MONOMOY CREW.
The No. 4 surfman is George C. Cahoon. He was born in Harwich in 1872, and has been in the life-saving service but a year. When he entered the service he was assigned to the Race Point Station, under Capt. “Sam” Fisher, and was transferred here this year. Surfman Cahoon was a fisherman and boatman along the shores of Cape Cod from the time he was a boy until he entered the service. He is an able boatman and has already shown himself to be an efficient life saver. He married Emma Jones, and is the father of a daughter.
The No. 5 surfman is Walter F. Wixon. He was born in South Chatham in 1866, and is serving his first year in the life-saving service. Having been a boatman and fisherman along the shores “back of the Cape” for a number of years, he is skilled in handling a boat, and has a thorough knowledge of the rips and shoals that line the shore there. He married Minnie E. Chase.
The No. 6 surfman is Thomas W. Bearse. He was born in West Harwich in 1863, and is serving his first season as a life saver. Surfman Bearse was a boatman and fisherman along the Chatham shores before he entered the service, and was well prepared for the work he has been called upon to perform as a surfman. He married Annie Cahoon, and is the father of two boys.
The No. 7 surfman is Frank Thomas. He was born in Provincetown in 1874, and entered the life-saving service Dec. 1, 1902. Surfman Thomas went to the Grand Banks when he was but eleven years of age. He followed the sea from that time until he entered the service, engaging principally in dory fishing off Cape Cod. He is an expert boatman and gives promise of becoming an able life saver. He married Rosie Gracie, and is the father of two daughters.
The No. 8 surfman is Marcus N. Smith. He was born in West Chatham in 1865, and has been in the life-saving service one year. He followed the sea and was a boatman and fisherman along the shores of Cape Cod from the time he was a boy until he joined the service. He first served at the Muskeget Station, Nantucket, joining this station as the winter man Dec. 1, 1902. He has proved his efficiency as a life saver, and is a valuable addition to the crew at this station.
Owing to the great amount of work which the crew of this station was called upon to perform, and the long patrol that the surfmen were obliged to go over before the Monomoy Point Station was built, eight surfmen were employed at this station, and they are still retained. It is the only station on Cape Cod where that number of surfmen are employed.
MONOMOY POINT STATION.
The Monomoy Point Station is located near the extreme end of Monomoy Island, about nine miles from Chatham lights, which bear about north-northeast. Monomoy Island is a long, narrow strip of beach at the elbow of Cape Cod. The dreaded Shovelful and Handkerchief shoals stretch out under the waters of Nantucket Sound along the eastern and southern shores of the island, and in the vicinity countless vessels have met their doom and many lives have been lost. Owing to the great number of disasters that occurred off the southern end of Monomoy, the present life-saving station was built. At the time that this station was erected it was intended that the old Monomoy Station should be abandoned and the crew transferred to this station.
After the appalling calamity, “The Monomoy Disaster” on March 17, 1902, when Captain Eldredge and six of his crew of life savers lost their lives, the department decided to continue the old Monomoy Station.