Soon after Johnson found the life-preserver, wreckage from the steamer
was seen in the surf along the shore, and within a short time the
beach for miles was strewn with it. All the life savers suffered great
hardship during that gale, which was the worst in the history of the
life-saving service.
Twice since the establishment of the United States Life-Saving Service
on Cape Cod, the life savers in the life-boats have met with disaster,
and members of the crews perished in the catastrophe.
[Illustration: CHARLES A. CAMPBELL WRECKED AT PAMET RIVER.]
[Illustration: LILLIE ABANDONED AND IN A BAD PLACE.]
Keeper David H. Atkins and Surfman Frank Mayo and Elisha Taylor of the
Peaked Hill Bars Station perished by their boat being wrecked during
a second trip to the stone-loaded sloop, _C. E. Trumbull_, on the
morning of Nov. 30, 1880, to take off two sailors who refused to go
ashore the first time.
Surfman S. O. Fisher, now keeper of the Race Point Station, C. P.
Kelley, now keeper at High Head Station, and Isaiah Young, who has not
since seen a well day, lived to tell the story after a life or death
struggle with icy seas and currents and being swept for miles along the
shore before they crawled up on the beach.
But the Monomoy disaster of March 17, 1902 was the most appalling and
attended with the greatest loss of life, twelve men, seven of them life
savers, perishing.
[Illustration: SCHOONER BEING POUNDED TO PIECES OFF ORLEANS.]
The conduct of the Monomoy crew on this occasion affords a noteworthy
example of unflinching fidelity to duty. By long experience they were
fully aware of the perils that must be encountered in going to the
wrecked vessels, but it was a summons which the brave and conscientious
life savers could not disregard.
The story of this disaster is still fresh in the public mind.