The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1956-06-22
The Big Grab

gett had sighted still another
three-masted schooner in distress
at break of day. This was the
schooner MINNIE BERGEN, load
ed with railroad iron, coal oil, and
coal, with a crew of seven. When
keeper Midget first sighted heI
she was anchored about three miles
offshore with a distress signal in
her fore rigging; at about 2
o'clock the Captain slipped his
chains, and at $3.50 the MINNIE
BERGEN struck the beach a mile
and half north of Chicamacomico
station. The Chicamacomico crew
was on the beach, opposite,
waiting and ready, when she
struck. One shot was fired to the
vessel, 800 yards off shore, the
breeches buoy was rugged up, and
by 1890 the Chicamacomico crew
and the seven rescued mariners
were safely back at the station.
Once again, as in the three pre-
vious wrecks, the survivors were
supplied with clothing which had
been collected and sent to the sta
tions by the Woman's National Re-
lief Association.
This had been a busy morning
for the crew of Little Kinnakeet,
at the wreck of the ROBERT w.
DASEY; and for the crew of Chi
camacomico at the wreck of the
MINNIE BERGEN. 1t was buster
still for one man in between these
two-Rasmus S. Midget, of Gull
Shoal. For shortly before dawn
that morning Rasmus Midget, on
south patrol from Gull Shoal, had
found the Barkentine PRISCILLA
on the beach; three miles from the
station. There had not been time
to return for assistance, so Ras-
mus Midget had done what he
could by himself. It was enough
to earn him the Gold Lifesaving
Medal of Honor, highest award for
lifesaving; for Rasmus Midget had
rescued ten men from the wreck of
the PRISCILLA singlehanded, run
ming into that terrible, pounding,
churning surf time after time after
time; seven of the men slid off
the deck and into his arms, and
were carried through the surf to
safety; the remaining three, too
weak to help themselves, remained
on deck; but Rasmus Midget
scrambled up the side of that
wrecked vessel three times, res
cued each of them, without assist
ance.
Certainly that August hurricane
of 1899-when the three-masted
schooners AARON REPPARD,
FLORENCE RANDELL, ROBERT
w. DASEY and MINNIE BER-
GEN, and the Barkentine PRIS-
CILLA Were piled up on the beach
between New Inlet and Cape Hat
teras-could not be called a typi-
cal three-day period in the activi-
ties of the men of the Lifesaving
Service. But the response of the
lifesavers, at each of the five
wrecks, was typical of the way the
men reacted to the call of duty
at the risk of their own lives.
The breeches-buoy operation
attempted three times, and success
full twice on this beach in that Au-
gust hurricane of 1899-has con-
tinued to be one of the basic
methods for rescuing shipwrecked
mariners. But since the breaches
buoy is effective only when a ves-
sci is close up on the beach, an
entirely different type of rescue
operation is.called for when YES
sci founders at sea, or is stranded
on an offshore shoal-this is the
rescue by surfboat.
The records of the Lifesaving
Service contain a number Of surf
boat rescues by North Carolina
men operating from North Caro-
lima Lifeboat Stations. One of the
earliest and most famous occurred
on December 22nd, 1884, when the
crew Of Cape Hatteras Station,
under command Of keeper Benja-
min B. Daley, and with keeper
Patrick H. Etheridge Of Creeds
Hill filling in for an absent surf
man, rowed through what was de-
scribed by the investigating Off
Ger as "the most tumultous sea