The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1913-08-19

Humble Heroes Who Do Brave
Work Along Our Coast.
DARING DEEDS IN THE SURF.
Battle With the Giant Combers and
Icy Seas Whom a Storm Wrecked
Vessel Offers the Fearless Guards a
Chance to Rescue Human Beino.

Icy Seas Whom a Storm Wrecked
Vessel Offers the Fearless Guards a
Chance to Rescue a Human Being.
Through a bleak February night n
storm was raging up the Atlantic sea-
BOARD. All along the coast the life
guards were out, launching into the
gale patrolling the beaches, alert for
signs Of disaster. Just before mid
night one of them east OF Bellport sta
ton, on Long Island, saw n schooner
houndering in the gray spindrlft Off
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
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 weller Of wreck
age, and to those on shore 1t seemed
as If he must surely be battered to
death, but as the breakers raced in
they saw him clinglng to u plank that
had been swept away with him.
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 I'm 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
Instnctively 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 nfeless
body is about to be cast up before
them. They heard leo and wreckage
grind hqrshly; scattered debris washed
up to their feet Brave men all, vet
they saw nothing to do. They knew
not to what lengths the ocean would go
before giving up its victim.
At this juncture n figure sprang from
among them and, wrapping a 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 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 shalf naked His
clothes he had thrown off as he ran.
The cold, biting into his flesh, tortured
him. Still the chance held Off. Then
It 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 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 big billow. Near him foated
the wreckage bearing its stir, notion
loss burden. The next instant Rayner
vanished, swept under by tremen-
dous wave.
From the huddled group on shore
. n6 nj A,,k A
than, also OF the Blue Point station.
was first to plunge into the tumbling
seas. Tearing through them, he
reached Rayner, who. just cresting
breaker, snatched at tho 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,
Owe OF them, who fell, one by one. like
black plummets into the sea. One ro-
NAMED aboard. Then he went too
a dark form clinglng 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-
lied 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 waRcd Then great green
comber lifted beneath them and bore
all three through the fooming sea to
the shore.
For weeks Latham lay abed. ana
Rayuer never performed duty again
subsequently commended by Wash
lngtou, they considered that honor sui.
6cient
Such is the typical life saver tho
man who patrols the COASTS from Ban
Ror 10 Galveston from Seattle to Los
Angeles He's n part OF n wonderful
system.-Now York Sun
Never excuse a wrong action by say
ing that some one else does the sama