The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1952-09-05
By BEN DIXON MacNEILL
In The News and Observer

fore Capt. Benjamin B. Daley
could set down in his log the mar
rative report of the rescue OF nine
members of the crew of the bark
Ephraim Williams, and the bis
tered and swollen state of his
hand, even then, may have had
something to do with the fact that
53 written words sufficed him to
state the essentials.
But there were no blisters and
no swelling of the hands to hinder
the inspectors of the U. S. Life
saving Service who hurried to the
scene. They asked questions and
wrote indefatigably and their re-
ports of the operation are among
the longest in the annals of the
service. Captain Dailey's great
grandsons, one of whom is on duty
at the ancestral station on Cape
Hatteras, preserves his wonder at
their prowess with pen and ink
and the Stations ancient Property
Book records an emergency requi-
sition for more stationery.
All or None
When they were done with their
writing, they told Captain Daley
that they were recommending him
for the Congressional Gold Medal
of Honor for Lifesaving, with sill
yer medals for the six members of
the crew who shared the blisters
and the hazards with him. Captain
Daley said tersely "No; they get
the gold one, too, or to hell with
it. We were all in the boat togeth-
err"
And so fors the first time in the
history of the Congressional Life
saving Medal provided by the act
of Congress on June 20, 1874, and
approved three days later by Presi-
dent U. S. Grant, it was awarded
to the entire crew participating in
a rescue operation.
The second time also occurred
in the Cape Hatteras area "a years
later when Capt. John Allen Mid
gett and his entire crew received
the award for the rescue of the
crew of the torpedoed Mirlo off
Chicamicomico on August 16, 1918.
In II other instances, the Gold
Medal for heroism above and be-
yonG the call of duty has been
awarded for rescues performed
within sight of the Great Light on
Cape Hatteras, which is the ira
ditlonal Graveyard of the Atlantic,
and the Silver Medal, for acts of
great heroism but within the linn
its of duty, has been conferred &c
times. But the rescue of the crew
of the Ephraim Williams, five
miles off Big Kinnakeet and seven
miles north east of the Lighthouse
remains the classic of perfect sea-
manship and calm heroism.
August 4, on the 162nd ami
versary of the establishment of the
services that were combined into
the modern U. S. Coast Guard on
the initiative of the late Josephus
Daniels, secretary of the Navy
and the late William Gibbs Mac
Adoo, secretary of the Treasury,
in 1915, there were wreaths laid
upon graves in many quiet, almost
forgotten burying grounds along
the Outer Banks, from Rodanthe
to Ocracoke. So, in simple fashion,
these children of the sea remem-
Der their dead.
Medals on Stones
1t is an humble, reverent sort
of pride that prompts these tok-
ems of remembrance and hidden
though some of the graves may
be by weeds or underbrush, they
will not be hard to identify: upon
the grave-stones, are engraved a
replica of the medal, if it had been
awarded, or the crossed oar-and-
service. Afterward the insignia of
the lifesaving branch of the Coast
Guard became the crossed oars.
Even that has now been replaced.
But it is not forgotten. Not along
the Outer Banks, which reach from
Oregon Inlet to Ocracoke Inlet
Thomas Mast, first and greatest
of the American cartoonists is the
spiritual and almost the actual
father of the once distinguished
decoration. Second only to his on
slaughts against political corrup-
ton in Washington and New York
during the 1870s was Nast's con-
Germ for the safety of life at sea
and the well-being of men who
went down to the sea in ships. His
cartoons, especially those that fol-
lowed the senseless loss of the
Huron at Mays Head were the
immediate cause of the establish
ment of lifesaving stations along
the Graveyard of the Atlantic and
the almost equally hazardous
coasts of New Jersey and New
England.
Under the whip of an aroused
natrioticYo tho Copuroe. loI -