Hero of the Week 43

Welcome back viewers!

This week we will honor a team of heroes.

They are...

The crew of the Pea Island Life-Saving Station!

The Pea Island Life-Saving Station was located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. In the year 1880, it became the first and only lifesaving station to be operated by an African-American crew. The person chosen to be the keeper of the station was a former slave named, Richard Etheridge. And he and his crew would take part in a daring rescue that would make them heroes.

Etheridge had served in a colored unit in the Civil War. Upon his discharge from the military he joined the Life-Saving service. His skill as a surf man led to his assignment to the station on Pea Island. Due to his skin color, no white men agreed to work with Etheridge at the station (they felt that working under a former slave was too degrading). Therefore, his entire crew would be made up of African-American men. They were: Benjamin Bowser, Lewis Wescott, Dorman Pugh, Theodore Meekins, Stanley Wise, and William Irving. Although Etheridge and his crew frequently faced racism from the very same people that they were protecting, they continued to operate the lighthouse. Their defining moment would come on October 11, 1896.

On that day, a violent storm blew in along the eastern coast of the North Carolina. It was not long before the men on Pea Island noticed a distress flare. They then spotted a three-masted schooner (E.S. Newman) that had run aground about two miles offshore. Etheridge quickly prepared his crew for a rescue of the Newman's passengers and crew. They then launched a surfboat and paddled through the rough sea to the stricken schooner. Once they were there, they found they could not reach the vessel since it was not on dry land. Etheridge realized that there was no room for failure. He made the decision to tie his surfmen together and connected them to the shore by a long rope. The surf men then fought their way through the breaking waves as they went from the schooner to dry land at least ten times. They did this until all of the passengers and crew of the E.S. Newman had been safely evacuated from their ship. 

Despite their heroism, Richard Etheridge and his brave crew of surf men were never officially recognized for their actions. Never the less, the men remained dedicated to their duties at the Life-Saving Station on Pea Island. Richard Etheridge eventually died May 8, 1900 after serving twenty years at Pea Island. He was 58 years old. The station on Pea Island was decommissioned in 1947. For the next whole century, the brave rescue of the E.S. Newman by the men of Pea Island nearly faded into obscurity. It was not until 1996 (on the 100th anniversary of the rescue) that the United States Coast Guard finally recognized them. Richard Etheridge and his six crew members were all posthumously awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal.

Like many heroes before and after, the crew of the Pea Island Station went unrecognized for their heroism and service to our nation. To me the represent some of the best and most remarkable unsung heroes in American history. They lived in a country that did not see them as equal and found it in themselves to risk their lives to save others. It is because of people like them, that many others are alive today. They definitely deserve to always be remembered.

https://www.nps.gov/stateoftheparks/caha/culturalresources/lifesavingstation.cfm

https://blackthen.com/pea-island-life-saving-station-first-all-black-crew-in-the-country/

http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2010/10/coast-guard-heroes-richard-etheridge/