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The Life of Joshua James
Joshua James (1826-1902) was born in Hull, Massachusetts,
and lived his entire life in this small, seaside town. He lived
to be 75, devoting 60 of those years to saving over 1,000 lives
from shipwreck at the mouth of Boston Harbor. James and the surfmen
from Hull’s Massachusetts Humane Society and U.S. Life Saving
Service crews were the best in the world--and renowned for their
deeds. Amazingly, no one ever died in a rescue in which Joshua James
participated.
Born on November 22, 1826, James was the ninth of twelve
children. His mother, Esther Dill, was from Hingham, while his father,
William James, had emigrated from Holland as a young man. According
to lore, Joshua learned to “hear the land speak” at
an early age, distinguishing among shorelines in Hull and its surrounding
islands by the different sounds of waves washing against their rocky
shores and shoals.
In April 1837, Joshua witnessed his beloved mother’s
death in a shipwreck in Hull Gut, only a half-mile from safe harbor.
He is said to have resolved then, as a ten year-old boy, to spend
the rest of his life ensuring that no one else would ever suffer
his mother's fate -- or his own. Five years later, in December 1841,
Joshua leaped aboard a surfboat manned by the local Humane Society
crew heading toward the ship Mohawk being “hammered
shapeless” off Allerton Beach; he would continue to save lives
for the next six decades.
Like many Humane Society volunteers, Joshua earned his
livelihood from the sea, fishing, salvaging, lightering (ferrying
goods from ship to shore), and transporting paving stones to Boston
from Hull’s shores. In 1859, when he was 32 Joshua married
his 16 year-old fourth cousin, Louisa Lucihe, of Hingham. Six of
their ten children reached adulthood.
During the 19th century, the Port of Boston saw a rapid
increase in shipping traffic, becoming for a time the busiest in
the nation. Typically, up to 100 ships a day passed in and out of
the narrow and rocky “Nantasket Roads” shipping channel
that led from open ocean into the growing port. Since Hull is a
peninsula pointing north into Boston Harbor like a protruding finger,
its shores ran the length of the channel. Due to the region’s
destructive Northeast storms, an inordinate number
of wrecks occurred,
driving hundreds of vessels ashore while putting thousands of lives
in peril.
In 1876, Joshua became the Boat-Keeper of Hull’s
busy Humane Society lifeboat crews. In 1890, upon completion of
the new Point Allerton U.S. Life Saving Service Station, Joshua
was appointed Keeper. He was 63 years
old, 18 years beyond the services’
limit of 45. However
, due to his unequaled lifesaving record, and
considerable petitioning by townspeople of
Hull and his allies in
the Service, the age restriction was waived. Over the next 13 years,
Joshua and his c
rew saved another 540 lives. To fill his shoes with
the
town’s volunteer lifesavers, Joshua’s son, Osceola,
became the Humane Society Boat-Keeper.
On March 19, 1902, Joshua was reeling with distress
over a major disaster on Monomoy Island off Cape Cod. Two days earlier,
all but one of the Monomoy Life-Saving Station crew had died during
a rescue attempt, drowned by the panicking wreck victims they were
endeavoring to save. Ordering his men into their boats for practice
early on the 19th, for the second straight day of hard drilling,
the Point Allerton crew tested a new self-bailing, self-righting
surfboat. After working at the steering oar for over an hour, Joshua
ordered the boat ashore, and then collapsed on the sand, dying instantly.
Local legend claims that the world-famous mariner uttered the words,
“the tide is ebbing....” with his final breath.
The lifesavers’ extraordinary legacy, embodied
in their motto, “You have to go out, but you don’t have
to come back,” is an enduring reminder of their commitment
and valiant selflessness. Joshua and his crewmates were men of profound
courage, skill, and compassion, true models of heroism in their
time and ours.
Important Dates in Joshua James’s Life
- Born: November 22, 1826
- Mother Died: April 3, 1837
- First Rescue: December 15, 1841, The Mohawk
- Medal: 1850, Humane Society Bronze for rescue
of crew of French brig L'Essai
- Humane Society Keeper: 1876 (at 50)
- Medal: 1885, Humane Society Silver Medal for "brave
and faithful service of more than 40 years in the lifeboats of
the Humane Society," and $50
- Rescues: Great Storm of November 25-26, 1888; 29
men, 6 ships
- Medal: Humane Society Gold Medal for Great Storm
o
f 1888
- Medal: Congressional Gold Lifesaving Medal for the
Great Storm of 1888
- Opening of Point Allerton Station: March 1890 (at
63)
- Rescues: Ulrica, December 16, 1896
- Rescues: Portland Gale of November 27, 28, 1898;
20 lives, 4 ships
- Died: March 19, 1902 (at 75); 540 people assisted
in 13 years at Point Allerton
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