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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 4, 1905)
THE SUNDXY. 0BEG0XTA2T, PORTLAND, JUNE 2, 1905. it REALISTIC WORK OF LIFE-SAVING CREW AS EXEMPLIFIED AT FAIR THE rescuers from the deep. Uncle's Sam's most hardy servitors, the life savin? crews, have a email contin gent on the point o Government Island at the Pair, -where they consent to go through a mock performance of their arduous tasks for the edification of land lubbers. This week they will have a sunken mast rigged Jn the lake to which they can shoot a line, and that completed, each afternoon at 2:30 o'clock will go through an hour's drill of all the daily routine of their lives for the edification of those who have never seen the real and terrible thing. There is no beating surf in front of the neat little station on the lake, though the ripple of wavelets and the alight plash against the floats gives somewhat boat waiting for him. When the drown ing occurred the life-saving station was notified, but the news came so slowly that with all the expedition used In launching and manning, the lifeboat, the man was dead before he could be rescued. Captain Clark's crew of life-savers Is composed of John Kelly, Gilbert M. Dean, Thomas I Etltt, John A. Thompson, Hans C Olsen. George Prescott. Carl C. Sbogren and William Potter. There Is. besides the public exhibition, a great deal to create interest about the llfcsaving building. In Itself-iti is worth visiting, as everything there Is to be fhown about that romantic branch of the public service is attractively displayed. The boats themselves self-balling: and capable of weathering seas mountains ,0. 'V L ;:r.:. 1JZ i: mm 4'. 7 fk$i-. of a nautical air, so the first maneuver of each day will seem a little farcical te the performers. A suffboat is taken eu and all the drills necessary to the safe and effective handling of such craft are duly performed. The cnlof of these is the maneuvering of the oars, which must be done like clockwork in a violent sea. This pantomime over the spectacular imitation of saving the crew of a wind tossed and wave-beaten vessel takes place. A signal of distress Is waved from the sunken mast and the crew rushes to man the beach-cart. The shot line is then fired and the leaden projec tile passes over the yard arm on the mast. The distressed crew thon pulls on the light cord thus sent to it and hauls aboard a strnit vrope, fastening It to the masthead. In a moment the breeches buoy is sent along the line from shore and the mariners are one by one hauled back to land. This spectacle never falls to draw a large attendance. Besides being pictur esque, the performance of the acts shown is a matter of vital interest, for it has been performed by life-saving crews many times and has been the moans of saving thousands. A lifeboat Is next taken out upon the lake and capsiwd. The drill connected with this performance is an cntertain- high, are Vnlk tpoM model wMch have Ix-rn ptwred t fee the raps efficient. MveryUK - Is arranged to the one end of stoutness, and though Immensely heavy, they are wonderfully manageable and can even be rowed rapidly. There are also on exhibition several other kinds of lifeboats formerly used, some with heroic records of terrible storms and CO or more people saved by one of these stout little contrivances. Then there are breeches-buoys that have been made memorable by being used on the occasion of some storm that threat ened to cat away the very continent they tore at the shores so madly. Different kinds of guns by which the projectile that carries the linn are shot are also there, and all the other contrfrances are minutely displayed. Best of all, several members of the crew are always about, affable and gracioas, like all brave men. and they will tell aM about It. and though too modest to teH of their own deeds, another trait of brave men, they will tell what others have dene, and the visitor feels somehow as If he had come close to the fierce struggle fr life against the elements Just for a mo ment. And if some of the stories of hardship and gruelling work under the mlghty waves seem pretty strong, the visitor has merely to look at the skctcheK on the walls to see that nothing which can be said of the hardship and call for strength of the llfesavlns- sen-Ice can be exaggerated. 5 .-'jtlr '.' W&0M ment in itself, as the mi r g. .mHr and come up again, battle with the mock waves and glvo an idea of their strife with the sea on some of their hazardous, journeys on the roughest kinds of water. It is the fate of life-savers that the only time they ever get into a boat is when the ocean is the most savage. One man is supposed to be rescued from a foundering vessel and taken to shore. There the regulation process of resusci tating half-drowned men Is performed. During the time of the rescuing the sailors on the sinking vessel all kinds ef signals known to sallormcn are made back ,and forth, adding to the realism ftf the- scene. .Ctaln.olmiCIarki4zjmiaanfi of & crpw 'it the yalrt had,, socio actual ;1 V; mm rrfTtmnnrriT 4 Jyort: to.ladyh.en,rnan went 1 castaia Clark' dived foe $3lm."fcJ?te feet
