The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-08-02

grasp on the gunwale several times, disappeared
In the maclstrom Of water, That left Ellis anu
Rogers, a big and very strong man.
In this desperate moment Rogers thre" lie
arms around the other sOrfman'a neck In Il oeath,
grip. For moments, while the sea battered ana
the foam s]trangIcd them, they fought the last
grim fight for life, Ellis to break the grip OF MS
frenzIed comrade, Rogers to retain 1t. Suddenly
when It seemed that both must drown. Rogers
strength left him. His arms relaxed; his eyes
glazed. I'm gDingi" he gasped and sank.
A moment later the boat drifted lnshore Of the
outer breakers md for a brief space was IN
smoother water. ellis once more crawled out on
the bottom and succeeded In pulling the center.
board out 80 that he could hold on to It and bet
ter maintain his position,
Now. you will remember that at the time OF
the gtrandlng Of the Wadcna, the John G. fltz'
patrick, her sister barge had also gone aground.
She had gone over the outer bar and was lying
between 1t and the inner breakers, On board her
was Capt. Elmer r. Mayo. Of Chatham, who was
In charge Of tightening her. Tho Fitzpatrick was
so far away from the Wadenn that Captain Mayo.
and Two other men who were with him, did not
see the IIfcsavinE boat go ont, nor did they have
any knowledge of the grim tragedy that was being
enacted, until, CHANGING over the rail, Captain
Mayo saw an overturned lifebont with a single
man cliuEing to 1t.
The cupsi2pd boat was some distance from the
barge, hut Mayo did not hesitate. I'm get that
fellow. he announced cooIly.
On the deck Of the Fitzpatrick lay a small
twelyofoot dory, the only boat aboard. a totally
unfit craft for tho furious sea that was laundering
across tho 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 w~recking crew kept his
frngiIs craft ahoat, those who watched him from
the Fitzpatrick could mover understand, But he
did keep her nnoat, and the set of the tide and
tho gale carried him down toward the ~capsized
ltfc~hoat to witch Ellis chung now with the last
Of hts chhlug strength.
The life-savef Faid afterward that he saw R
dory thrown over the side Of the Fitzpatrick as
he drrtcd near her, but that a moment later the
scud and the s~pindrift we're driven 30 thick and
Ceasclessly before hts eyes that he saw nothing,
until suddenly out Of the mist a tiny, bobbing
b0ut loomed n dozen feet away. Then the occu-
pant Of thia boat shot her sklfully alongside the
swampod lIfe.boat and the exhausted surfman top
pied into her.
Mayo, with the halfconscious lfe-saver lying
limp In the bottom Of the dory, had kept his word
to his mates on the Fitzpatrick.
Necessarily. tho most thrilling stories Of the
coast watchers are those In which loss of life is
entaiIed and therefore. in a measure, they are
accounts Of the failures Of the men Of the serv.
Ice. But they are stories Of noble failures and
bctlllN SOME Oh lnelu l6 tEdBeNitb OLHHE IMAM
those OF death.
Perhaps one Of the greatest Of these is woven
about the career of Captain David II. Atkins, un-
I'll November 30, 1880, keeper Of the Peaked Hill
Har station, Cape Cod.
This man had followed the sea from boy-hood,
whaling, fishing and consting. In 1879 he became
keeper Of the Peaked III! Bar station.
Then csDo n wild day In April, 1879, and, as
II 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 J. Fort
stranded near Peaked Hin nar, A terrific sea,
coupled with mn onshore hurricane and a tempera-
ture very low for the time Of the year, faced At
kins and his crew Ms they discovered the schooner
and took their apparatus to the beach.
Without hesitation the keeper ordered the surf
boat launches but the sea was so heavy that IL
was thrown back on tho 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 were beaten back, drenched with the winter