The Wreck of the Hannah M. Lollis

At Pope's Island, Virginia 1892 

by George and Suzanne Hurley 

1984

Pope's Island, Virginia
The Pope's Island Life-Saving Station on Assateague Island was commissioned in 1878.  This station responded to 
four major shipwrecks.
Photograph by David L. Brittingham. 
Collection of George M. Hurley.

A southeast gale blew down the Assateague Beach on March 1, 1892. There was a thick fog and a high, rough sea running. At four o'clock in the morning, the north patrolman of the Pope's Island Life-Saving Station sighted the Hannah M. Lollis. The Schooner had been bound to New York with a load of pine lumber from Georgia when she grounded on the bar about a mile northeast of the station. Immediately lighting a Coston flare to let the crew know that they had been seen, the patrolman hurried back to the station and reported to Keeper Sealamore Bloxom.

The lifesaving crew turned out with their surfboat and started up the beach, pulling it on its carriage until they were opposite the wreck. By five o'clock they had made a launch through rough surf and were pulling for the stranded vessel. The roughness of the sea made boarding very difficult. When the first boarding was finally accomplished, the captain and a part of the crew were removed and the arduous trip back to shore through the breakers was accomplished with no loss of life. A second launch was immediately ordered, and once more the dangerous trip to and from the wrecked ship was carried out. All men were landed safely, with their personal effects, and conducted to the station where they were sheltered for several days.

The lifesaving crew assisted the sailors for several days in salvaging as much of the cargo of pine lumber as they could. Within a few days, however, the schooner began going to pieces, and eventually became a total loss.