There is a dramatic account of the (successful) attempts to rescue the crew, and the captain’s family, from the Pfluger when it ran aground at West Marina, St Leonards on Sea, on the 11 November 1891. Sometimes accounts refer to the ship as the H.C. Pfluger, sometimes the (correct) J.C. Pfluger. This is from the Sussex Express, 13 November 1891:
HASTINGS. – TERRIFIC GALE. A SHIP ASHORE AND GREAT DAMAGE. During the whole of Wednesday, a violent gale prevailed at Hastings and St Leonards, and did great damage to property. The wind was S.W. in the forepart of the day, and afterwards blew due west. A most exciting scene took place at West Marina (nearly opposite the railway station), where a large three-mast foreign barque ran ashore on the sand about 9.30 in the morning. She had dragged her anchors, and in the broken water her position was most serious. The craft became firmly fixed in the sand, being about 150 yards from the shore. A great crowd of people quickly assembled, which swelled to thousands as the day advanced. The lifeboat was brought to Marina, and speedily launched. Half a dozen oars were broken, and owing to the force of the waves the boat was driven in a contrary direction, and was unable to render help. The rocket apparatus was brought into requisition, and after upwards of a dozen attempts a rope was fixed to the craft, and the work of rescuing the crew proceeding with. The crew numbered 20, and were Germans. The process of bringing them ashore occupied several hours, and was carried on amidst excitement amongst those on shore. Meanwhile the wind blew almost a hurricane, and at times rain fell in torrents, almost blinding those engaged in the work of rescue. A woman (the captain’s wife) and two children were rescued, the former after several attempts. One of the men got hung up in the rigging, and broke his leg. He was immediately taken to the hospital on being landed. The captain was the last taken off the ship, which up to this time did not appear to have suffered any great damage. Happily, the whole of the crew were safely rescued. The craft, which is named Pfluger, and was bound from San Francisco to Bremen with a general cargo, is a splendid ship of 2,000 tons. On being landed the crew received every attention from the local secretary of the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society.
Yesterday, the ship was still fixed in the sand, and apparently little damaged.
Photographs were available in a few days. The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 14 November 1891, had an advertisement by Mr J.H. Blomfield of 44 Robertson Street offering a photograph of the rescue of the crew of the Pfluger. The same issue has a much more detailed account of the rescue. It states that Mr Godbold was one of four photographers who had taken photographs, with Godbold capturing a rocket in flight and ‘another depicting the passage along the hawser of the wife of the captain’, as mentioned in the newspaper account. Henry Godbold was of 25 White Rock in the census earlier that year. The advent of easily portable cameras would soon transform taking photographs. No longer would bulky equipment have to be carried about.
The Penny Illustrated Paper, 21 November 1891, has a dramatic image of the two children of Captain Kruse in a sort of dangling basket, as depicted below. Here the ship is spelt ‘Fulger.’
The Hastings and Bexhill Independent, 19 November 1891, stated that the crew were initially taken to the Wilton Home of Rest where they were supplied with hot drink and food. This was 1-2 Grosvenor Gardens, the only terrace in the town at right angles to the shore; this evangelical hostel was at the sea end, and is now Wilton House. 12 members of the crew attended Sunday service at the Fisherman’s Church in Hastings, where some of the service was in German. It was not until the 20th that the crew left the town for the Sailors’ Home in London.
In the same Sussex Express issue there was also an account of the storm itself:
DAMAGE ON LAND. In the town many telephone wires parted, and the telegraph wires were so damaged by the gale that for about two hours the town was, with the exception of communication with Bexhill, completely isolated, as far as telegraphic communication went, from the rest of the world. At St Leonards the large plate glass window in the shop of Mr Tate, bookseller and stationer, of Eversfield-place, was literally blown to atoms early in the forenoon, and M. Compagnoni, the confectioner, also in Eversfield-place, similarly suffered. In this instance the large glass was completely removed during one terrific gust… at Marina the covers of the balconies were blown to pieces in one or two instances, the large sheets of lead and zinc being tossed about as if composed of cardboard, and innumerable tiles and slates, together with a number of chimneys, were dislodged….
The 19 March 1892 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer has an article on a gathering at the Fisherman’s Institute in Hastings Old Town. £50 had been donated by the owners of the Pfluger, and this was distributed to 138 recipients, most getting 5 shillings. The Mayor (Alderman Tree) had understood that it was normal in Germany to reward rescuers, and he had written to the German Ambassador asking ‘for some recognition of the bravery of the Hastings men.’ £36 raised by local subscriptions had already been distributed by the Mayor in January. As for the ship, it had been towed away and was undergoing repairs in a foreign port.
See the Historical Hastings page on the Pfluger for more information, including more images.