Part 4

In addition to saving the lives of the imperiled, an important part of the duty of the life savers is that of saving property. The amount of property saved annually by these guardians of the coast largely exceeds the cost of maintenance of the service. The keepers are authorized and required by law to take charge of and protect all such property until claimed by those legally entitled to receive it, or until otherwise directed by the department as to its disposition. The keepers have the powers of the inspectors of customs and faithfully guard the interests of the government in all dutiable wrecked property.

Doubtless the United States Life-Saving Service system appears to be an expensive and elaborate one, but it must be remembered that, putting aside entirely the consideration of the value of human life, which is beyond computation, it saves many times its cost in property alone, and that it fulfils the functions usually allotted to several different agencies. It rescues the shipwrecked by both the principal methods which humane ingenuity has devised for that purpose, and which, in some countries, are practiced separately by two distinct organizations; it furnishes them the subsequent succor which elsewhere would be afforded by shipwrecked mariners’ societies; it guards the lives of persons in peril or of drowning by falling into the water from piers and wharves in the harbors of populous cities, an office usually performed by humane societies; it nightly patrols the dangerous coast for the early discovery of wrecks and the hastening of relief, thus increasing the chances of rescue, and shortening by hours intense physical suffering and the terrible agony of suspense; it places over peculiarly dangerous points upon the rivers and lakes a sentry prepared to send instant relief to those who incautiously or recklessly incur the hazard of capsizing in boats; it conducts to places of safety those imperiled in their homes by the torrents of flood, and conveys food to those imprisoned in their homes by inundation and threatened by famine; it annually saves, unaided, hundreds of stranded vessels, with their cargoes, from total or partial destruction, and assists in saving scores of others; it protects wrecked property after landing from the ravage of the elements and the rapine of plunderers; it extricates vessels unwarily caught in perilous positions; it averts numerous disasters by its flashing signals of warning to vessels standing in danger; it assists the custom service in collecting the revenues of the government; it pickets the coast with a guard, which prevents smuggling, and, in time of war, surprise by hostile forces, which makes the service unlike all other organizations established for similar purposes.

The distinction of having founded and created the United States Life-Saving Service having been the subject of much discussion in recent years, General Superintendent Kimball, in his report to the Secretary of the Treasury as to the claims of W. A. Newell, as the originator of the system of the Life-Saving Service of the United States, in conclusion states as follows:--

“The fact is, the credit of originating and developing the United States Life-Saving Service cannot truthfully be awarded to any single individual.

“In Congress and out of Congress many men have contributed, some in a great and some in a less degree to the success of its fortunes. To even write down the names of the legislators in both houses of Congress, who have been its advocates and champions, and to refer ever so briefly to their valuable assistance, would occupy much space and require considerable research, but there occurred to me at once as conspicuous among the host of its promoters, Senators Hannibal H. Hamlin, O. D. Conger, W. E. Kenna, W. J. Sewell, and William P. Frye, and Representatives S. S. Cox, Charles B. Roberts, John Lynch, James W. Cobert, and Jesse J. Yeates. Presidents of the United States and various Secretaries of the Treasury have promoted its welfare. Many officers of the life-saving service also, as well as officers detailed to it from the Revenue Cutter Service, have, from time to time, suggested and assisted to carry into effect important improvements.

“The life-saving service was not designed and laid out at one stroke, in a single comprehensive plan, as an architect designs a building, or a military genius, perhaps, devised a scheme of army organization, but its system and development have been accomplished step by step, day teaching unto day the necessity and wisdom of each successive measure of progress.”

CAPT. BENJAMIN C. SPARROW.

Capt. Benjamin C. Sparrow, superintendent of the second life-saving district, was born in Orleans, Oct. 9, 1839. He is a lineal descendant of Richard Sparrow, who came over in the ship _Ann_, landing at Plymouth. When a boy he always accompanied his father, a well-known life saver and wrecker, to the shipwrecks that occurred along the coast, and at an early age became familiar with the scenes of disaster from which the shores of Cape Cod have become noted.

In those early days, long before the establishment of United States life-saving stations on Cape Cod, volunteer crews responded to the calls for assistance when there was a wreck along the coast. There were others who engaged in the work of saving lives and of wrecking, or assisting distressed vessels, and they were known as “beach combers.”

