The Red Cloud chief., 1912-08-01

srasp on the gunwale several times. disappeared
in the maestrom Of water. That left Ellis anu
Rogers big and very strong man. -,
In this desperate moment Rogers threw n,s
arms around the other surfman's neck In q deatn
grip For moments, while the sea battered aho
the foam strangled them. they fought the last
grim fight for life. Ellis to break the grip OF ms
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 drifted inshore OF the
outer breakers and for q brief space was IN
smoother water. Ellis once more craw!ed out on
the bottom and succeeded in pulling tho center
board out so that he could hold on to 1t and bet
ter maintain his position.
Now, you will remember that at the time OF
the stranding Of the Wadena. the John @. F1ts
patrick her sister barge had also gone aground
She had gone 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
90 far away from the Wadena that Captain Mayo
and two other men who were with him. dio not
see the lifesaving boat 90 out. nor did they nave
any knowledge Of the grim tragedy that was oeins
enacted, until. gancing over the rail. Captain
Mayo saw an overturned life-boat with single
man clingng to 1t.
The capszed boat was some distance from the
barge, but Mayo did not hesitate "fll get that
fellow" he announced cooy.
On the deck Of the Fitzpatrick lay small
twelve.foot dory, the only boat aboard, totally
unfit craft for the furious sea that was numbering
across the shoals. Kicking OF his boots. Mayo
and the other men, who begged him not to go a.
Il would be certain death. ran the dory oversize.
How the captain Of the wrecking crew kept his
fragile craft ahoat. those who watched him from
the Fitzpatrick could mover understand. But no
did keep her ahoat. and the set of the tide and
the gale carried him down toward the capsi1ed
life-boat to which Ellis clung now with the last
Of his ebbng strength.
The Mfe-saver said afterward that he saw
dory thrown over the side of the Fitzpatrick a.
he drifted near her. but that q moment later the
scud and the spindrift were driven 30 thick and
ceaselessly before his eyes that he saw nothing.
until suddenly out Of the mist q tiny. bobbins
boat loomed dozen feet away. Then the occu
pant OF this boat shot her skifully alongside the
swamped life-boat and the exhausted surfman top
pied into her.
Mayo, with the halfconscious lifs-saver lying
limp in the bottom Of the dory. had kept his word
to his mates on the Fitzpatrick.
Necessarily, the most thrilling stories Of the
coast.watchers are those in which loss Of life 10
sntailed and therefore. In . measure. they are
accounts Of the failures Of the men OF the serv.
ice. But they are stories Of noble failures and
behind some Of them lie tragedies other than
those OF death.
Perhaps one of the greatest of these Ia woven
about the career OF Captain David H. Atkins. un.
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 coastng. In 1879 he became
keeper Of the Peaked Hill Bar station.
Then came q wild day In April. 1879. and. a.
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 J. Fort
stranded near Peaked Hill Bar. terrific sea-
coupled with onshore hurricane and q tempera
ture very low for the time Of the year. faced At
kns and his crew as they discovered the schooner
and took their apparatus to the beach.
without hesitation the keeper ordered the surf
boat launched. but the sea was 30 heavy that II
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 mer
into the breakers with the boat but each time
they were beaten back. drsnchsd with the winter