The life savers of Cape Cod

by J. W. Dalton

The station is one of the most modern buildings of its kind, with large and airy rooms for the crew and a big boat room for the surf-boats, beach carts, and other apparatus.

MONOMOY POINT STATION.

The patrol north from this station is about one and one-half miles, the surfmen meeting and exchanging checks with the surfmen from the Old Monomoy Station. The south patrol along the beach on the end of Monomoy is also about one and one-half miles, the surfman on that patrol carrying a time clock to record their performance of duty.

At the Monomoy Point Station there are three surf-boats. One of these boats is a self-bailer, the only one on Cape Cod. There are also two beach carts with apparatus, and one life-car. Six surfmen with Keeper Kelley go in the self-bailer at the time of shipwreck. A horse owned by the government, called “Susan,” is kept at the station to assist in hauling the apparatus to scenes of disaster. There are also two other horses owned by the surfmen kept there. Cats are the pets of the surfmen, a half dozen making their home at the station.

CAPT. JOSEPH C. KELLEY.

CAPT. JOSEPH C. KELLEY, KEEPER OF MONOMOY POINT STATION.

Capt. Joseph C. Kelley, keeper of the Monomoy Point Life-Saving Station, was born in West Brewster in 1873, and has been in the life-saving service for five years. When he entered the service he was assigned to the Peaked Hill Bars Station under Captain Cook. He remained there but a few months, when he was transferred to the Chatham Station under Capt. Herbert Eldredge. Captain Kelley was appointed keeper of the new Monomoy Point Station in August, 1902, although the station was not manned until Oct. 30, 1902. Captain Kelley has the distinction of being the youngest life-saving station keeper on Cape Cod, if not in the United States, having been honored with the appointment of keeper of the Monomoy Point Station when he was but twenty-nine years of age.

When a young man he was a boatman and fisherman along the shores of Cape Cod, and later became a coastwise sailor. He became accustomed to the perils incident to the work of boating along the shores of the Cape, and skilled in handling boats in the roughest water at an early age. At the Peaked Hill Bars Station under the veteran seafighter, Captain Cook, Surfman Captain Kelley received a most thorough drilling in the work of life saving, which proved of untold benefit to him when he joined the Chatham Station, and better prepared him for the responsible position he now occupies. At the Chatham Station under Captain Eldredge, Captain Kelley was No. 1 surfman. He assisted at all the wrecks that occurred along the shore there for nearly five years, demonstrating his ability to cope with the most stupendous problems of life saving. Captain Kelley has a selected crew of experienced and fearless surfmen, who in the brief history of the station have proven themselves equal to every emergency that has arisen.