Captain Sparrow was a “beach comber” for many years, and relates thrilling and interesting incidents that occurred during his experience. After finishing his education in the public schools of his native town, he taught in the public schools in the adjoining town of Eastham.

He entered Phillips Academy to prepare himself for the legal profession, and was a student there at the outbreak of the Civil War. The war had hardly begun, however, before he left college, and enlisted in the regular army, in the engineer battalion attached to the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, serving in this capacity until 1864. During his term of service he endured much hardship, being a prisoner at Belle Isle in the summer of 1862.

At the close of the war he returned to his home in East Orleans, where he has since resided. On Dec. 25, 1866, he married Miss Eunice S. Felton, of Shutesbury, Mass.

He has been connected with the United States Life-Saving Service for thirty years, or since the time of its reorganization, his appointment as district superintendent being a part of the plan adopted by the government to stamp out the evils which existed in the service at the time.

Captain Sparrow in the thirty years in which he has been superintendent of the second district has been actively engaged in the arduous duties of his calling, and to his efforts is due the success in securing the discipline and efficiency in this hazardous service in the district under his charge.

His home is connected by telephone with all the stations along the shores of the Cape, and the moment a wreck is reported to him he is away to the scene.

Ofttimes he has been obliged to travel many miles on foot in the teeth of a raging gale and driving storm to reach the scene of a disaster, yet he has attended nearly every wreck that has taken place along the shores of Cape Cod during the past thirty years.

The veteran captain has often shared the hardships and braved the perils with the life savers in their work along the beaches, and the hardships of thirty years have left their deep imprint upon him. The night that the schooner Calvin B. Orcutt was wrecked on Chatham bars, Captain Sparrow suffered such hardship going to the scene that his eyesight has since been seriously impaired.

The life-saving department recognized Captain Sparrow’s ability from the first by appointing him on the board of experts to examine new appliances and methods proposed for use by the department.

This position he has filled with great credit to himself and to the betterment of the department to the present.

Captain Sparrow has always taken an active interest in the affairs of his town, and his fellow-citizens have honored him from time to time with public offices within their gift. To the life savers of Cape Cod Captain Sparrow has ever been a staunch friend.

HIGHLAND STATION.

This station derives its name from the Highlands of Cape Cod which are in the immediate vicinity, and is one of the original nine stations built on Cape Cod in 1872. It is seven-eighths of a mile west of Cape Cod Highland Light, and about one and one-half miles from the North Truro village.

Its approximate position as obtained from the latest coast survey charts is latitude north 42° 02′ 55″, longitude west 70° 04′ 20″. Shoals run parallel with the shores at this station, and many appalling disasters have occurred there since the station has been established. The surfmen exchange checks with the surfmen from the High Head Station on the west patrol, which is about one and three-quarter miles, and with the surfmen from the Pamet River Station on the east patrol, which is about two and one-half miles. On the east patrol the surfmen are unable at times to follow the beach, the tides forcing them to grope their way along the tops of the cliffs, which, in many places, rise one hundred feet above the level of the sea. So steep are the cliffs at points along the east patrol, that the surfmen have ropes extending from the top to the bottom by which they are able to reach the top when driven from the beach by the tides. In attempting to climb one of these steep cliffs on a stormy night a few years ago, Henry Baldwin, a substitute at this station, had the bank break under him, and falling to the beach below, a distance of nearly fifty feet, fractured his hip and received multiple injuries. When the unfortunate surfman did not return to the station at the appointed time, a surfman was sent out to search for him. No trace of him could be found, however, and at four o’clock in the morning Captain Worthen called all hands, and after a search of a few hours, the injured surfman was found on the beach attempting to crawl to the station. This shows one of the perils which confront the surfmen attached to this station. John Francis, a surfman, who, after eighteen years of service at this station, was forced to resign from it on account of injury to his eyesight, had a narrow escape from death while a member of this station crew. Francis was attempting to make his way along the beach to a point where he could climb to the top of the cliffs. The sea was running high, and the great undertow catching Francis, threw him down and carried him far out from the shore. He struggled desperately, and by the merest chance succeeded in making his way out of the surf, when thrown upon the shore by a mountainous wave. He was more dead than alive when he reached the station. Surfman William Paine, of this station, had a fearful experience during a blinding snowstorm. Paine got lost, his eyes becoming frostbitten so that he could not open them. He walked about all night in a little grove of pine woods to keep from freezing, and was found the following day by his comrades.

