The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1912-08-09

grasp on the gunwale several times. disappeared
In the maelstrom OF water. That left Ellis ana
Rogers. II 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
frenzled comrade. Rogers to retain II. Suddenly.
when 1t seemed that both must drown, Rogers
strength left him, His arms relaxed; his eyes
glazed I'm gong!" he gasped and sank
A moment later the boat drfted lnshore OF the
outer breakers and for q brief space was in
smoother water, Ellis once crawled out ON
the bottom and succeeded In pulling the center
board out that he could hold on to 1t and bet
ter maintain his position.
Now, you will remember that Mt the time OF
the strRndlng OF tho Wadena the John G. Ftz-
patrick her sister barge had also gone aground.
She had gone over the outer bar and was lying
between II and the inner breakers On board her
was Capt. Elmer r. 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 who were with him, did not
the lhesaving boat go out. nor did they have
any knowledge OF the grim tragedy that was being
enacted until. glancng over the rail- Captain
Mayo saw an overturned life-boat with single
man clnging to 1t.
The capsized boat was some distance from the
barge, hut Mayo did not hesitate I'm get that
fellow" he announced coolly.
twelvefoot dory. the only boat aboard, totally
unfit craft for the furious that was 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 tho captain of the wrecking crew kept his
fragile craft afoat. those who watched him from
the Fitzpatrick could mover understand. But he
did keep her afoat, and the set of the tide and
the gale carried him down toward the capsized
life-boat to which Ellis chung now with the last
Of his ebbng strength,
The life-saver said afterward that he saw
dory thrown over the side of the Fitzpatrick as
he drifted near her. but that moment later the
scud and the spindrift were driven thick and
ceaselessly before his eyes that he saw nothing.
until suddenly out OF the mist a tiny, bobbing
boat doomed dozen feet away. Then the occu-
pant Of this boat shot her skilfully alongside the
swamped liteboat and the exhausted surfman top
pied into her.
Mayo. with the halfeonscious lfe,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
coastwatchers are those in which loss of life is
entailed 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
behind some OF them lie tragedies other than
those OF death.
Perhaps one Of the greatest of these is woven
about the career of Captain David H. Atkins. un.
Ill November 80. 1880. keeper of the Peaked Hin
Bar station. Cape Cod.
This man had followed the sea from boy-hood
whaling, fishing and cossting. In 1872 he became
keeper of the Peaked Hill Bar station.
Then came a wild day in April. 1879 and as
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 an onshore hurricane and a tempera.
ture very low for the time of the year. faced At
L Nd Nc IA.
and took their apparatus to the beach
Without hesitation the keeper ordered the surf
boat launched, but the was so heavy that 1t
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 were beaten back drenched with the winter