Besides the crew of twenty-three men, Capt. Dakin’s wife and little daughter were on board.
When the ship began to pound to pieces the mate and such members of the crew as had not already been swept overboard did all in their power to assist Capt. Dakin in shielding his wife and daughter from being swept away by the seas which broke in fury over the vessel. Before the ship broke up the mate lashed the captain’s daughter and himself to a large piece of wreckage, hoping in that way to reach the shore.
Capt. Dakin and his wife were swept away before they could fasten themselves to any part of the wreckage. Of the whole number on board the ill-fated craft but three were saved. These were sailors who clung to a piece of the ship, and after drifting about in Vineyard Sound for several days were finally picked up, and placed on the lightship, more dead than alive.
The bodies of the mate with his arms locked about the captain’s daughter, and both securely lashed to a piece of wreckage, were picked up a few days later far down the coast. Both had been frozen to death. The bodies of the captain and his wife were never recovered, and only a few bodies of the crew were ever found.
BARGES WADENA AND FITZPATRICK
On March 17th, 1902, after some very bad weather, two coal carrying barges lay stranded on the shoals off Monomoy Point, and the terrible disaster which followed was the worst in some ways that ever happened on this wreck strewn shore. Seven members of the Monomoy Coast Guard and five men whom they went to rescue perished in the awful sea that swept over the shoals and rips.
Following is the story by Captain Ellis of the Monomoy Station, the only surviving member of the crew that started to the rescue.
On Tuesday, March 17th, about 1 o’clock in the morning, the schooner rigged barges Wadena and Fitzpatrick, which had broken away from tug Peter Smith, lay stranded on the southern point of Monomoy. The barges remained on the shoals without lightening their cargoes. On the night of the 16th the weather became threatening, and all except five of the persons on the Wadena, who had been engaged in handling the cargo, were taken ashore by the tug.
Shortly before 8 o’clock on the morning of the 17th one of the patrolmen from our station reported that the Wadena appeared to be all right, but later Capt. Eldredge, then keeper of the station, received word from Hyannis asking if there was anything wrong on the barge. Up to this time no one at the station had any knowledge of there being any person on the barge, supposing that the tug had taken all off the night before.
Then Capt. Eldredge walked down to the end of the point where he could better see the situation. Arriving there he found that the barge was flying signals for help. He at once telephoned me, as I was No. 1, at the station, telling me to launch the surf boat from the inside of the point, and with the crew pull down to the end, about two and a half miles from the station. There we took on Capt. Eldredge and I gave him the steering oar.