September 2, 1933
THE STATE
Page Twenty-one
Storms Along the Coast Revive Tale of
the Thrilling Rescue of the “Mirlo
59
The entire Atlantic sen-
board last week was swept
by storms of hurricane
force. Small craft wore
torn from their moorings;
large sections of terrain
were flooded; ships at sen
were threatened, and the
total destruction to prop¬
erty will run into the mil¬
lions of dollars.
Several thrilling rescues
were effected, and these re¬
vived stories of the wreck
of the tanker, Mirlo, bound
from New Orleans to Nor¬
folk, which occurred off Wimble
Shoals buoy, several miles at sea, on
August IS, 191 S. It was a memorable
day for the 36 members of the crew
of the steamer, and also for their res¬
cuers, Capt. John Alan Midgette ami
his co-workers at the Ohicamncomico
coast guard station on the outer banks
of the North Carolina coast. .
The Mirlo. as you may recall, was
struck without warning by a torpedo
from a German submarine. The re¬
sulting explosion carried away the
bulkhead in one of her tanks and set
her on fire. The vessel was headed
in shore in the hope of beaching her,
but owing to the rapidity with which
the fire spread, her crew of 52 persons
were shortly compelled to abandon her
and take to the boats.
While the port boat was being put
into the water, it fouled the after fall
and capsized, throwing overboard the
occupants. The boat came clear and
drifted away from the burning vessel,
upturned but the men who had been
thrown into the water succeeded in
gaining refuge on its bottom. Some
others of the crew got away in the
starboard boat, und made efforts to
rescue their more seriously imperiled
shipmates, only to be driven off bv the
menace of boarding seas and the peril
confined within the blazing steamer’s
hull. The after port boat, with the
master and 16 men in it, was lowered
some time after the second boat was
launched and got safely away.
And now the sailors found them¬
selves face to face with a new danger
which they had hoped to escape. The
THIS article, by Aycock Brown, who has spent
several years os a resident of the North Carolina
banks, tells the story of what was probably one
of the most thrilling and sensational rescues
that ever took place on the coast of North Caro¬
lina. Imagine having to row through a sea of
fire in order to get to victims of the wreck. But
that's exactly what took place in this particular
instance. The coast-country of our state will
never forget the Mirlo wreck.
By AYCOCK BROWN
oil. released from the steamer after
the explosion, spread upon the surface
of the sea. The waves as they tumbled
about became veritable moving walls
of fire.
Far to the westward from the look¬
out tower of the Chicamacomico coast
guard station a surfmnn sighted the
smoking vessel out at sea. At first ho
thought that the vessel w’as only mak¬
ing a smoke screen to evade a possible
enemy, but he immediately reported
the incident to his superior officer.
Capt. Midgette, who reached the tower
just, in time to see flames shooting
from the distressed vessel. Orders
were shouted to his men to man the
surf boat and only a few minutes had
passed before the surfboat was
launched through the breakers with
the station's captain and a picked
crew of men aboard, headed for the
flaming ship offshore.
Coming to the zone of the disaster,
the boatmen found the sea a mass of
wreckage and burning oil. There were
two great patches of burning oil on
the surface of the water several hun¬
dred feet apart, with several smaller
patches around about, scattered over
a wide area. Cruising on the outer
fringe of the fire the coast guard boat¬
men finally sighted an overturned
boat through a rift in the low-hanging
smoke clouds. The swells were break¬
ing over it, but between the seas could
lie seen the forms of six men.
To reach those six men Captain
Midgette and his crew had to take
their boat through fire. The moment
called for action and the coast guards¬
men faced death, but they
reached the helpless forms
atop the overturned boat
and took them aboard their
own small craft. The coast
guardsmen then sought the
safety of clear water.
None of the rescued
party could give any infor¬
mation about the boatload
of survivors who were yet
unaccounted for. so Capt.
Midgette did what lie
thought was the most log¬
ical thing to do and that
was to follow the way the
wind and tide were going, which was
directly off-shore. After sailing about
two miles they were rewarded by see¬
ing a dot on the water quite a dis¬
tance ahead, which they finally over¬
took and discovered that it was
the lioat. unaccounted for, with 20
men aboard. So cramped were the
men in the boat that they had no room
to use the oars ami the rising sea
would surely have capsized their small
craft in a short time had not help ar¬
rived when it did.
Nending back to shore, towing the
boat with the 20 survivors, the res¬
cuers overtook the third craft lying at
anchor in a comparatively quiet area
of waters just outside the breakers.
Since their departure from shore the
sea had risen considerably and the
breakers beating against the beach
seemed to indicate that a landing
would not be possible but seamanship
of coast guardsmen won again. Land¬
ing through a heavy surf is dangerous
business even in the daytime and al¬
ready darkness had come. But there
were additional eoast guardsmen on
shore who waded into the surf to
offer assistance and every survivor of
the ill fated Mirlo was brought ashore.
The sixteen unaccounted for were
probably killed when the first explo¬
sion took place.
Down at Chicamacomico today
Capt. Midgette still is keeper of the
station. Some of the men who were
with him on this famous rescue are
still serving the F. S. Coast Guard.
The rescued members of the Mirlo’s
( Continued on page twenty-three)
