They Robbed the Dead as the Surf Came In
A Pacific County newspaper condemned beach scavengers who stripped bodies and trunks after a shipwreck—and recalled the shame of the Grace Roberts disaster.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Pacific County Wreckers.
South Bend Journal: The utter depravity and cupidity displayed by some on the ocean beach at the time of the fearful wreck last Tuesday is almost beyond belief. To ruthlessly rob the dead amid the cries of drowning men, or break open and rifle trunks while possibly their owners were begging for help at the time, shows that human nature does not greatly change with time, and that only the strong arm of the law prevents some of our fellow creatures from displaying the depraved and brutal instincts which brought Captain Kidd and his ruffianly companions to the Tyburn gallows long ago. Let us hope that the perpetrators of the outrages referred to were not American citizens, and that, if known, some means will speedily be found to punish them. It is not the first instance of the kind on our coast. Similar scenes were enacted when the Grace Roberts was wrecked, and it is a standing disgrace to our county and our humanity, which is hardly tempered even by the bravery of the men who repeatedly breasted the angry surf and nobly risked their own lives to save others.
“To ruthlessly rob the dead amid the cries of drowning men ... shows that human nature does not greatly change with time.”
Disaster looting is still a recurring story after hurricanes, floods and wildfires, and the outrage it provokes is unchanged. The South Bend Journal's comparison to earlier wrecks also shows how coastal communities built a memory of rescue and shame long before modern emergency management.
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