At approximately 8:00 p.m., a loud crash announced the arrival of the Nichols to the lighthouse crew, who threw on their oilskins and rushed out to help. In the flash from the light and through the blowing snow and sleet, they could see the Nichols driven upon the southwest reef near the Gilmore , almost touching the bow of the Forest . The proximity of the two wrecks gave Knudsen the inspiration for a daring nighttime rescue of the Nichols crew, for which he was later to receive medals from the Life Saving Benevolent Association of New York as well as from the U.S. Congress. With the aid of an assistant keeper, Knudsen encouraged the crew to jump, one by one, from the rolling Nichols to the icy deck of the wrecked Forest . From the Forest , the lighthouse men assisted the crew--which was unusual for including a female cook--off the wreck and across the reef to shore.

Lighthouse Keeper Knudsen

The addition of the crew of the Nichols to that of the Gilmore and the lighthouse crew created a cramped situation at the light, with a total of sixteen people to be housed and fed. Fortunately, provisions, bedding, and clothing were salvaged the following day, at which point the Nichols ' sails were in rags, her jib boom broken, her spars splintered, and her cabin roof hanging by one corner out over the water.

The next day Knudsen and Capt. Clow took the lighthouse sailboat out to the steamer Outhwaite . The Outhwaite then took Capt. Clow to Escanaba, where he telegraphed the news of the Nichols' loss to Chicago underwriters. The rest of the crews were eventually ferried to the mainland, and the Nichols ' crew made it back to Chicago about two weeks later.

The wrecks of the Forest, the A.P. Nichols, and the Gilmore now form a tangled testimony to the notoriously dangerous Death's Door  passage.