The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1913-03-06
OUR LIFE SAVERS.
Humble Heroes Who Do Brave
Work Along Our Coast.
DARING DEEDS IN THE SURF.
Battle With the Giant Combers and
Icy Seas When a Storm Wrecked
Vessel Offers the Fearless Guards
Chance to Rescue a Human Beinu.

Through bleak February night a
storm was raging up the Atlantic sea-
| board. All along the coast the life
| guards were out. punching into the
gale. patroling the beaches. alert for
signs of disaster. Just before mid
night one of them east of Bellport sta
| ton, on Long Island, saw schooner
| aoundering in the gray spindrift off
shore. 1t was the Benjamin Cromwell,
| and as the alarm swept down the
| beach the crews of three stations hur-
take seven men from the rigging OF
| the wrecked vessel
All efforts through the night and the
forenoon following failed. The wind
| was too high. Then at noon the
schooner's masts. except the foremost,
on which all of the crew save one had
taken refuge. crashed overheard. This
| man went down in a weller of wreck
age, and to those on shore 1t seemed
as If he must surely be battered to
F! death, but as the breakers raced in
they saw him clinging to plank that
udu UecH swept away WILL
A furious surf was running and tim
Der with which the Cromwell had been
laden was pitched up on the beach
To add to the danger thick ice cakes
heaved by the breakers, lifted their
jagged ends high in the air and crashed
down, splintering one upon the other.
and always the awful drive of snow
and sleet. ripping the onrushing waves
into tatters of foam and spindrift.
Surely no man could live In that.
Instinctively the life savers moved
nearer the edge of the surf and peered
ahead for some sign of life The beach
was fringed with skim ice. sharp and
pointed, that cut through rubber boots
and clothing as if through parchment.
Helpless to aid the man whom they
knew must be plunging somewhere out
in that angry water, they huddled to-
gether as men will when a lifeless
body Is about to be cast up before
them. They heard ice and wreckage
grind harshly: scattered debris washed
up to their feet Brave men all, yet
they saw.nothing to do. They knew
not to what lengths the ocean would go
before giving up its victim.
At this juncture a figure sprang from
among them and. wrapping line about
his waist, ran to the edge of the surf.
He was Frank Rayner of the Blue
commit what the other surfmen in
stinctively told themselves was suicide.
The service demands courage, not fool
hardness. For a moment Keeper
Rorke hesitated, undecided whether to
order Rayner back to the beach or not,
but he couldn't find it in his heart to
do it. 1t was a venture too heroic. too
splendid.
They watched Rayner as he stood
in the whirl Of icy spray awaiting his
chance. He was half naked. His
clothes he had thrown off as he ran.
The cold. biting into his flesh, tortured
him. Still the chance held off, Then
1t came-the bit of wreckage, the cling
ing sailor, crashing into the boiling
breakers, and Rayner dashed forward
Foot by foot through that roaring tu-
multi of water, Of plunging beams and
timber, lodging the splintered spars
that, leaping from giant combers, made
as If to pin him, Rayner worked to-
ward his man. To those on shore he
was hidden the greater part Of the
time. Finally they saw his head bob
above a big billow. Near him fioated
the wreckage bearing it's stiff, motion
less burden. The next instant Rayner
vanished, swept under by a tremen-
dous wave.
From the huddled group on shore
men started forward, but Albert La
than, also Of the Blue Point station,
was first to plunge into the tumbling
seas. Tearing through them, he
reached Rayner, who. just cresting a
breaker, snatched at the sailor, now
unconscious. And together these he
roes Of the coast hauled their man
through the rearing timbers and ice to
the beach and to safety.
Not ten minutes later the Cromwell
broke in pieces From shore the life
savers saw men fall from the rigging,
FIVE Of them, who fell, one by one, like
black plummets into the sea. One re-
mained aboard. Then he went, too
dark form clinging to the wrecked
mast. now adrift. And again Rayner
and Latham plunged into the surf.
Now, weakened by their efforts and
the cold, they faced an even harder
task. The man torn from the mast
nearly drowned them with his fren-
zied struggling For twenty minutes
the uneven fight between the sailor
and the surf on one side and the two
weakened life savers on the other
was waged. Then great green
comber lifted beneath them and bore
all three through the foaming sea to
the shore.
For weeks Latham lay abed, and
Rayner never performed duty again.
subsequently commended by Wash
ington, they considered that honor suf-
fcient.
Such is the typical life saver, the
man who patrols the coasts from Ban
gor to Galveston, from Seattle to Los
Angeles. He's part of wonderful
system.-New York Sun.