Key West, FL Yacht LEBRA Wreck, Dec 1910

SHE FIGHTS TO DIE IN SEA

Mrs. Stuart Bennett Struggles All Night on Wreck of Yacht.

Survivor Tells of Ordeal That Continues Until Frenzied Woman Plunges Overboard.

Special to The Washington Post.
Key West, Fla., Dec. 27. – Mr. and Mrs. STUART BENNETT, who were swept out into the gulf, clinging to the wreckage of their yacht Lebra, which was shattered near here in collision with the piling of Flagler’s East Coast Railway Sunday night, are both dead.

Herman Parker, who was with Mr. and Mrs. Bennett on the yacht, and who clung to the wreckage with them, was rescued today by Capt. Shaw, of a pilot-boat. Parker tells a graphic story of the death of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. He and the Bennetts managed to climb up on the bottom of the upturned boat, and they clung there with great difficulty, as great waves were breaking over them.

Mr. Bennett, Parker says, was injured when the yacht was wrecks, and after two hours was washed overboard and drowned. Mrs. Bennett grew hysterical, and tried to follow him into the sea, but was prevented by Parker, who seized the distracted woman in his arms.

Parker says that he held Mrs. Bennett with one arm while he clung to the boat’s bottom with the other all through Sunday night and until 8 o’clock Monday morning. Parker says, Mrs. Bennett managed to break his hold and plunged into the gulf. For two hours before her death she was screaming continually that she wanted to join her husband.
After Mrs. Bennett’s death Parker clung to the boat until it lodged on a small key. He remained there until this morning, when he was sighted and rescued.

Parker says that while he and Mrs. Bennett were clinging to the wreck a small boat passed within 200 yards of them, but did not notice his shouts for assistance. Parker is badly injured, but will recover.

The Washington Post, Washington, DC 28 Dec 1910
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Transcribed by Jenni Lanham.