The oars were too long for the small craft, and Mayo cut a piece off
each of them. The wind blew a gale during the night preceding the
disaster, and there was considerable rough water around the barge the
next morning. The craft was not leaking, however, and there seemed no
cause for alarm. A thick fog swept in over the shoals in the morning,
hiding the stranded sister barge _Wadena_ from the view of those on the
_Fitzpatrick_, and they were in ignorance of the fact that a signal of
distress was flying in her rigging.
The first intimation that Mayo and Mallows had that a terrible
tragedy had been enacted within a short distance of them was when the
overturned life-boat, with the sole survivor of the Monomoy life-saving
crew, Surfman Ellis, clinging to it, was seen drifting out over the
shoals.
At the sight of the life-boat with a surfman clinging to it, both
Mayo and Mallows knew that a terrible disaster had happened. Mayo in
an instant threw off all his clothing except his underclothes, and
while Mallows entreated him not to go, telling him he believed that to
attempt to reach the overturned life-boat would cost him his life, Mayo
grabbed the dory, threw it into the raging sea, and slid down a rope
from the barge into the frail craft.
[Illustration: FOURTEEN-FOOT DORY USED BY CAPT. ELMER F. MAYO, IN
RESCUING SURFMAN ELLIS.]
With the improvised thole pins and the long oars, with handles so
large that he could hardly grasp them, Mayo had a fearful struggle in
preventing the dory from being swamped by the seas.
With a strong and steady stroke, and energy born of desperation, he
kept the little boat head to the sea, sending her along with marvelous
speed. Within a short time he was within hailing distance of the man
on the bottom of the life-boat. Surfman Ellis saw the boat as it was
thrown from the barge, but in the fog had lost sight of it. Mayo,
however, had kept the overturned life-boat within sight all the time,
and as soon as he got within hailing distance he shouted to Ellis, whom
he then recognized, to hold on!
It was a hazardous task to take Ellis from the bottom of the life-boat,
but both Mayo and Ellis were skilled in that kind of work, and it was
successfully accomplished. To land on the beach through the surf would
be attended with greater peril, but Mayo knew that Ellis must have
immediate treatment, and after placing him in the bottom of the boat,
he headed the dory straight for the shore. The fog still hung over the
waters, and it was solely from his thorough knowledge of the waters
about that region that Mayo was able to avoid the myriads of shoals
and rips, and guide the boat to a point on the beach where it would
be possible to land. Surfman Bloomer, of the Monomoy Station, who had
walked down the beach, saw the boat headed for the beach, and running
down, got there just in time to assist Mayo in landing.
[Illustration: THE MONOMOY SURF-BOAT.]
Both the United States Government and the Massachusetts Humane Society
recognized this great heroic act of Captain Mayo, and awarded him
medals. The committee having charge of the Monomoy Fund also presented
him with a portion of the money received by them, in recognition of his
heroism in rescuing Surfman Ellis from a watery grave.
Captain Mayo married Mrs. Priscilla Nye.
The late Capt. Isaac Green Fisher, keeper of the Wood End Station, was
born in Truro in 1838, and was the son of Caleb and Mary G. Fisher,
of that town. For twenty years he was keeper of the Peaked Hill Bars
and Wood End Life-Saving stations, and was known the country over as a
wondrous surf-fighter and saver of human life. Prior to his entering
the life-saving service he had been engaged in whaling for a number of
years, and won distinction in that skilled work by his fearlessness and
marvelous dexterity with the steering oar.
As keeper of the dangerous Peaked Hill Bars Station, Captain Fisher
rescued hundreds of shipwrecked seafarers, and assisted a countless
number of stranded crafts to places of safety. He also assisted at
nearly all the wrecks that took place at the stations along the back of
the Cape, adjoining the Peaked Hill Bars Station.
He was retired from the service at his own request on account of
physical disability, June 14, 1901, and died September 18 following.
[Illustration: THE LATE CAPT. ISAAC G. FISHER AND HIS CREW OF SURF
FIGHTERS.]
[Illustration: RELATIVE POSITIONS OF MEN WHILE PLACING APPARATUS.]
[Illustration: POSITION OF LIFE SAVERS WHEN SHOT LINE IS BENT TO WHIP.]
[Illustration: HAULING OFF WHIP.