Chapter V: Part 5

“After righting the boat twice, our strength was fast leaving us, and we all knew that we could not survive long without assistance. The five men that we had taken off the barge were the first to be swept off the overturned boat and to perish before our eyes. They did not regain a hold of the boat after she turned over the first time, and were quickly swept to death.

“All of us clung to the boat, giving each other all the encouragement that we could. Surfman Chase was the first one of our crew to perish, then Nickerson and Small were swept to death. Captain Eldredge, Surfmen Kendrick, Foye and Rogers and myself still managed to hold to the boat. Every sea which struck the boat swept completely over us, almost smothering us. Kendrick was the next one of our crew to perish, and poor Foye soon followed him. Captain Eldredge and Surfman Rogers and myself were the only ones left, and we expected that we, too, would soon share the fate of our comrades.

“Rogers was clinging to the boat about amidships, while Captain Eldredge and myself were holding on near the stern. Captain Eldredge called to me to help him to get a better hold, and I managed to pull him on to the bottom of the boat, when a sea struck us and washed us both off. I managed to regain a hold on the bottom of the boat, and looking around for Captain Eldredge, I saw that he was holding on to the spar and sail which had drifted from underneath the boat, but was still fast to it. The seas were washing me off the boat continually at this time, and when I last saw our brave captain, he was drifting away from the boat, holding on to the spar and sail.

“My strength was fast going, and when poor Rogers begged me to help him climb further up onto the boat, the only thing I could do was to tell him that we were drifting towards the beach, and that help would soon be at hand and to hold on.

“Rogers had lost his strength, however, and failing to get a more secure place on the bottom of the boat, feebly moaning, ‘I have got to go,’ he fell off the boat and sank beneath the waters.

“I was now alone on the bottom of the boat, and seeing that the center board had slipped part way out, I managed to get hold of it, and holding it with one hand succeeded in getting my oil clothes, undercoat, vest, and boots off.

“By that time the overturned boat had drifted down over the shoals in the direction of the barge _Fitzpatrick_, which was also stranded on the shoals, and when I sighted the craft I waved my hand as a signal for help. I soon saw those on the barge fling a dory over the side into the water, but could see nothing more of the dory after that on account of the mist and high sea until it hove in sight with a man in it rowing towards me. The man in the dory was brave Capt. Elmer F. Mayo. He ran the dory alongside of me, and with his help I got into the boat. I was so used up that I was speechless, and all that I could do was to kneel in the bottom of the boat and hold on to the thwarts. To land in the dory through the surf was a perilous undertaking, but Mayo, who is a skilled boatman, carefully picked his way over the rips and headed his little boat for the shore.

“Surfman Bloomer of our station, who had been left ashore, had walked down to the Point to assist Captain Eldredge and crew in landing, and when he saw Mayo fighting his way through the breakers, he ran down into the surf, seized the little boat, and helped Mayo to land safely.

“Bloomer was told of the terrible tragedy by Captain Mayo, as I was unable to speak at the time. As I have often said, ‘If the persons we took off the barge had kept quiet as we told them to, all hands would have been landed in safety.’”

Seth L. Ellis
Keeper, Monomoy L.S. Station
]

CAPT. ELMER F. MAYO.

Capt. Elmer F. Mayo, “The Hero of Monomoy,” was born in Chatham, and is forty years of age. From boyhood he has been a boatman, fisherman, anchor dragger, a substitute at the life-saving stations on Cape Cod, and wrecker along the shores near Monomoy, and is well accustomed to the perils and rigors incident to work of that kind.

Among the boatmen and wreckers along the Chatham and Monomoy shores he has always been regarded as an A No. 1 boatman, skilled in the art and science of handling boats in the surf, and absolutely fearless. His father was the first keeper of the Chatham Station.

Upon the discovery of gold in the Klondike region a few years ago, Mayo joined a party of prospectors, and went to the Copper River country. He remained there but a short time, returning to Cape Cod and resuming his former occupation.

At the time of the Monomoy disaster, he was on board the barge _Fitzpatrick_, near by the stranded barge _Wadena_, in company with Captain Mallows of Chatham, and the captain of the barge.

The _Fitzpatrick_ had stranded at the time the _Wadena_ went on the shoals, and Mayo and Mallows were aboard arranging to float the craft. They had remained on board the _Fitzpatrick_ over night, the same as those on board the _Wadena_, so as to be on hand early in the morning to begin the work.

There was a small fourteen-foot dory alongside the _Fitzpatrick_, and the night before the fatal disaster, the wind freshening up, Mayo hauled the dory aboard, made some thole pins, and got a pair of oars ready for use should bad weather oblige them to go ashore.

Captain Mayo standing.]

