The No. 1 surfman is Joseph D. Bloomer. He was born in Prince Edward
Island in 1857, and has been in the life-saving service since Oct. 1,
1902. Surfman Bloomer followed the sea in one capacity or another since
he was a boy. For five years he was engaged in trading between Portland
and the West Indies Islands. Upon coming to Cape Cod he took up his
residence in Chatham, and for the past twenty-five years he has been
a boatman, fisherman, anchor dragger, and wrecker on the shoals off
Monomoy. Before entering the life-saving service as a regular surfman,
he had substituted at the Chatham and Monomoy Stations, and was well
used to the duties of a surfman. The rips and shoals off Monomoy are
all familiar to Surfman Bloomer. During the twenty-five years that he
has spent in that region he assisted at all the wrecks that took place
near there, and was one of the best-known Monomoy wreckers so-called.
Skilled in the art of boating, with a thorough knowledge of the shoals
along the shores of Cape Cod, Surfman Bloomer has few equals as a life
saver. He married Adeline Bloomer.
[Illustration:
Back row:
OBED H. SHIVERICK. JOHN E. ELLIS. JOSEPH D. BLOOMER.
CAPTAIN KELLEY.
Front row:
RICHARD E. RYDER. CHARLES G. HAMILTON. REUBEN W. ELDREDGE.
EDWIN L. CLARK.