprang after her, and was afterwards picked up on the beach unconscious. A Swede seaman swam a&hore, but the captain, mate, the mate's wife, and three seamen v ere drowned. The mate's wife had borne up bravely from the timo of the vessel's springing a leak until the going to pieces of the vessel, "when her shrieks were heartrending. It is feared that other wrecks have taken place, as tho beach is strewn with drift and Virginia pine wood. The storm was terrible. Cars standing on the narrow-gauge road were blown over, and no boats left either at [ this place or Beach Haven to connect with the railroad. Many people watched the vessel go to pieces.