“The decks became coated with ice and the captain ordered all hands into the rigging. My grandfather said it was the mate who told the story later because the captain had fallen, frozen over with ice, from the mizzenmast and been instantly washed away by the undertow. Then one of the crew fell from the rigging and was rolled back and forth along the deck until he, too, was swept overboard. After the rescue, the cook, an old man, and the young cabin boy were found frozen to death in the rigging—the young boy still in underclothes. They were found near each other, their arms clasped around the mast and frozen there.

“Grandpa said the fog was bad and the lifesavers’ patrol didn’t discover the wreck until around seven in the morning, when they had already been grounded a couple of hours. Well, they tried to launch a surfboat after one was hauled to the beach by horses from a couple of miles away. But the surfboat kept grounding because of the water surrounding the vessel being first deep then sucked away to a matter of inches by the undertow. It kept swamping. By then, one of the Castagna’s sailors, with help so near at hand, took a chance on cutting himself loose from the rigging and dropping into the sea where he could be grasped by the rescue crew. But the undertow got him first, and he was carried out and drowned.

“Then the lifesavers tried shooting lines aboard. The first and second lines fell short, but the third one passed over the bark and a sailor managed to make it fast even though his limbs were practically immobile.”