The Monomoy Station is another of the original nine stations erected
on Cape Cod when the United States Life-Saving Service was extended to
these shores. It is located two and one-half miles north of Monomoy
Light. Its approximate position as obtained from the latest coast
survey charts is latitude north 41° 35′ 25″, longitude west 69° 59′
10″. When the station was manned, March 20, 1873, Capt. George W.
Baxter, of West Harwich, was placed in command. He resigned on account
of ill-health in 1882, and his successor was Capt. William Tuttle. His
death occurred July 1, 1899, and the late Capt. Marshall W. Eldredge
was appointed to fill the vacancy Aug. 4, 1899. Captain Eldredge
perished in an attempt to rescue five persons from the stranded barge
_Wadena_, March 17, 1902.
[Illustration: MONOMOY STATION.]
The patrol north of this station is about two and one-half miles, the
surfmen meeting and exchanging checks with the surfmen from the Chatham
Station. The patrol south is about one and one-half miles, the surfmen
meeting and exchanging checks with the surfmen from the Monomoy Point
Station.
There is no more dangerous stretch of coast on Cape Cod than off
Monomoy. Disaster follows disaster in that region, and the work of the
life savers is attended with the greatest peril at all times.
The following disasters have occurred at the Monomoy Station since
Captain Ellis has been in command: Schooner _Elwood Burton_, of New
York, stranded on the Handkerchief Shoal, the life savers rescuing her
crew of six men in their surf-boat. Five men, the crew of the barge
_Paxinos_, which had struck on Pollock Rip, were rescued from a sinking
boat by the Monomoy crew. They were later placed aboard the barge,
which was soon floated by the life savers. From the schooner _Dora
Mathews_, which stranded on the beach near the station, three men were
taken ashore in the breeches-buoy. A number of other crafts which met
with disaster along the shore were assisted by Captain Ellis and his
crew.
[Illustration: CAPT. SETH L. ELLIS, KEEPER OF MONOMOY STATION.]