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Massachusetts Humane Society Surfboat
Moving Nantasket into the building
Moving Nantasket into the building
Nantasket
on the water
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Nantasket
Nantasket was part of the network of volunteer
lifesavers and rescue equipment maintained along the Massachusetts
coast by the Humane Society. Designed by Joshua James’ older
brother, Captain Samuel James, Nantasket was styled to
handle the heavy surf off Hull’s Nantasket Beach.
In several important ways, Nantasket differed in design
from standard surfboats of the day, and at first officers of the
Humane Society believed the design would not succeed. Built by George
Lawley & Son in Boston in 1887, the boat was very large; 29
feet long with ten rowing stations and plenty of room for passengers
(rescue victims). She had a big, bluff bow, a high, slender stern,
and lots of sheer, allowing her to plow through heavy seas while
remaining exceptionally maneuverable when heading home through the
surf.
Nantasket's performance in the Great
Storm of 1888 soon quieted the experts’ doubts. On November
26, 1888, five men clung to the icy rigging of the Schooner H.C.
Higginson, which lay with decks under water 150 yards off Nantasket
Beach. While several unsuccessful attempts were made to affect a
breeches buoy rescue, the new Nantasket was towed up the
Weir River and hauled over the barrier beach at Black Rock to the
ocean. Joshua James and his volunteer crew already were tired from
three difficult rescues during the previous day, including the
use
of Nantasket to save seven seamen from the Bertha F. Walker.
Nantasket was launched, but forced back to shore 45 minutes
later with two holes driven in her side
s. After applying temporary
lead patches to the surfboat, the Hull volunteers successfully reached
the schooner through tremendous seas. Joshua James modestly described
the rescue, saying, “The principle danger in effecting this
rescue was from the heavy sea running... It is my opinion
that no
other boat, except the one we had, could have gotten
up alongside
of the vessel as far as
the main rigging where the men were.”
The rescue of the
Higginson earned the lifesavers Congressional
Silver Life Saving Medals. Later that sam
e day, the crew in Nantasket
rescued a single person stranded in the brig Alice.
In 1909, a Massachusetts Humane Society document listed
Nantasket as the “largest and finest in the So
ciety’s
fleet.” She remained in service until 1935, making her way,
courtesy of officials in the U.S. Coast Guard, to the Mariners Museum
in Newport News, Virginia, in 1939. On the 18th of May, 1985 Nantasket
was joyfully drawn thr
ough the streets of Hull and returned to a
permanent home at the Hull Lifesaving Museum.
Nantasket’s record also includes:
- the 1889 rescue of seventeen survivors of the wreck
of the tug H.F. Morse, three miles off shore
- the 1894 rescue of seven men from the Mary A. Hood,
less than two hours before the vessel broke apart
- the 1896 rescue of seven seamen from the English
schooner Ulrica using a line shot out from shore to guide the
boat after the seas had capsized her, a rescue which earned the
Humane Society’s Silver Lifesaving Medal
- the 1898 rescue of three crewmen stranded on Black
Rock after loss of their vessel Lucy A. Nichols during the Portland
Gale
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