Aboard the “Fitzpatrick” that morning the Captain and the man of
mystery were down in the cabin, talking and smoking. The man of mystery
seemed to be nervous and fidgety, something unusual for him. He would
walk the floor, then sit down, then he would walk again. At last he
went up on deck and looked around, as he did he saw an object floating
in the rips. He took the spyglasses and looked to make sure. Then he
said to the captain who was standing near, “In those rips is a boat
bottom up and clinging to the bottom is a man. Launch my dory.” The
captain said, “No. Your dory wouldn’t live in those rushing rips.” He
was a sailor, not a surfman and didn’t understand the possibilities
of a thirteen foot dory when handled by an expert. He looked around.
The man of mystery had gone. He ran across the deck to his dory jumped
up on the rail and said to some of the crew standing around, “Lower
away.” They “lowered away” until the dory hit the water. He unhooked
the tackles, shipped his oars and started out in the direction of the
object. Going in the direction of the object took him almost in the
trough of the sea. As he went under the lee of the “Fitzpatrick” he
took the whole force of those seas. He looked up and there was a sea
forming and hissing, ready to break. He turned, took in the bow, and
went over safely. Off again in the direction of the object, another
sea rising and breaking, he turned, took it on the bow, and goes
over safely. And so on and on closer and closer, slowly but surely.
In the meantime, Ellis, on the bottom of the boat, was taking awful
punishment. The seas were breaking and pounding down upon him with
tremendous force. They would wash him off this side, he would crawl
back, they would wash him off the other side, he would crawl right
back. With dogged determination, physical stamina and perserverance,
he clung to the bottom of that boat like a spider to a wall. He went
up on the crest of another sea and looked for the dory. This time the
man of mystery had worked the dory way up to the windward. He didn’t
intend to lose that man on the bottom of the boat. This time he came
running down on the crest of a sea. When you are running on a crest of
a sea like that it is suicide to try to stop or try to turn this way
or that. Let the sea have her, but keep her steady. For remember that
every sea at last spends itself. So this time he came running down
on the crest of a sea and went right by within four or five feet. It
was an anxious minute for Ellis. But, as he went by, Ellis recognized
him, it was Elmer Mayo of Chatham, an expert surfman, one of the very
best. The sea at last spent itself and in the lull that followed, Mayo
backed right back up to the boat. Ellis grabbed hold of the gunwale,
hauled himself over, slid to the bottom of the dory, and they started
for shore. Another fight, another struggle with the seas, seas that
were running and breaking mountain high, seas that lifted them like a
cork to their foamy crest. Seas, running seas that took them in their
grasp and carried them ahead like frightened deer until they fell back
into the trough of another. Ahead of them the surf was still pounding,
and breaking and roaring upon the shore. At last they arrived at the
surf. Mayo looked along for an opening, but those seas were still
running in from an expanse of three thousand miles, still breaking and
roaring upon the strand in an unbroken line. What a position, what a
spot--two human beings being in an open dory in those rushing, raging
seas. They jockeyed for position waiting for the right sea--the third
sea. When seas are running like that, there are always two large ones
and then a smaller one. The third sea is always smaller than the two
which precede it. God made it so and surfmen since time immemorial have
taken advantage of the third sea. So Mayo was jockeying for position
waiting for the third sea. At last it came hissing, foaming and
roaring. They were in proper position. With a roar, it broke directly
under their stem and taking them in its grasp carried them ahead up,
up onto the beach. Mayo jumped out and held the dory. The sea receded.
Seth Linwood Ellis stepped out onto the cold sand, barefooted. Nothing
on but his underclothes. There he stood, Seth Linwood Ellis the lone
survivor of the Monomoy Disaster. He told me many times that he grew
to manhood an absolute teetotaler, never using tobacco in any form.
With those temperate habits and an outdoor life, he built up a physical
constitution which produced for him a physical superiority that won
for him that day the battle with the seas, when all others perished.
He then and there became noted the country over as the lone survivor
of the Monomoy Disaster. In time he was promoted captain of the old
Monomoy Lifesaving Station, and sometime later the United States
Congress recognized his victory over the sea and presented him with a
Congressional Medal.
So it is--those men who were lost and the one who was saved are
simply samples of the men who, in former days, were the backbones and
stability of Cape Cod--Cape Cod which has always played an honorable
part in the history of the state of Massachusetts. When Massachusetts
derived her sustenance from the ocean, Cape Cod produced her quota of
the men who went down to the sea in ships. At one time she was the very
womb: the very cradle of fishermen and sailors, the best the world
produced. She gave to the sea her best blood, the energy of her youth,
and the counsel of her old. The salt waves of the sea have been the
shroud, and the surges of the sea the funeral knell of many of her
brave men. But now all is changed. In the bays, the harbors, and the
inlets where once the ships, the brigs, the barks, the schooners, and
the sloops swung proudly at anchor, the waves now ripple in silence and
sadness.
