Clarkson P. Bearse

“ The boat drifted off into a rip, another sea broke over, and filled her half full. Then all was confusion. She drifted into another rip, another sea broke over her, another, and still another. Down she went, turned over, and came up floating bottom up. Every man struggling in the sea. Captain Mack and his men never had a chance. In five minutes they all were engulfed by the seas, except one. One young boy, a colored fellow, was clinging to the bow of the boat. ”

“ The watch from twelve to four was Seth Linwood Ellis. Captain Tuttle called him out. He put on his oil clothes, boots and sou’wester, strapped his time clock on his back and stepped out into the storm. That night part of the beach was flooded, so he walked up in the center of the beach. He went down in the darkness and the storm guided by the tremendous roar of the surf, and in the utter darkness he missed the little shanty. He heard the surf roaring all around him so he knew he was down on the end of the beach. ”

“ He and surfman Bearse launched the dory and, in a strong westerly wind, rowing in the trough of the sea which is the most difficult course to row in a heavy sea, they went back to Monomoy Beach. They landed below the station just before dark. I am telling you this part of the story to show you the tremendous energy of those men and I tell you men and women, too we’ll have to cease our dissipation, we’ll have to turn our backs to the sparkling highballs, we’ll have to cease our late suppers and late hours if we intend to match the physical energy of those men of iron. ”

“ Because more ships and more schooners grounded and pounded themselves to pieces and washed upon the beach—more men lost their lives and their bodies strewn along the back side of Monomoy Beach than any other like locality in all the world. ”

“ To me it is the only place on earth. In olden times, in times gone by, people away from here had the idea that Cape Cod was a narrow strip of land extending off into the ocean, consisting of sand dunes and fish shanties. But in recent years there has been a radical change in the opinion people have had about Cape Cod. Now they are looking at Cape Cod as it really is. The automobile, the chamber of commerce, boards of trade, and other advertising agencies have opened Cape Cod wide, and it has been explored from one end to the other by thousands and thousands. ”

“ Those men from the barge, the very men they were trying to save, if they had only known—why one of the first lessons you are taught when you go out over the surf in an open boat in a rough sea is to sit down, the lower the better, and no matter what happens, if a sea breaks over and wets your feet, take your medicine but sit still. ”

“ With dogged determination, physical stamina and perserverance, he clung to the bottom of that boat like a spider to a wall. He went up on the crest of another sea and looked for the dory. This time the man of mystery had worked the dory way up to the windward. [Pg 54] He didn’t intend to lose that man on the bottom of the boat. This time he came running down on the crest of a sea. When you are running on a crest of a sea like that it is suicide to try to stop or try to turn this way or that. Let the sea have her, but keep her steady. For remember that every sea at last spends itself. ”

“ Pay attention to this tragedy as it develops and see the end—the tragic end of the man who took my place and carried on.
Then there was Captain Marshall N. Eldredge of South Chatham. A giant in stature, standing over six feet tall, weighing two hundred and twenty pounds, hard as nails, he was the toughest surfman who ever patrolled Monomoy Beach. He was so tough that he went barefooted in the cold sand until the first of December. In the early spring and fall, he wouldn’t wear oil clothes but said that he would rather be wet than bother with them at all. He had a wife and three children. ”

“ It was the seventeenth day of March 1902, when the news spread—and it spread like wildfire all over—not only over the towns of Chatham and Harwich, the two towns most directly affected by the disaster, but over the surrounding towns and all over Cape Cod, for that matter. Women ran from one house to the other, telling the news—men congregated on corners, in stores and elsewhere, discussing the news. The report was that every surfman on the old Monomoy Lifesaving Station, with the exception of one, had been lost. ”

“ In every great tragedy, in every great disaster, there are men sitting at home beside the fire who offer criticism. Men criticized Captain Eldredge because he went out at that particular time when the tide was running to the windward kicking up a nasty treacherous sea, but we [Pg 35] must remember that there wasn’t a cowardly cell in the make-up of Captain Eldredge. ”

“ The third sea is always smaller than the two which precede it. God made it so and surfmen since time immemorial have taken advantage of the third sea. So Mayo was jockeying for position waiting for the third sea. At last it came hissing, foaming and roaring. They were in proper position. With a roar, it broke directly under their stem and taking them in its grasp carried them ahead up, up onto the beach. Mayo jumped out and held the dory. The sea receded. Seth Linwood Ellis stepped out [Pg 56] onto the cold sand, barefooted. ”

“ He is a native Cape Codder and lives in a peaceful typical Cape Cod home in Harwich Port. In fact he is Postmaster of the Harwich Port Post office. He was a former member of the Coast Guard Station which figured in the Monomoy disaster. Due to an injury received in the line of duty he was unable to report for service, or otherwise he would have been another victim rather than the author of this thrilling story of the sea.
For many years he retained the facts about this world famous tragedy, second only in importance to the Portland disaster. ”

“ From the time it issues from the poisonous coils of the distillery until it empties into a sea of crime, degradation, despair and death, it pollutes every substance and, in a measure, weakens every man, woman, and child who comes in contact with it. ”

“ The two they found to the south of the Station they pushed over in a pushcart, wheels with wide tires, over the sand dunes, down in the hollows, and through the sand. At last they were assembled on the inside.
Sixty years ago there were no automobiles coming and going down the beach with semi-flat tires, as there are today. The only way those men could get across to the mainland in winter was in dories. So they loaded the bodies into a thirteen-foot dory, two in the bow and two in the stern. ”

“ They went in as close as they could and Captain Eldredge waded out, climbed aboard, and took the steering oar. Seth Linwood Ellis took the after thwart, shipped his oar, and they were ready to proceed. But before they proceed let’s look at the boat. This was a lapstreak boat. Suppose you live in a clap-boarded house, turn it upside down, throw in about ten or fifteen feet of water, and jump in and try to save yourself, by clinging to those clapboards with [Pg 37] a half inch margin, three inch space, and half inch margin. ”

“ The following men and women of Chatham and Harwich are now serving the colors in the various branches of the armed forces and the Honor Roll is complete as of August 1, 1943. We salute each and every one and may God grant them a safe return. ”