River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-09-18
Off the Sands
of ManOmeG ~
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

THE sands of Manomet stretch
white and glistening by the
waters of Cape Cod bay. Bearing
northeast miles away glimmers the
Provincetown light. A little west of
north shows the bright beacon Of
Scituate. Due north lies the open
ocean, and when the wind sits in that
quarter the sands of Manomet bear the
brunt of battle with the forces of the
sea.
The government has life-saving sta
tions at intervals all along the coast.
Most of these stations have regularly
attached crews who are paid by the
season and who give over their entire
time to the duty of coast patrol, and if
the necessity arises the saving of life
In places where wrecks are unlikely
the government contents itself build
ing small lighthouses, placing life
boats therein and then enrolling the
nearby fishermen as volunteers to man
the boat and dare the dangers of the
sea if the occasion demands.
There was a life-saving station of
this kind at Manomet, and Calvin Cor
don was the captain of this crew.
There never had been a wreck at Man
omet.
Calvin Gordon had one child, a girl
of seven. The mother was dead. The
child was his life. One day in October
the little one fell i'll. Calvin went to
Plymouth over those clinging sandy
roads at the best speed that his horse
could make. The doctor went to the
fisherman's cottage at Manomet,
looked at the little one tossing in
fever on the couch and sock his head.
"To-morrow will tell" he said, "but,"
biuntly, "I fear she will die before sun
rise.
At this speech the father trembled
from head to foot. 1t was late after
noon. He heard the wind rising out
side and the beat of the breakers on
the beach. He sat at the bedside of
his darling and held her fevered hand,
watching her face with the awful fear
of seeing the dread change come.
The wind kept on rising. It howled
as it swept past the little house. Cor
don could hear the sand that the wind
caught up and hurled like minute
hail stones, striking the diamond
shaped panes of the little seward
window.
Twilight became darkness and mid
night was at hand. The storm was a
devil now. It disturbed the child on
the couch. She tossed restlessly.
There came a crash at the door. 1t
was fairly burst open, and five fisher
men in oilskins came in. A blast from
the wind followed them into the room
It was like a blast from the very home
of all the winds that had ever swept
earth or sea.
"Cal," said the foremost man,
"there's schooner hammering on the
rocks at the end of the sand stretch.
She's pounding on Tautog rock which
lies out well into the bay. Come, man,
to the boat, and 60"
"My child is dying" answered Calvin
Gordon. "She is all have. My love
and my duty lie here. Jim Sparr will
captain you. Go"
''I'll send Mag over here to sit with
the child We want you
The little one turned and murmured
''Father"
81 tell you I'll stay here. Co." said
Calvin Gordon.
Calvin Gordon was known as the best
boatman on the Cape Cod peninsula.
Deprived of his leadership, the men
felt lost They attempted to reach
the distressed schooner pounding on
Tautog rock but failed. Every man
on the vessel was lost, and two of the
crew of the lifeboat sacrificed their
lives in their futile efforts to make
Roadway through the lashing sea.
BY what the Plymouth doctor de-
clared to be nothing short of miracle
Calvin Gordon's child recovered. The
INSPECTOR of the life-saving stations
investigated the matter of the deaths
of two of the Manomet lifeboat's crew,
and heard the story of their cap
+ain's refusal to lend his aid He heard
also the story of the sick child. "But
the child got we'll, he said. THAT was
an awful storm and this captain of
yours was a coward. The child was a
good excuse"
Inside of a week, by the govern
ment's order, Calvin Gordon was dis
with a stain on his name and another
Manomet dweller was made captain of
the crew.
1t was in October four years later.
1t is this golden" month that sees the
most furious storms beat on the Mas
sachusetts coast. A tempest came
down from out the region of the north
The wind in its fury made the bay
seethe. The night was black. Anoth-
er vessel had struck on one of the
outer rocks, whose heads in calm
weather show above the water beyond
the stony point that guards Mano-
NETS beach. Lights were shown, and
the Iife-savers knew that the stricken
ship was a government lighthouse ten
der, with supplies for the beacon keep
ers of the coast. The vessel was fairly
hemmed in by rocks, over which the
great waves broke in fury. The life
savers knew that their boat could
never reach the boats side, the rocks