Lost Overboard

A Man Falls From a Boat and is Drowned

Gabriel Samelson, a clam dredger in Raritan bay who lives on his boat, landed at Atlantic Highlands on Friday to inform the authorities that Ben Anderson, an assistant on the boat, had fallen from the boat and been drowned. According to Samelson's story the accident happened about two miles off the Keansburg light. The boat was under sail when Anderson fell overboard. Samelson put off in a small boat as soon as he could and returned to the spot where the man went down, but nothing was seen of him. Anderson had on hip rubber boots and it is thought that the weight of these kept him from coming to the surface after falling overboard.

Anderson had worked for William Wagner of Atlantic Highlands and both he and Samelson are known there. Anderson leaves no family. Samelson says that he went to Atlantic Highlands as soon as the accident happened so that no suspicion would rest on him through a delayed announcement of the affair.

Source: Red Bank Register, Wednesday, Mar 27, 1901

Some additional excellent resources for your research are:

• New Jersey Census, 1772-1890 - Ancestry.com

• Calendar of New Jersey Wills, 1670-1760 - Ancestry.com

• Interment.net - NJ ~ New Jersey Cemetery Transcriptions on the net.

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