Back row:
SURFMAN WALKER. SURFMAN GAGE. CAPTAIN BEARSE. CAPTAIN CHARLES.
Front row:
SURFMAN SNOW. SURFMAN JORDEN. SURFMAN HOWES. SURFMAN HIGGINS.
JOINT CREW.
Captains Charles, of Orleans Station, and Bearse, of Nauset Station, with their picked crews of life savers who, at the risk of their lives, brought the disabled schooner Andrew Adams and crew into port. This, the first instance in the history of the life-saving service on Cape Cod, in which two life-saving captains went to a rescue in the same life-boat, occurred during the winter of 1903.
Nauset bars extend along the shore at this station, and many terrible wrecks have taken place there. When the station was opened Capt. Marcus M. Pierce was appointed keeper. Later he was transferred to the Orleans Station, and Capt. Walter D. Knowles was placed in charge. Keeper Knowles was succeeded by the present keeper Captain Bearse. There are two surf-boats of the Monomoy model, two beach carts with breeches-buoy, etc., and a life-car at this station.
“Brad,” a horse owned by Captain Bearse, is on duty at the station during the winter season.
Captain Bearse and his crew of life savers have rescued seventeen persons in their surf-boat and seventeen shipwrecked sailors in the breeches-buoy since Captain Bearse has been keeper, while thirty-eight persons were rescued from the surf by ropes and small boats. Of the total number of vessels stranded on the bars near the station eight schooners and one cat-boat were a total loss. Not a life has been lost within the province of this station since Captain Bearse has been in charge.
CAPT. ALONZO N. BEARSE.
CAPT. ALONZO N. BEARSE, KEEPER OF NAUSET STATION.
Capt. Alonzo N. Bearse, keeper of the Nauset Life-Saving Station, was born on Monomoy Point in 1842, and has been in the life-saving service for nineteen years, three years as a surfman and sixteen as keeper of this station. Born on Monomoy Island, within sight of the dreaded shoals off Monomoy, as a boy he became familiar with boats and boating, and witnessed the scenes of disaster that occurred along the coast near his home. He quickly learned the art of handling boats in rough water, and in launching and landing through the surf. He went to sea at an early age, shipping on a coastwise schooner. Returning from sea shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the 43d Massachusetts Infantry, Company E, serving honorably with his company for eleven months, his term of enlistment. During the time that he was at the front he took part in the severe fighting at Kingston, Whitehall, and Goldsboro. He escaped unhurt, however, and returned to Cape Cod, and again went to sea. He had a wide and varied experience as mariner, fisherman, and boatman, and was well qualified for the work of a surfman when he joined the Nauset Station crew, under Captain Knowles, whom he subsequently succeeded as keeper.