The oars were too long for the small craft, and Mayo cut a piece off each of them. The wind blew a gale during the night preceding the disaster, and there was considerable rough water around the barge the next morning. The craft was not leaking, however, and there seemed no cause for alarm. A thick fog swept in over the shoals in the morning, hiding the stranded sister barge _Wadena_ from the view of those on the _Fitzpatrick_, and they were in ignorance of the fact that a signal of distress was flying in her rigging.

The first intimation that Mayo and Mallows had that a terrible tragedy had been enacted within a short distance of them was when the overturned life-boat, with the sole survivor of the Monomoy life-saving crew, Surfman Ellis, clinging to it, was seen drifting out over the shoals.

At the sight of the life-boat with a surfman clinging to it, both Mayo and Mallows knew that a terrible disaster had happened. Mayo in an instant threw off all his clothing except his underclothes, and while Mallows entreated him not to go, telling him he believed that to attempt to reach the overturned life-boat would cost him his life, Mayo grabbed the dory, threw it into the raging sea, and slid down a rope from the barge into the frail craft.

With the improvised thole pins and the long oars, with handles so large that he could hardly grasp them, Mayo had a fearful struggle in preventing the dory from being swamped by the seas.

With a strong and steady stroke, and energy born of desperation, he kept the little boat head to the sea, sending her along with marvelous speed. Within a short time he was within hailing distance of the man on the bottom of the life-boat. Surfman Ellis saw the boat as it was thrown from the barge, but in the fog had lost sight of it. Mayo, however, had kept the overturned life-boat within sight all the time, and as soon as he got within hailing distance he shouted to Ellis, whom he then recognized, to hold on!

It was a hazardous task to take Ellis from the bottom of the life-boat, but both Mayo and Ellis were skilled in that kind of work, and it was successfully accomplished. To land on the beach through the surf would be attended with greater peril, but Mayo knew that Ellis must have immediate treatment, and after placing him in the bottom of the boat, he headed the dory straight for the shore. The fog still hung over the waters, and it was solely from his thorough knowledge of the waters about that region that Mayo was able to avoid the myriads of shoals and rips, and guide the boat to a point on the beach where it would be possible to land. Surfman Bloomer, of the Monomoy Station, who had walked down the beach, saw the boat headed for the beach, and running down, got there just in time to assist Mayo in landing.

Both the United States Government and the Massachusetts Humane Society recognized this great heroic act of Captain Mayo, and awarded him medals. The committee having charge of the Monomoy Fund also presented him with a portion of the money received by them, in recognition of his heroism in rescuing Surfman Ellis from a watery grave.

Captain Mayo married Mrs. Priscilla Nye.

The late Capt. Isaac Green Fisher, keeper of the Wood End Station, was born in Truro in 1838, and was the son of Caleb and Mary G. Fisher, of that town. For twenty years he was keeper of the Peaked Hill Bars and Wood End Life-Saving stations, and was known the country over as a wondrous surf-fighter and saver of human life. Prior to his entering the life-saving service he had been engaged in whaling for a number of years, and won distinction in that skilled work by his fearlessness and marvelous dexterity with the steering oar.

As keeper of the dangerous Peaked Hill Bars Station, Captain Fisher rescued hundreds of shipwrecked seafarers, and assisted a countless number of stranded crafts to places of safety. He also assisted at nearly all the wrecks that took place at the stations along the back of the Cape, adjoining the Peaked Hill Bars Station.

He was retired from the service at his own request on account of physical disability, June 14, 1901, and died September 18 following.

FULL CREW OF LIFE SAVERS PRACTICING WITH BREECHES-BUOY.]

In Memoriam.

To the memory of the heroes who gave up their lives in their devotion to duty.

CAPT. MARSHALL N. ELDREDGE.
SURFMAN ELIJAH KENDRICK.
SURFMAN ISAAC T. FOY.
SURFMAN VALENTINE D. NICKERSON.
SURFMAN OSBORNE CHASE.
SURFMAN EDGAR C. SMALL.
SURFMAN ARTHUR ROGERS.

--Monomoy, March 17, 1902.

CAPT. DAVID H. ATKINS.
SURFMAN FRANK MAYO.
SURFMAN ELISHA TAYLOR.

--Peaked Hill Bars, Nov. 30, 1880.

HORACE S. CROWELL,

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* * * * *

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Telephone Connection. HYANNIS, MASS.

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.

Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs and outside quotations. In versions of this eBook that support hyperlinks, the page references in the List of Illustrations lead to the corresponding illustrations.

The layouts of the captions under group photographs and the advertisements at the end of the book have been modified to accommodate to narrow screens.

Page 84: “a short time before. Captain Eldredge” was printed that way, but the period may be a printer’s error.

Page 144, under “In Memoriam,” “Isaac T. Foy” was printed that way, but on page 135, his surname was printed twice as “Foye.”