Crew ‘battled against the raging seas’ to reach ship in distress 128 years ago off NC

A brave crew “battled against the raging seas” to reach a ship in distress 128 years ago off the North Carolina coast.

Under the leadership of Capt. Richard Etheridge, the Pea Island Lifesavers swam into “perilous” waters on Oct. 11, 1896. The crew managed to save everyone aboard the E. S. Newman, which had lost all of its sails in powerful hurricane winds, according to the National Park Service and U.S. Coast Guard.

Here’s what we know on the anniversary of the “daring” rescue off the Outer Banks barrier islands.

The NC crew’s ‘most dramatic’ rescue

In the late 1800s, the U.S. Lifesaving Service set up stations to patrol the North Carolina coast . But early on, Pea Island had a “grossly negligent” crew that failed to help a ship, the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and Encyclopedia of North Carolina wrote on their websites.

So the station got a new crew led by Etheridge, a Civil War veteran who was born into slavery . The station became the only Lifesaving Service facility to have an all-Black crew and was known for its “rigorous” training , according to the military and The Charlotte Observer.

“Their training was put to the test on the night of October 11, 1896,” when a hurricane battered the E. S. Newman. The schooner — which had been traveling from New England to Norfolk, Virginia — “lost all sails and drifted almost 100 miles before it ran aground about two miles south of the Pea Island Life-Saving Station,” according to the park service and Coast Guard.

Though the storm halted Pea Island’s routine beach patrols, the crew was still looking out for distress signals. One of the crew members — known as surfmen — noticed a flare and sprang into action.

The crew tried to launch a boat into the water. But it was so difficult to reach the struggling ship that Etheridge changed plans.

“Etheridge turned to sheer manpower as his final option,” the park service wrote. “Asking for two volunteer crewmen, Etheridge commanded they tie ropes around themselves and swim to the wreck.” The other crew on shore held ropes “as a lifeline between land and sea.”

After several trips, experts said the crew saved all nine people who had been on the E.S. Newman, including a 3-year-old boy. “The operation would prove to be the most dramatic in their many years of service to North Carolina’s Outer Banks,” according to state historians.

Legacy of the rescue

The Pea Island Lifesavers’ actions received recognition long after the station closed in 1947. About a century after the E. S. Newman rescue, the Coast Guard posthumously awarded crew members the Gold Lifesaving Medal.

Etheridge, who died at the station in 1900, has had an Outer Banks bridge and a Coast Guard vessel named in his honor, according to the park service and The Charlotte Observer.

An event dedicated to the Pea Island Lifesavers is planned for Sunday, Oct. 13, state officials told McClatchy News in an email. More details can be found at facebook.com/surfmenhistory .

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