Mexico Missouri message., 1912-08-01

grasp on the gunwale several times, disappeared
in the maelstrom Of water. That left Ellis ana
Rogers, big and very strong man.
In this desperate moment Rogers threw MS
arms around the other surfmans 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 1t. 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.
A moment later the boat drifted inshore OF the
outer breakers and for brief space was In
smoother water. Ellis once more 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 at the time OF
the stranding OF the Wadena, the John G. F1tz-
patrick, her sister barge had also gone aground
She had gone the outer bar and was lying
between 1t 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 were 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 single
man clinging to 1t.
The capsized boat some distance from the
barge but Mayo did not hesitate. I'll get that
fellow" he announced coolly.
On the deck OF the Fitzpatrick lay small
twelve-foot dory, the only boat aboard a totally
unfit craft for the furious sea that was laundering
across the shoals. Kicking of 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 afloat, 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
lfe-boat to which Ellis chung now with the last
of his ebbing strength.
The lifesaver said afterward that he saw a
dory thrown the side Of the Fitzpatrick as
he drifted her, but that moment later the
scud and the spindrift were driven 80 thick and
ceaselessly before his eyes that he saw nothing,
until suddenly out of the mist tiny, bobbing
boat doomed dozen feet away Then the occr-
pant OF this boat shot her skilfully alongside the
swamped ife-boat and the exhausted surfman top
pied into her.
Mayo, with the half-conscious ife-saver lying
limp In the bottom Of the dory, had kept his word
to his mates the Fitzpatrick.
Necessarily the most thrilling stories of the
coastwatchers are those In which loss Of life Ia
entailed and therefore. in a measure they are
accounts of the failures OF the men of the
ice. But they 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. I'M
til November 80. 1880 keeper of the Peaked Hill
Bar station, Cape Cod
This man had followed the sea from boyhood,
whaling, fishing and coastng. In 1872 he became
keeper Of the Peaked Hill Bar station.
Then came a 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 Peaked Hill Bar. terrific sea-
coupled with an onshore hurricane and a tempera-
ture very low for the time OF the year, faced At
kins and his crew they discovered the schooner
and took their apparatus to the beach
Without hesitation the keeper ordered the surf
boat launched, but the 80 heavy that 1t
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