Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1913-05-02
our LIFE SAVERS.
Humble Heroes Who Do Brave
Work Along Our Coast.
DARING DEEDS IN THE SURF.

Battle With the Giant consbers and
Icy Seas When a Storm Wrecked
Vessel Offers the Fearless Guards a
Chance 70 Rescue a Human Being.
Through bleak February night a
storm was raging up the Atlantic sea
board All along the coast the life
guards were out hunching into the
gale, patrulling the beaches. alert for
signs Of disaster. Just before mid
night one of them east Of Beliport sta
ton. on Long island. saw schooner
ilounderiag In the gray spindrift OF
shore. 1t 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 to
take seven men from the rigging Of
the wrecked vessel
An efforts through the night and the
forenoon following failed The wind
was loo high. Then at noon the
sebouner's masts, except the foremast.
on which al Of the crew save one had
taken refuge. crashed overheard. This
man went down In welter Of wreck
age. aud To those on shore it seemed
as II he must surely be battered to
death. but us the breakers raced In
they s,tw him cliuging to a plank that
had been swept away with him.
4 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.
henved by the breakers. lifted their
Jagged ends high In the air and crashed
down. spliutering one upon the other,
and always the awful drive Of snow
and sieet. ripping the onrushing waves
into tatters Of foam and splndrift.
Surely no man could live 10 that.
lnstinctively the life savers moved
nearer the edge OF tile 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 plunRing somewhere out
fl that angry water. they huddled TO-
gether as men will when a ifeless
body Is about to be cast up before
them They hearl 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 w its victim.
at this tuncture a figure sprang from
among them and. wrapping q line about
bis 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.
but he couldn't fnd 1t in his heart to
do It, It WIS 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 be had thrown of as he ran.
Tie cold, biting into his flesh, tortured
him. Still the chance held of. 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-
mutt Of water. Of plnnging beams and
timber. lodging the spiintered spars
that. leaping from giant combers, made
as II 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 bilIow. Near him foated
the wreckage bearing its 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
than. also CT the Blue Point station.
was first to plunge into the tumbling
seas Tearing through them. he
reached Rayuer. 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
bnast. 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 ahed. and
Rayner never performed duty again
subsequently commended by Wash
ington. they considered that honor suf-
ficient
Such Is the typical life saver. the
man who patrols the coasts from Ban
gor to Galveston from Seattle to Los
angeles. He's a part Of wonderful
system.-New York sun.
Never excuse wrong action by say
Ing that some one else does the sans
thing. Franklin.