The Pea Island Lifesavers

Friday's Labor Folklore

Along the Outer Banks in North Carolina, near where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Chesapeake Bay, are the treacherous waters known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic." More than 600 ships have wrecked off the sandbars of the Hatteras Islands. In 1878 the United States Lifesaving Service - a federal agency - was established to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers. These first responders were called "surfmen" and, in North Carolina, they worked the desolate beaches. In 1915 the agency was renamed the United States Coast Guard.

The Graveyard of the Atlantic

In 1880 Captain Richard Etheridge, a formerly enslaved Civil War veteran, was appointed as keeper of the Pea Island Life-Saving Station, 30 miles north of Cape Hatteras. When he arrived to assume his command, he discovered that the white surfmen there had abandoned the station, unwilling to serve under a Black officer. Other Black surfmen, from other stations, were transferred to Pea Island which became the first, and only, all-black lifesaving station in the nation. For 70 years the Pea Island station was manned by an all-Black crew, until 1947 when it was decommissioned.

Known for their courage and dedication, the Pea Island lifesavers led many daring rescues saving scores of men, women and children. In 1896, during a hurricane, they rescued the entire crew of the E.S. Newman for which -- 100 years later -- they were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. In 1992 the U.S. Coast Guard commissioned a cutter, Pea Island, in memory of the crews who served there.

The Story of the Pea Island Surfmen

(video : 4 min.)

The Daring Rescue of the E.S. Newman

"When the crew arrived at the scene of the wreck, they found that the wave conditions were so great that the surfboat could not be launched, nor could a breeches buoy be used because the beach was so inundated by waves that the anchor for the buoy line could not be placed in the sand. Two surfmen volunteered to swim out in the waves to attempt to reach the wreck. They eventually did reach the schooner and managed to heave a line aboard. Nine times the surfmen went into the water and one by one the passengers and crew were all rescued, starting with the captain's three-year-old daughter." -- Wikipedia

The Pea Island lifesavers could not accomplish a breeches buoy rescue of the E. S. Newman, which took place at night during a hurricane.

The Pea Island

Cookhouse Museum

Manteo, North Carolina

Commemorates the dedication and service of the Pea Island

lifesavers. Nearby is a statue of Richard Etheridge, the first keeper of color in any of the nation's lifesaving stations. Captain Etheridge served from 1880 to 1900.

Click here.

(video : 3 min.)

Friday's

Labor Folklore

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Photo: Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, tallest in the United States. For further reading: David Wright and David Zoby. Fire on the Beach, 2000. -- Saul Schniderman, editor.

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