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The Great Storm of 1888
On the morning of November 25th 1888, Joshua James
spotted six schooners anchored in Nantasket Roads, a half mile southwest
of Boston Light. The first to run aground in the mounting storm was
the Cox and Green, which struck rocks in mid-afternoon, half
a mile from the Humane Society’s boathouse at Stony Beach. The
breeches buoy was used to rescue all eight sailors aboard.
Even before the last man was brought ashore from
the Cox and Green, at about 8 pm the Gertrude Abbott
was driven onto the rocks a half mile further up the beach. The
lifesavers were able to set out in their surfboat only after darkness
had fallen. At the wreck, the surfboat was maneuvered under the
ship’s bow, and as the smaller craft was lifted by the cresting
waves, the eight sailors leapt one by one from the rigging
into
the boat. The surfboat R.B. Forbes, with 13 crowded aboard,
repeatedly filled with water and swam
ped once while returning to
shore. Most of the oars were lost and one man was washed away and
reclaimed before the surfboat itself was smashed on hidden rocks
near the shore in a rescue that Joshua James called “miraculous.”
All nine surfmen who affected this rescue were awarded the Treasury
Department’s U.S. Gold Life Saving Medal, the highest possible
award.
At daybreak on the 26th, the surfboat Robert
G. Shaw set out from the protected launch at Pemberton Point
toward the Bertha Walker. The volunteers thus avoided some
of the dangerous seas they had encountered going out to the Gertrude
Abbott, but had to face an exceptionally difficult six and
a half mile row to the wreck. Seven sailors from the ship were brought
safely ashore by 9 am, all but the captain and first mate who had
drowned during the night.
L
ate in the morning of the 26th, word
came that
the H.C. Higginson was s
unk between two ledges at Nantasket
Bea
ch, near the Bertha Walker. While the new surfboat Nantasket,
designe
d by Samuel and Joshua James, was bei
ng towed up the Weir
River and hauled overland to the ocean for use, men from the Cohasset
Humane Society and the U.S. Life Saving Station at North Scituate
attempted to reach the ship with the beach apparatus. However, debris
fouling the lines rende
red the breeches buo
y useless, and the Cohas
set
and Scituate
crews left the wreck site
. The Hull crew launched the
<
em>Nantasket on her maiden rescue, but was
forced bac
k to
shore
45 minutes later with two holes driven in her sides. After
applying temporary lead patches, the Hull volunteers successfully
rowed out to the schooner. The ship’s ste
ward had died during
the night, and the captain and mate had been swept overboard. It
was said that th
e
captain was too obese to climb the rigging, and
that his mate had refused to leave him to perish alone. With the
Nantasket at the Higgingson’s stern, the
seamen stranded at the ship's bow lashed themselves to the tangled
breeches buoy lines and leapt into the sea to be pulled to safety.
By the afternoon of the 26th, the winds were easing,
but the sea was running more heavily than ever. The schooner Mattie
E. Eaton was driven so hard ashore that the crew was able to walk
to safety at low tide. The brig Alice was abandoned at sea, but
late on the 26th, the tireless Hull crew retrieved a salvager who
had been stranded there when his dory was swept away. This was the
last rescue of an extraordinary 36 hours, during which 28 Hull men
had worked in five crews to save 29 lives along the town’s
shores. This storm lead to the construction, one year later, of
the Point Allerton U.S. Life Saving Station. |