Thus ends the chapter of the “Tragedy of Monomoy Beach, or the
Graveyard of the Atlantic.”
FINIS
_For God And Country_
The story of The Monomoy Disaster must impress all readers with the
sturdy character of the men who went down to the sea in ships in former
days, when Cape Cod was a haven of sea Captains and rugged men of the
sea.
As we dedicate this book to these men of steel we present as a closing
tribute, the defenders of American freedom and liberty of the present
day. The following men and women of Chatham and Harwich are now serving
the colors in the various branches of the armed forces and the Honor
Roll is complete as of August 1, 1943. We salute each and every one and
may God grant them a safe return.
=CHATHAM HONOR ROLL=
Allison, Clarence E.
Allison, Ralph J.
Allison, Robert F.
Atwood, Wallace G.
Baker, Cyrus F.
Baker, Edward M.
Baker, Winsor C.
Bassett, Benjamin H.
Bassett, Herbert E.
Bassett, Ivan E.
Bassett, Ralph M., Jr.
Bassett, R. Stanwood
Bearse, Frederick H.
Bladen, Charles K.
Bladen, J. Lawrence
Bladen, Walter C.
Bloomer, Harvey W.
Brent, Arthur T.
Brown, Elinor
Brown, Robert H.
Brown, Robert Scott[1]
Buck, Robert C.
Buck, William E.
Buckley, Daniel L.
Buckley, Robert W.
Coombs, Kimball H.
Corrigan, Thomas J.
Courtnell, Paul W. A.
Cowan, John M.
Crosbie, James K.
Dean, Robert J.
deBettencourt, Nelson
Deer, Wendell H.
Devlin, Frederick A. 3rd
Doane, Oscar W., Jr.
Doane, Wilmer B.
Dubis, Oliver
Durkee, Alfred L.
Edwards, Melville B.
Eldredge, Eleanore F.
Eldredge, Harold C.
Eldredge, Harrison R.
Eldredge, Kenneth F.
Eldredge, Leo
Eldredge, Lester F.
Eldredge, Sullie N.
Eldridge, John A.
Eldridge, Richard A.
Eldridge, Robert E.
Eldridge, Shirley A.
Eldridge, Wilbur S.
Eldridge, Willard A.
Ennis, Gresham, Jr.
Ennis, Thomas
Enos, Lawrence F.
Erb, Harry N.
Farrenkoph, Leo G.
Farris, Robert C.
Farris, William H.
Fiebelkorn, Otto A.
Fiebelkorn, Walter C.
Forgeron, Harry
Freedman, Samuel S.
Freethy, Everett W.
Gilbert, William J.
Gilchrist, Norman S.
Gleason, Ralph F.
Glendon, Richard J., Jr.
Gleason, James F.
Goodspeed, Prince E.
Gould, Alton L.
Gould, Chester G.
Griffin, Wayne A.
Guild, Margaret E.
Gustavus, George T.
Gustavus, Roy
Hallett, George F.
Hammond, Francis E.
Harding, Edmund F.
Harding, Everett G.
Harding, George K.
Harding, Maurice H.
Healy, James M.
Healy, Joseph A.
Henderson, Irving C.
Herron, Andrew G.
Herron, George R.
Hewit, Helen G.
Hewit, Norton M.
Hewit, Rodham
Hibbard, George K.
Hogg, Theodore B. Jr.
Hopkins, Edward Walter
Hopkins, Henry P.
Hopkins, Hilliard E., Jr.
Horne, Charles W.
Horne, Donald S.
Horn, John B.
Howes, David Elmer
Howes, Edward G.
Hutchings, Earl
James, Howard W.
James, Roland W.
Jerauld, James W.
Johnson, Robert E.
Johnson, Russell M.
Jones, Robert H.
Karr, Paul W.
Kelley, John W.
Kelley, Joseph C., Jr.
Kelsey, Richard C.
Kendrick, Leo E.
Kidder, Edwin H.
Krenn, Adolph J., Jr.
Lake, George E. Jr.
Lane, Charles A., Jr.
Larkin, Elroy M.
LeFave, Stanley J.
Long, Herbert L.
Lorraine, William R.
Love, Eugene V.
Love, Merrill F. V.
Love, Walter V.
Loveland, Theodore S.
MacLean, George S.
Madsen, Eric
Marquit, George E.
Martel, Leo V.
Masaschi, Frank
Matheson, Robert C.
Matteson, Robert N. S.
McDonald, Harold J.
McGinn, John J., Jr.
Meyer, Russell A.
Newcomb, Alvin E.
