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Fire on the Beach recovers the heroic, long-forgotten story of the only all-black crew in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1871 the Life-Saving Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard, was created by Congress to assure the safe passage of American and international shipping and tosave lives and salvage cargo. Although it was decommissioned in 1915, a century ago the LSS boasted some two hundred stations, and the adventures of the now forgotten "surfmen" filled the pages of popular reading, from Harper's to the Baltimore Sun to the New York Herald.This book tells the story of Station 17 of Pea Island, North Carolina, and its courageous captain, Richard Etheridge. A former slave and Civil War veteran, Etheridge was appointed Keeper of the Pea Island station, but when the white crew already in place refused to serve under him, he recruited andtrained an entirely black crew. Although they were among the most courageous in the service, leading many daring rescues and saving scores of men, women, and children along the treacherous stretch of coast known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic," civilian attitudes toward the Pea Island surfmenranged from curiosity to outrage. When a hurricane hit the Banks in the late 1890s, they managed to save everyone aboard the wrecked E.S. Newman. This incredible feat went unrecognized for a century until, in 1996, the Coast Guard posthumously awarded Etheridge and his men the Gold Life-SavingMedal.This courageous story of a group of men who battled prejudice as well as fierce storms to carry out heroic deeds illustrates yet another example of the contribution of one group of remarkable African Americans to this country's history.… (más)
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
No subject at the present moment is more replete with vital and romantic interest at home and abroad than that of the American Life-Saving Service. Its brief history teems with incident and instruction. Its wonderful achievements have given it wide celebrity the world over..." - "The American Life-Saving Service", Harper's Weekly, February 1882
Dedicatoria
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To William C. Bowser III, Pea Island surfman 1935 - 38, and the people of Roanoke Island, whose memories and heart made this book possible.
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
In the early-morning hours of October 5, 1881, William B. Daniel, the number three surfman from Life-Saving Station 17, on Pea Island, North Carolina, passed the cragged shapes of several old shipwrecks as he walked the south patrol.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Then the keeper spoke up. He told the men that he had a plan, if they were willing.
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
On March 5, 1996, almost one hundred years after the daring feat, Richard Etheridge and his men were posthumously awarded a Gold Life-Saving Medal, the service's highest peacetime honor, by the Coast Guard's Commandant Admiral Robert E. Kramek at a ceremony at the naval Memorial in Washington, D. C. A right was wronged, forgotten history recovered.
Fire on the Beach recovers the heroic, long-forgotten story of the only all-black crew in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard. In 1871 the Life-Saving Service, the precursor to the Coast Guard, was created by Congress to assure the safe passage of American and international shipping and tosave lives and salvage cargo. Although it was decommissioned in 1915, a century ago the LSS boasted some two hundred stations, and the adventures of the now forgotten "surfmen" filled the pages of popular reading, from Harper's to the Baltimore Sun to the New York Herald.This book tells the story of Station 17 of Pea Island, North Carolina, and its courageous captain, Richard Etheridge. A former slave and Civil War veteran, Etheridge was appointed Keeper of the Pea Island station, but when the white crew already in place refused to serve under him, he recruited andtrained an entirely black crew. Although they were among the most courageous in the service, leading many daring rescues and saving scores of men, women, and children along the treacherous stretch of coast known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic," civilian attitudes toward the Pea Island surfmenranged from curiosity to outrage. When a hurricane hit the Banks in the late 1890s, they managed to save everyone aboard the wrecked E.S. Newman. This incredible feat went unrecognized for a century until, in 1996, the Coast Guard posthumously awarded Etheridge and his men the Gold Life-SavingMedal.This courageous story of a group of men who battled prejudice as well as fierce storms to carry out heroic deeds illustrates yet another example of the contribution of one group of remarkable African Americans to this country's history.