Remember the surfmen: Cape historians seek graves of those who served
Nothing brings to mind a sharper image of the “old salt” than stories of the surfmen, members of the United States Life Saving Service. These men, assigned to 13 stations from Monomoy Point in Chatham to Wood End in Provincetown, devoted years of their lives to heroic rescues from the stormy waters off Cape Cod.
Faces sunburned and wind-weathered, eyes set in permanent squints, surfmen walked the Cape’s outer beaches, eyes peeled to the horizon, on constant watch for ships in distress. Their job was sea rescue, and from 1871 to 1915, when the USLSS was merged into the newly formed U.S. Coast Guard, they saved thousands of lives.
“In those days, when a man married, he traditionally moved to the town where his wife’s family lived,” said Dennis historian Phyllis Horton. “With most men away at sea for long stretches, a woman needed her family nearby for support. Consequently, many Dennis men are buried in other towns.”
Life Saving Service historian Richard Ryder of Eastham has designed a cast-bronze grave marker “to denote the meritorious service of the thousands of men who filled this important but dangerous role.” Shaped like a surfman’s patrol check, which each man carried to identify himself and his degree of service, the marker carries the USLSS logo and the dates of its service. “With the passage of time, all the men who served are deceased,” Ryder said. “It is my intent that they not be forgotten.”
The Dennis Historic Commission asks the Cape community’s help in locating the graves of 10 Dennis men who served in the USLSS in order to place markers honoring their service.
The DHC has allocated funds to purchase markers for all surfmen from Dennis or buried in Dennis.
Life of a surfman
“Their lives were hard,” Horton said. The stations were five miles apart with small halfway huts containing blankets and food. Surfmen patrolled in pairs every night and every day in every type of weather. One pair from each station traveled west and one went east. “At the first sight of trouble, they fired a brilliant red flare to signal their location before initiating their rescue operation,” Horton added.
Rigorous training in the use of international signal flags, breeches-buoy apparatus and other gear essential to sea rescues was reinforced and practiced in a strict weekly routine.
The alternating patrol duty schedule was: Mondays, put the station in order; Tuesdays, practice launching and landing lifeboats; Wednesdays, signal-code drills; Thursdays, practice using rescue apparatus; Fridays, refresh resuscitation training “to restore the apparently drowned.”
Weekends afforded a small reprieve from the rigors of the job: Saturday was “wash day” and Sundays were “devoted to religious practices” or “going home in rotation.” Daily patrols continued faithfully, seven days a week for 10 months.
“Many of these men lived too far away to go home and didn’t see their families until summer, when the waters were calm and shipwrecks unlikely,” Horton said. “I can’t imagine that my great-grandfather had an easier life as a surfman than he did at sea.”
Dennis men who served in the USLSS
Anyone with information on where the following men are buried is asked to contact Phyllis Horton of the Dennis Historic Commission, 508-394-0017. A bronze commemorative USLSS marker will be purchased and placed on the grave.
Dennis village: Obed Shiverick; James. H. Charles.
Dennisport: Wilton Berry; Albert Chase; Richard S. Gage; Timothy F. Murray; Wilter F. Wixon.
South Dennis: Reuben W. Eldredge
West Dennis: Benjamin Kelley; Alton J. Baker
Know about a surfman?
If you know where a member of the United States Life Saving Service is buried, call historian Phyllis Horton at 508-394-0017.