There are three surf-boats at this station, two for active service, one for drilling the crew, two beach carts with full sets of apparatus, and a life-car. One of the surf-boats and a beach cart are kept in a house near the shore. “Nellie,” a horse owned by Captain Worthen, is employed at the station during the winter months. Cats and dogs are the pets of the surfmen, a number of them living about the station.

Captain Worthen has been keeper of this station since it was placed in commission, a period of over thirty years. During that time there is a record of twenty-seven wrecks within the province of the station. The records as to the number of persons taken ashore is not plain, although it is certain that one hundred and fifty have been rescued by Captain Worthen and his crew.

Only one crew in the whole history of the station has been rescued by means of the breeches-buoy, the crew, ten in number, of the British bark _Kate Harding_, from Barbadoes, which stranded during a fierce gale and dangerous sea, were thus safely taken ashore. The bark became a total wreck.

CAPT. EDWIN P. WORTHEN.

Capt. Edwin P. Worthen, keeper of the Highland Life-Saving Station, has the distinction of being the oldest keeper in point of years of service, not only on Cape Cod, but in the United States. He has been in the life-saving service for more than thirty years, and has been the keeper of the Highland Station since the station’s establishment. He is a native of Charlestown, Mass., having been born in that city sixty-five years ago, or July 27, 1837, to be exact.

Captain Worthen is indeed a warrior of the sea, a triumphant fighter of the storms that sweep the coasts of Cape Cod, a life saver who has witnessed some of the most awful scenes of terror at time of shipwreck, and heroically rescued seafarers from the very jaws of death.

When but eight years of age, Captain Worthen went to sea as cook on a fishing and coasting vessel, continuing to follow the sea in one capacity or another until he was thirty-five years of age, when he was appointed keeper of the Highland Station.

Not one of the original crew of the Highland Station is in the service at present, save the veteran keeper Captain Worthen. For thirty years he has made the station which he helped to build his home, and has been a faithful and vigilant guardian of the coast. Skilled in the art of handling boats through the surf, absolutely fearless when duty calls, he has an enviable record as a life saver. Under his watchful eye, careful guidance, and discipline, the members of his crew have been trained to perfection in the art and science of managing boats in the most riotous waters, and are ever ready to follow their keeper.

In his thirty years of service as keeper on the dangerous coast of Cape Cod, he has assisted at nearly all the wrecks that have occurred in the region of the “Highlands,” yet he never received an injury of any kind in that whole time. Captain Worthen has always taken a deep interest in the welfare of the life savers, and his associates of the Surfman’s Mutual Benefit Association of the United States have honored him with the office of chairman of the District Committee.

While Captain Worthen has witnessed many changes in the service along the shores of Cape Cod, the shifting treacherous sand bars near his station, however, still remain as a menace to the mariner, and continue to levy a fearful tribute on the shipping around Cape Cod. The sands along the coast there are literally strewn with half-buried skeletons of wrecked vessels, while unmarked mounds in the little village graveyards near by, tell a sorrowful tale of the fearful sacrifice of human life. The first wreck which Captain Worthen went to after his appointment as keeper was on Dec. 25, 1872, before the station was built. With volunteers he rescued fourteen men, the whole crew of the German bark _Francis_, which became a total loss. The same night another vessel, the _Peruvian_, was lost on the coast, and her crew of twenty-eight perished. The captain of the _Francis_ died two days later, and was buried near the Highland Station, Captain Worthen caring for his grave ever since.

Captain Worthen enjoys good health, despite his age and the great number of years he has served as a life saver, and seems destined to enjoy a long life. He married Julia E. Francis.

HIGHLAND CREW.

The No. 1 surfman is William P. Paine. He was born in North Truro in 1866, and has been in the life-saving service for twelve years, all of which have been spent at this station. From his boyhood days Surfman Paine was a boatman and fisherman along the shores of Cape Cod, and was well accustomed to braving the hardships and facing the perils that fall to the lot of a life saver. He married Edith L. Hopkins.

The No. 2 surfman is Hiram R. Hatch. He was born in Truro, is forty-four years of age, and has been in the life-saving service for twenty-one years. Surfman Hatch went to sea when a boy, shipping before the mast on a coasting vessel. He followed the sea until he was twenty-three years of age, and was a skilled boatman when he joined the service. In his long years of experience as a surfman he has had many thrilling escapes, and has proved a faithful and able life saver. He married Sarah W. Small, and is the father of a daughter.

