The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1913-04-18
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 a
Chance to Rescue Human Being.

gale, patrOlling the beaches, alert Tor
signs OF disaster. Just before mid
night one OF them east OF Bellport sta
ton, on Long Island, saw n schooner
fioundering I'm the gray spindrift off
shore. II was the Benjamin Cromwell,
and as the alarm swept down the
beach the crews OF three stations hur-
ried TO the scene. Their work was 10
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 foremast,
on which all Of the crew save one had
taken refuge, crashed overheard. This
man went down I'm q weter OF wreck
age, AND 10 those on shore IL seemed
as If Ne must surely be battered TO
death. but as the breakers raced In
they saw him clinglng TO a plank that
had been swept away with him.
A furious surf w : running and tim
ber 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 I'm the air and crashed
down, splintering one upon the other.
and always the awful drive Of snow
and sleet. ripping the onrushlng waves
into tatters of foam and spindrift.
Surely no man could live I'm 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 10 aid the man whom they
knew must be plunging somewhere out
| I'm that angry water. they huddled TO
gether as men will when ifeleSs
| body is about to be cast up before
them. They heard ice and wreckage
grind harshy; 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 It's victim.
At this juncture n 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
! Point station, and he was about to
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,
I,,t hn "a Ina A
do IL. IL was n venture too heroic, too
splendid.
They watched Rayner as he stood
I'm 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
II 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 punging beams and
timber, dodging the splintered spars
that. leaping from giant combers, made
as If TO pin him, Rayner worked to-
ward his man. 10 those on shore he
was hidden the greater part OF the
time Finally they saw his head bob
above Il big billow. Near him foated
! the wreckage bearing its stifr, motion
less burden The next instant Rayner
vanished, swept under 10y 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, ndw
| unconscious. And together these he
roes OF the coast hauled their man
through the rearing timbers and ice 10
the beach and 10 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 20 the wrecked
mast now adrift And again Rayner
and Latham plunged into the surf.
Now, weakened 10y their efforts and
the cold, they faced an even harder
task. The man torn from the mast
nearly drowned them with his frcn-
gied 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 10y Wash.
ington. they considered that honor suf
hcient
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.