[Illustration: CAPT. JOSEPH C. KELLEY, KEEPER OF MONOMOY POINT STATION.]
Capt. Joseph C. Kelley, keeper of the Monomoy Point Life-Saving
Station, was born in West Brewster in 1873, and has been in the
life-saving service for five years. When he entered the service he
was assigned to the Peaked Hill Bars Station under Captain Cook. He
remained there but a few months, when he was transferred to the Chatham
Station under Capt. Herbert Eldredge. Captain Kelley was appointed
keeper of the new Monomoy Point Station in August, 1902, although
the station was not manned until Oct. 30, 1902. Captain Kelley has
the distinction of being the youngest life-saving station keeper on
Cape Cod, if not in the United States, having been honored with the
appointment of keeper of the Monomoy Point Station when he was but
twenty-nine years of age.
When a young man he was a boatman and fisherman along the shores of
Cape Cod, and later became a coastwise sailor. He became accustomed
to the perils incident to the work of boating along the shores of the
Cape, and skilled in handling boats in the roughest water at an early
age. At the Peaked Hill Bars Station under the veteran seafighter,
Captain Cook, Surfman Captain Kelley received a most thorough drilling
in the work of life saving, which proved of untold benefit to him
when he joined the Chatham Station, and better prepared him for the
responsible position he now occupies. At the Chatham Station under
Captain Eldredge, Captain Kelley was No. 1 surfman. He assisted at all
the wrecks that occurred along the shore there for nearly five years,
demonstrating his ability to cope with the most stupendous problems
of life saving. Captain Kelley has a selected crew of experienced and
fearless surfmen, who in the brief history of the station have proven
themselves equal to every emergency that has arisen.
[Illustration: THE HORSES THAT ARE KEPT ON DUTY AT MONOMOY POINT
STATION.]
Five disasters occurred on the shoals near the station within as many
weeks after the station was manned, and in every case the vessels
were saved and not a life was lost. Captain Kelley married Chestena
Batchelder.