The citizen., 1912-08-02

grasp on the gunwale several times, disappeared
in the maelstrom OF water. That left Ellis and
Rogers. big and very strong man.
In this desperate moment Rogers threw MS
arms around the other surfman's neck in death
grip For moments while the sea battered and
the foam strangled them, they fought the last
grim fight for life Ellis to break the grip OF his
frenzied comrade, Rogers to retain it. Suddenly.
when it seemed that both must drown, Rogers
strength left him. His arms relaxed; his eyes
glazed. I'm going" he gasped and sank
moment later the boat drlted inshore OF the
outer breakers and for a brief space was in
smoother water Ellis once more crawled out on
the bottom and succeeded IN pulling the center
board out so that he could hold on TO it and bet
ter maintain his position.
Now. you will remember that at the time of
the strauding Of the Wadena the John c. Fitz-
patrick her sister barge had also gone aground.
She had some over the outer bar and was lying
between it and the inner breakers On board her
was Capt. Elmer F. Mayo, of Chatham who was
in charge of tightening her The Fitzpatrick was
so far away from the Wadena that Captain Mayo,
and two other men who We're with him. did not
see the life-saving boat go out nor did they have
any knowledge OF the grim tragedy that was being
enacted, until, glancing over the rail, Captain
MAYO saw an overturned lfe-boat with a single
man clinging TO 1t.
The capsized boat was some distance from the
barge, but Mayo did not hesitate. IN get that
fellow" he announced coolly.
On the deck OF the Fitzpatrick lay small
twelve-foot dory the only boat aboard totally
unfit craft for the furious sea that laundering
across the shoals. Kicking off his boots Mayo
and the other men, who begged him not to go as
IT would be certain death, ran the dOry oversize.
How the captain of the wrecking crew kept his
fragile craft aloat, those who watched him from
the Fitzpatrick could mover understand But he
did keep her ahOat, and the set of the tide and
tba yaIe ria1 i'm,
ife-boat to which Ellis cung with the last
of his ebbing strength.
The lite-saver said afterward that he saw
dory thrown over the side of the Fitzpatrick as
he dIifted near her but that a moment later the
scud and the spindrift were driven so thick and
ceaseessly before his eyes that he saw nothing,
until suddenly out of the mist a tiny, bobbing
boat loomed a dozen feet away. Then the
pant OF this boat shot her skfully alongside the
swamped lifebOat and the exhausted surfman top
pied into her
Mayo with the halt-conscous lifesaver lying
limp In the bottom OF the dory, had kept his word
to his mates on the Fitzpatrick
Necessarily the most thrilling stories o. the
coast-watchers are those in which loss of life Is
entailed and therefore, IN measure, they
accounts OF the failures of the men of the serv
fee But they are stories OF noble failures and
behind some OF them lie tragedies other than
those of death.
about the career OF Captain David H. Atkins
til November 80, 1880, keeper of the Peaked Hill
Bar station, Cape Cod
This man had followed the sea from boy hood
whaling, fishing and coasting. In 1872 he became
keeper Of the Peaked Hill Bar station.
Then came wild day in April, 1879, and
it appears in the chronicles of the department
at Washington, "a blot fell across the record OF
Keeper Atkins"
On this April day the Schooner Sarah ]. Fort
stranded near Peaked Hill Bar terrific sea-
coupled with an onshore hurricane and tempera-
ture very low for the time of the year, faced At
kins and his as they discovered the schooner
and took their apparatus to the beach
Without hesitation the keeper ordered the surf
boat launched, but the sea heavy that it
was thrown back on the beach. Time and again
in the twenty hours Of watching and battling with
the storm that followed the keeper led his men
into the breakers with the boat, but each time
they beaten back, drenched with the winter