Nickerson, David K.
Nickerson, Edmund J.
Nickerson, Harold L.
Nickerson, John H.
Nickerson, Joseph A., Jr.
Nickerson, Joseph W.
Nickerson, Lyman W.
Nickerson, Philip G.
Nickerson, Ralph H.
Nickerson, Raymon W.
Nickerson, Weston, Jr.
Nickerson, Willard H., Jr.
Northup, Tharold C.
O’Brien, James A.
Oliver, Nathaniel W.
Peterson, Magnus B.
Pierce, Warren A.
Reynolds, Richard P.
Raymond, Richard A.
Ragan, Ross O.
Robbins, Victor E.
Roberts, Paul B.
Robinson, Forrest D.
Rogers, Donald C.
Rogers, Eli F., Jr.
Rogers, George V.
Rogers, William H.
Rollins, Benjamin F.
Rollins, Franklin D.
Ruggles, Stanley E., Jr.
Saley, Earl D.
Sampson, Elmer B., Jr.
Satcher, Samuel L., Jr.
Sears, Cletus C.
Sears, William B.
Shaw, Lincoln G.
Sherwood, Leslie F., Jr.
Sibley, Henry B.
Simmons, Harold N.
Slavin, Richard W.
Slavin, Thomas, Jr.
Small, Robert F.
Snow, Edwin H.
Speight, John LeRoy
Speight, Joseph C.
Speight, LeRoy C.
Speight, Robert W.
Steadman, Robert C.
Strickland, Lloyd A.
Swan, Robert C.
Sylva, Edward
Sylva, Edward S.
Sylva, Richard R.
Taylor, Edwin W.
Thurston, George C.
Tripp, Edwin E.
Tucker, Edward A.
Tucker, William G.
Turner, Walter W.
Valliere, J. Leon
Wight, Frederick S.
Worthing, Louis B.
Wright, Alvin H.
Young, Albert F.
Young, Orick D.
Young, Donald R.
Young, Walter C.
Weinz, William E.
Wheldon, Frederick E.
Whilly, Arthur G.
Wholly, Arthur T.
=In Merchant Marine=
Buckley, John E.
Dill, Reuben T. H.
Dudley, Walter E.
Hammond, Walter I.
Kendrick, Lewis B.
Lewis, Norman
Lewis, Raymond W.
Matteson, Kenneth N.
Sherman, J. Walter
Speight, Carl W.
Swenney, Chester
[Illustration]
=HARWICH HONOR ROLL=
Allen, Guy
Almedia, J. Peter
Almeida, Januario
Antone, Charles
Appleton, Phillip
Armstrong, Robert
Arsenault, Oscar
Baker, Channing N., Jr.
Baker, Joseph
Barber, Sydney
Barrett, Bradford L., Jr.
Barrett, Donald
Barrows, Frank
Bassett, Allen
Bassett, Arthur H. L.
Bassett, Benjamin
Bassett, Donald
Bassett, Howard
Bassett, Wallace
Bates, Bernard
Bates, Donald
Bates, Robert
Bee, Norwood
Borden, Perry A., Jr.
Borden, Robert
Bradford, Herbert
Buck, Dudley, Jr.
Buck, Lawrence, Jr.
Cahoon, Arthur S., Jr.
Cahoon Joseph A., Jr.
Cahoon Orville
Cahoon, Oscar
Cashen, Ralph H., Jr.
Cashen, Ralph W., Jr.
Cashen, Warner B.
Celano, Joe
Chase, Albert K., Jr.
Chase, Courtney
Chase, Earl
Chase, Ray
Chase, Richard
Chase, Roscoe, Jr.
Chipman, Edward
Chipman, Harold
Clark, Franklin
Coulson, Arthur
Coulson, Wallace
Crabe, Raymond
Crabe, Thomas
Crabe, William
Crowell, Fred
Crowell, Frederick W., Jr.
Cummings, Ernest
Cummings, J. David, Jr.
Cummings, Robert
Cunningham, William
Curtis, Robert
DaLuze, Walter
Davis, David
DeMello, Peter
Dickerson, William
Doane, Arthur P., Jr.
Doane, Edwin
Doane, George
Doane, Linwood
Downey, William F.
Doyle, William
Duffie, Harold
Dugan, David
Egan, Thomas
Ellis, Arthur, Jr.
Ellis, Calvin
Ellis, Charles
Ellis, Edward
Ellis, Everett H.
Ellis, John A.
Ellis, LeRoy
Ellis, Malcolm
Ellis, Robert
Eldredge, Alvin
Eldredge, Frederick S.
Eldredge, Harold F.
Eldredge, Maurice M.
Eldredge, Walter A.
Eldredge, Watson B., Jr.[2]
Eldredge, Webster U., Jr.