The No. 3 surfman is William McFadden. He was born in Provincetown in 1872, and has been a member of this station crew for eight years. He had a wide and varied experience on the water before entering the service, and has made an able and skilled life saver. He married Sarah R. Knowles.

The No. 4 surfman is Manuel F. Oliver. He was born in Provincetown, is twenty-eight years of age, and the youngest member of this station crew. Surfman Oliver has been in the life-saving service two years. He spent one year at the Gay Head Station on Martha’s Vineyard. He was a sailor, boatman, and fisherman before entering the service and has made a valued member of Captain Worthen’s crew. He married Maggie Morris, and is the father of two children, a daughter and son.

The No. 5 surfman is Antone T. Lucas. He was born in Fayal, Azore Islands, and is forty-eight years of age. Surfman Lucas has been in the life-saving service for twenty-five years, all of which have been spent at this station. Prior to his entering the service he went to sea on coasting vessels and merchant ships, and for several years he was a whaleman. In his twenty-five years of service as a life saver he has endured much hardship, has faced the greatest peril in the performance of his duty, and is a faithful and fearless warrior of the sea.

The No. 6 surfman is Manuel Frances. He was born in Provincetown, and is thirty-two years of age. Surfman Frances has been in the life-saving service for two years. He was a boatman and fisherman off the shores of Cape Cod for a number of years, and well prepared for the work he is called upon to perform as a life saver. He married Carrie Silva, and is the father of two daughters and one son.

The No. 7 surfman is John Marshall. He was born in St. Georges, Fayal, Azore Islands, in 1853. Surfman Marshall has been in the life-saving service for twenty-two years, all of which have been spent at this station. Before he entered the service he spent a number of years on the water as a sailor, boatman, and fisherman. During his long term of service he has had several narrow escapes from death in the performance of duty. Owing to an injury which he received while at work assisting at a wreck, he was incapacitated for duty for a period of six months. Surfman Marshall is an able boatman and a brave and hardy life saver.

CAHOON’S HOLLOW STATION.

The Cahoon’s Hollow Station is located on the “back side” of Cape Cod, two and one-half miles east of Wellfleet. The present station replaced the one which was destroyed by fire in February, 1893. The original station was one of the nine that were built on the shores of Cape Cod in 1872. The station’s approximate position as obtained from the latest coast survey charts is latitude north 41° 56′ 40″, and its longitude west 69° 55′ 05″.

The surfmen from this station on the north patrol cover a distance of about two and one-half miles, meeting and exchanging checks with the surfmen from the Pamet River Station. On the south patrol the surfmen have a walk of about four miles, meeting and exchanging checks with the surfmen from the Nauset Station.

The coast at this station is exceedingly dangerous; sunken rips stretch out under the sea and extend along the shore for miles. Owing to the great sand dunes which have been built by the winds, the surfmen are unable to obtain a good observation seaward from the lookout on the station, and the day watches are stationed in a small house on the bluff overlooking the sea.

There are three surf-boats, one dory, two beach carts, breeches-buoys, etc., and one life-car at this station. Two surf-boats and the dory are used for the work of rescue and one for practice. The life-car has never been used save for practice.

At the Cahoon’s Hollow Station since Captain Cole has been keeper, sixteen vessels of different types have become stranded on the beach there. On these vessels there was a total of one hundred and twenty-four persons, and of this number but one person was lost. Those saved by Captain Cole and his crew were taken ashore in all kinds of ways, some by the surf-boat, others by the breeches-buoy, and many were dragged through the surf with lines. Charles H. Ashley, of Haverhill, was the only person lost within the patrol of the Cahoon’s Hollow Station. He was a member of the crew of the barge _Blackbird_, and was drowned attempting to reach the shore in a small boat. Of the sixteen vessels that were cast ashore on the beach ten were a total loss.

CAPT. DANIEL COLE.

Capt. Daniel Cole, keeper of the Cahoon’s Hollow Life-Saving Station, was born in Wellfleet in 1844, and has been in the life-saving service ever since it was established on Cape Cod, with the exception of one year. He entered the service when the Cahoon’s Hollow Station was manned, and after serving as a surfman for a number of years was appointed keeper twenty-three years ago.