It was the Maker of Mottos and Heroes 138 Years Ago, and Became a Christmas Miracle “On 22 December 1884 the crew of the Cape Hatteras (NC) Station (Sixth District), performed one of the most heroic feats in the annals of the Life-Saving Service. Under the leadership of Keeper Benjamin B. Dailey, assisted by Keeper […]
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The story of a wrecked barge 115 years ago, at first glance, may not seem too exciting. This story, however, is not only engagingly interesting, but is also a somewhat complicated saga. On the negative side, it is of maritime lessons unlearned. On the positive side, it demonstrates, once again, the amazing tenacity of the […]
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The wreck of the schooner Ada F. Whitney, which occurred on September 22, 1885, was a very difficult but somewhat routine event for the life-savers during a somewhat difficult time in America. In the year of this wreck, 1885, America had 38 states – yet to become would be the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, […]
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Today’s United States Coast Guard is revered for its consistency, uniformity, and teamwork, but perhaps most of all, for its excellence and rapidity of response. The origin of all that goes back to one man and one time. The man was Sumner Kimball; the time was 1878. Yet, one could even argue that the time […]
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The United States Coast Guard is best known by its motto “So others may live.” But it has gone through a lot of development through the years. “Coast Guard Day” is celebrated nationally every year on August 4, and 2022 will mark its 232nd anniversary, but the origin of that date can be somewhat confusing. […]
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On August 16, 1918, Surfman Number Eight of the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station, Leroy Stockton Midgett, took the watch in the tower of the still-new 1911 station. Although this was three years after the Life-Saving Service had been recreated as the Coast Guard, these folks had been used to the old terminology for many years and […]
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When Dunbar Davis, Keeper of the United States Life-Saving Service Station Oak Island, went to bed on Monday night of August 28, 1893, he would never have dreamed of responding to four different shipwrecks mostly by himself the next day, and saving 23 men during a violent hurricane, over a course of 55 consecutive hours, […]
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April 14, 2022, marks the day that the world’s largest manmade, moving object began its titanic futile struggle to survive 110 years ago, only days after its birth. More newspaper accounts, magazine articles, books, radio and TV talk shows, documentaries, and motion pictures have been made about the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic sinking than […]
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When the Italian vessel Nuova Ottavia wrecked on shoals off Currituck Beach just after sunset on Wednesday evening, March 1, 1876, it made no sense to any of the horror-struck witnesses, and the incident still makes no sense. It had been seen earlier about five miles from shore with rough seas and “rather high and […]
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The two most common mistakes in Outer Banks history are arguably referring to the Old Oregon Inlet Life-Saving Station as the Pea Island Station, and the history surrounding the Wright brothers. From long debates over whether North Carolina or Ohio could claim the title of being the “Birthplace of Aviation,” to the concept of who […]
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