Evening star., 1936-11-15
Men Aboard Lightships
Face Perils Of the Sea
Lie in Direct Path of
Big Liners During
Heavy Fogs.
ByJ. A. Emmett.

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chored out in the open Atlantic
i to warn steamers Of the wicked
shoals OIL Cape Hatteras, there hangs
a framed letter from President Roose-
velt much priced by all on board.
It is September, 1888. An always
to-be-remembered hurricane Is rag
ing, centered at this infamous spot
on the North Carolina coast. The
lightship plunges madly at her 3-ton
anchor and some $4,000 pounds Of
heavy chain, with her pilothouse
battered in. her ventilators adrift and
her matches leaking badly. Finally
one sea sleeper than the others rolls
beneath the ship. She rises bravely
to meet it, but her chain Is already
bar taut; sparks actually dy, a weak
link stretches like chewing gum and
finally gives way.
To leeward stretch the breakers OF
Diamond Shoals, one Of the most
feared menaces to navigation in the
world. And on to those boiling sands
the hurricane Is slowly but surely
forcing the wallowing ship. The huge
vessel is dwarfed by the breaking seas
in which she Is rolling. But true to
the reputation of the service, the men
meet the emergency as American sea
men have been doing since Revolu"
tionary days.
The seas are breaking from the bot
| tom now, and the waves which wash
the ship are q mixture OF sand and
water. So great Is the force Of the
wind that men on deck must crawl
about and keep a constant handhold
on something solid to avoid being
blown or washed overheard. Despite
several broken ribs, the mate carries
on, and the captain, injured when
the pilothouse caved in, continues to
give orders for the safety of his ship.
RUT all the heroes aren't on deck.
- The unsung ones are often below,
where emergencies must be faced, too.
With water over the flreroom floor,
a safety plug blows out in one Of the
boilers, necessitating immediate re-
pairs as soon as it can be partially
| cooled.
Remember how you applauded
Wallace Beery when he climbed in
side to patch the leaking flues Of the
old towboat's boiler in the motion
picture "Tugboat Annie? Men did
the same thing that day in the fear
full breakers of Hatteras. Only the
scalds and burns there were as real
as the danger was deadly!
With steam up again, skillful han
ding maneuvers the ship out of the
breakers and away to sea and COM
parative safety. There she remains
to warn other ships of the peril until
the storm passes and q relief ship
arrives at her station. Then she
limps slowly into port, upper works
shattered, small boats lost and her
crew in almost as pitiful shape as
their ship.
So that's why the President wrote
the letter commencing the bravery Of
the officers and men and the stanch-
ness Of their ship!
CTILL more recently, the sinking Of
the Nantucket Shoals lightship,
with the loss of several Of the crew,
called the public's attention to the
perils which the 500 men Of the
Lightship Service afioat, constantly
face. Vessels previously anchored on
the same station had had narrow es-
capes, and the officers and crew knew
from experience the danger they were
in whenever dense fog destroyed
visibility completely.
And so on down the annals of q
service which is replete with tales of
bravery and instances of hardship
faced and exposure endured. For hid
den behind the matter-of-fact oficial
language in which the records are
written, lies many q story far more
exciting than any movie thriller Of
heroism at sea.
In 1920 q solitary lightship was
stationed in Chesapeake Bay. Today
the Federal Government maintains
around IS regular stations, and has a