State

A (otonoting oftrocdon tor modern vocotioneri along the Outer Banks beaches ore the skeletol remains ot old shipwrecks which oppear and «onish with the shitting sea and sand. and swam for his life. The collapsing mast killed Olson. Someone managed to take sound¬ ings and found the Huron marooned in six feet of water. Young. Danner. Loomis and Warburton huddled with others on the forecastle. All were numbed by the cold. Conway had a blanket which he shared as best he could. Washed Ashore In a moment of hope, a light was spotted moving along the shore and a feeble cheer arose. It was the first indi¬ cation that help might eventually come. Again, soundings were taken, but these showed a depth of seven and a half, and later eight feet. The realiza¬ tion dawned that the tide was coming in and the Huron's plight was worsen¬ ing. The resourceful Young determined to try to escape from the death trap. But launching a balsa raft turned into another ordeal. Initially, a 3-inch line was tied to the raft, but this became fouled with the jib boom when the balsa was put over. Assisted by seaman Antonio Williams — "a cool and intelligent man” — Young struggled for 20 min¬ utes to try to get the rope clear of the spars. What little hope that remained for the Huron rested upon this forlorn venture. ”1 was struck several times by the 10 spars.” Young related, "once in the small of the back and once in the hips. It was foggy and we couldn’t sec the shore. “We paddled the balsa with pieces of paneling. Near the stern of the ship a heavy surf struck us and capsized the balsa end over end. My leg being jammed, it held me underneath the water for a while. Both Williams and myself regained the balsa. Then I told Williams to get on the end and we would steer the balsa in fear of another capsize. "We were thrown over again and the catastrophe tossed Williams about ten feet. My arm was jammed. I was thrown on my back and when we came up again it was in rather still water." When a breaker finally dumped Williams and Young on the beach they found two men from the Huron lying at the water’s edge. After the pair was dragged to safety the ensign searched for help. The Fish Camp At 7 a.m. the fog was lifting. Sur¬ vivors waved pathetically from the rig¬ ging of the doomed Huron. Young’s first act was to dispatch a man on horseback to send a telegram to naval headquarters in Norfolk. A knot of fishermen then built a fire in a hut. The Carolinians said they had seen the Huron's distress signals, but did not dare try to force open Lifesaving Station No. 7 which was padlocked because of federal government budgetary restrictions. The station chief lived several miles away. Young, accompanied by five fishermen, limped to the building and broke into it. The ensign saw a team coming down the beach and the fishermen identified it as belonging to Sheriff Brinkley of Dare County. "I broke open the door, got the mortar and line," Young continued, "then broke open a locker and found powder and balls which Sheriff Brinkley brought up in his team." By the time the group returned to the scene of the wreck off Tillett's fish camp, a quarter mile north of Jockey Ridge, it was nearly noon. With rescue apparatus finally at hand, the whole tragic dimensions of the event came into focus. The jaunty Huron was completely submerged and reduced to a derelict. All aboard were dead. The 34 survivors, bruised and ex¬ hausted. numbed by exposure, some completely naked, were stretched out on the beach or searching for their comrades in the surf. (Con I in tied on page 62 1 In The Good Old Summer Time Hardly anybody went away on vacation, and those who stayed home may have had the best of it. By THAD STEM, JR. Nothing has changed so radically in the lives of middle-aged and older Tar Heels as summer vacation formats. Yesterday, only the affluent, the fat cats who made as much as S6.000.00 a year, took vacations that involved fairly extensive travel, and most of these affluent people went to the same resort year after year. That itchy-footed wanderlust that prompts modems to suck and chew the whole world, as if it were a piece of peppermint, is fairly new. Yesterday vacations were taken for respite and peace. Hardly anyone was impelled to discover the world's remote wonders. Many of today's youngsters have been to Europe more often than their par¬ ents went to Washington City. The state was dotted with a dozen resorts built around the magical lithua water that bubbled there. Each one — such as Shocco. Panacea, and Buffalo — had large wooden hotels, with din¬ ing rooms, and small family cottages scattered round, often to form a quad¬ rangle. Most of the affluent families went to the same "springs" year after year, to rest, to cat. and to drink the lithua water. (Many Tar Heels said anything that tasted like ox-gall had to be beneficial, but each “spring" had an established drinking hour when THE STATE, JUNE 197»