Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-03-28

their efforts to save life and property
Indeed, the crews strcWn along the
shores of the Great Lakes have as siren
uous time of it as their fellows along
the Atlantic seaboard, even they who
keep watch along the wreck -strewn
south beach of Long Island and the
| New Jersey coast.
he almost supcrhuman powers Of en-
durancc of the life guards in time OF
peril is well illustrated by the work of
the Ottawa Point Station, Lake Huron,
on November 27th and 2Sth, 1880
| Early on the afternoon of the 27tl,
Captain i. I. Ocha heard signals of dis
| tresS and sent two surfmen to invcsti-
| gate. After walking ten miles along
the beach, in the face of a binding
| snow and slcet storm, they found two
| Schooners driven on a reef about three
| hundred yards off shore While one of
| the surfmen remained on the beach and
| built fire, to let the shipwrecked know
that succor was coming, the other stag
gered back to the station and notified
the crew of the work ahead
1t was folly to think of rowing down
W tllN lNNhs y team vi IIDl SGS WIS
hastily procured from a farmer. the life
boat and beach apparatus loaded in a
wagon, but before the horses had gone
far they played out. Another team was
secured and, the crew walking the trip
was renewed. The burden proved too
heavy for the four animals and the life
boat had to be left behind.
Finally, the scene of the wreck was
reached, and while part of the crew
shot line to the schooners. the rest
went back for the boat. This was
brought up after one man had been res
cued in the brecches buoy, and then,
the schooners showing signs of breaking
up. the crew decided to use the life
boat Twenty times the seas baffled
them in their attempt to launch ii, ruth
lcSSly hurling them back on the sands.
At last they got off-and rescued every
soul aboard just a few minutes before
the schooners went to pieces.
1t was well on toward morning of
the 2Sth. The life savers set about
finding food for the sailors. Some milk
and a little bread were obtained from
an isolated farm house. 1t was not suf-
hcient to go around; the crew forced
every mouthful of it on the rescued.
| hen the life savers compelled the sail
ors to get in the wagon and, the guards
walking alongside, the journey through
the storm to the station was begun. 1t
was not till the n ht of the 18th that
the station was reached After making
the rescued comfortable, the crew went
back for the beach apparatus and the
boat; and it was only when these had
been brought in that food passed the
mouths OF these heroes of the surf for
the first time since they had left their
station to go to the rescue.
At the Lake View Beach Station,
Lake Huron, Captain Plough and his
crew, in 1907, from two to six o'clock
of morning, rescued thirty-eight per
sons from the wrecks of seven steamers
and schooners. and then spent all that
day saving property. On a stormy pitch
black night Surfman Fred Hatch, of the
Cleveland station. leaped from the
main boom of a submerged wreck to the
mizzen shrouds and saved two lives.
Captain Greisser, of the Buffalo sta
ton, in 1901, swan with line five hun
dred feet i'll gale to the rescue of a
man clinging to piling. This is one
OF the greatest swimming feats of mod
ern times. The surfmen of several of
the Lake Superior stations frequently
patrol on all fours, the water forming
an ice coating as it is driven on the
beach, thus making walking impossible.
And to add to the usual dangers that
fall to the lot Of the life saver, the crews
along parts of Lake Gaperior'saSho
la,ra ,,-I1,yas .,,,la J.e,o~,fn t,r f,,,,,f,a.-
II watch out for. More than one surf
man, while on his lonely patrol, has
been charged by wolf, its inborn fear
of the sea conquered by the gnawing at
its stomach.
1t is not exag~eration to say that
wherever Uncle Sans life guard is
found, there is hero. When two vol
unteers were wanted to go to a wreck
in the breeches buoy on the North Caro-
lima coast, all of the twenty-one surf
men present volunteered, and each con-
tended with as much heat that he should
be one of the two chosen. Before day
break, in hurricane on the same coast,
Surfman Midget rescued ten persons,
one by one, at great peril to his own
life And thus the tales cf The service
might be multiplied ad ininitum.
No one who knows aught of the life
saving man will dispute the words of
the poet:
He's an angel dressed in oilskins, he's
a saint in a sou'wester,
He as plucRy as they make, or ever
can,
He's a hero born anG bred, but it hasn't
swelled his head,
And he's just the u. S. Comments
hired man."