Farham, Eric
Farr, Frances
Farr, Maurice G.
Fennell, Daniel
Fernandes, Joseph
Fernandez, John Stanley
Fiebelkorn, Otto
Fletcher, Russell
Fosdick, Fred
Fosdick, Oliver
Frost, Leo
Galvin, Edwin
Galvin, Joseph
Gardner, Emerson
Gardner, Irving
Goldman, Morris
Gomes, Henry I.
Gomes, Jesse
Gomes, Leslie
Gonsalves, Frank
Gonsalves, Fred
Grant, Edwin K., Sr.
Grant, George L.
Grayson, Raymond
Hall, Alan
Hall, Albert J.
Hall, Charles A.
Hall, Donald Eugene
Hall, Marcus B.
Hall, Emulous, E., Jr.
Hall, Priscilla
Hall, Roland
Hall, William Russell
Hartig, Charles Stewart
Hill, Priscilla Hall
Homer, Lorin L.
Hopkins, Hillard, Jr.
Hunt, Warren
Hunter, Lawrence A.
Hunter, Francis T.
Ingraham, David
Johnson, Richard
Joy, Gerald F.
Joy, Stanley R.
Kanis, Harry
Keen, William
Kendrick, Edward A.
Kershaw, William, 3rd
Lake, Ernest C.
Larkin, Daniel J., Jr.
Larkin, Francis B.
Larkin, James R.
Larkin, Marguerite
Lawley, Barbara
Lawley, George, Jr.
Lee, Derek A.
Lee, George
Lee, Humphrey A.
Lee, LeRoy
Lee, Rigby A.
Lee, William D.
Lombard, Charles J.
Lombard, Frank
Lombard, Joseph, Jr.
Long, Ralph
MacIntosh, Malcolm
Matthews, Kendrick
McBreen, Andrew
McCommick, Harry
McKenney, Dana
McKenney, Leland
McKinney, William
McRae, Wallace
Megathlin, Robert H.
Miller, William A.
Moody, Sidney B.
Nichols, Carmi
Nichols, Charles
Nichols, Francis
Nickerson, Clifton L.
Nickerson, David
Nickerson, Edmund
Nickerson, Hugh
Nickerson, Joseph, Jr.
Nickerson, Raymon
Nye, Roswell, Jr.
Nunes, Anthony S.
Nunes, Howard J.
Nunes, John
Nunes, John J., Jr.
Nunes, Norman
Oles, Eugene
Orton, Edwin H.
Orton, William R., Jr.
Ostby, G. Norman, Jr.
Paine, Robert[3]
Palm, Howard
Palm, Leo J.
Pena, Eugene
Pena, Louis
Pena, Manuel C.
Pena, Rufus
Perry, Joseph C., Jr.
Peters, Clarence C.
Pratt, Charles S.
Radway, Albert
Ramsey, Curtis
Raneo, John
Raneo, Wallace
Redding, Jay D.
Reynolds, Minot
Reynolds, Thelma
Robbins, Lawrence F.
Robinson, Wayne
Roderick, Bernard
Roderick, Edmund
Roderick, Edwin
Roderick, John P.
Roderick, Lester
Roderick, Moses P.
Rogers, Palmer A.
Rose, Henry
Rose, John, Jr.
Rose, Joseph
Rose, Nathaniel
Rose, Paul J.
Rose, Raymond
Rose, Raymond M.
Rose, Snow
Ryder, Almond, Jr.
Ryder, Mervin E.
Ryder, Roland
Sabin, Donald
Sabin, Howard
Saley, Ralph
Schlosser, Alois A.
Scott, Quinton
Siebenmann, Marshall, Jr.
Silva, John I.
Sisson, Randolph A.
Small, Earl L.
Small, Lawrence E.
Small, Robert
Small, Rodman
Sorenson, Carl
Speakman, Horace B.
Speakman, Ray
Stalker, Donald
Stetson, Russell W., Jr.
Storer, Orville
St. Our, Fred
Straughn, Norman
Symmes, Richard M.
Symmes, William A.
Taylor, John J.
Thayer, John
Thayer, Robert
Thompson, Biddle, Jr.
Thompson, Edric S.
Turney, James G.
Vagenas, William
White, John A.
Whitehead, Walter, Jr.
Whiteley, Robert A.
Whiteley, Walter Vernon
Whittemore, Earl
Williams, John Roger
Williams, William
Willson, Harold, Jr.
Winston, Eugene H., Jr.
Winston, Robert
Young, Donald
Youngren, Leo
[Footnote 1: missing in action]
[Footnote 2: dead]
[Footnote 3: missing in action]
* * * * *
Transcribers Notes: Typographical errors have been silently corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal signs=.