[The following is in regards to the wreck of The Eveline Treat, a schooner carrying coal that was destroyed just 300 yards off the Massachusetts shore in 1865. It’s remembers for the heroic efforts of rescue workers on shore that fought desperately to evacuate the crew in the midst of violent waves, by attaching ropes to the mast of the ship and trying to ferry survivors back to shore with rescue swings and other such devices. At this point, a sort of basket carrying the weak and exhausted captain became tangled in the rescue lines above the water. He spent some time hanging there, exposed to the violent weather conditions, while crews on shore tried in vain to force the basket through the tangle.]
Three lives literally hung in the balance. Not only was the captain in danger of dying from exposure as he was splashed by the angry sea, but the two sailors still out on the ship were now stranded without a clear path to the shore.
Extraordinary conditions often compel extraordinary responses. Frederick W. Ramsdell, a Nantucket man with a robust build, stood on the dank shore and saw the need for immediate action. With the confidence of youth, Ramsdell grabbed a knife, held the knife in his mouth, and tied a rope around his waist. The crowd on the beach looked on with fear and hope as Ramsdell sprang onto the hawser and began to inch his way out toward the desperate captain.
Slowly, through windswept foam and breaking waves, Ramsdell climbed hand over hand along the hawser suspended above the turbulent ocean for more than 100 yards. When he reached the captain, Ramsdell perched on the bobbing hawser and cut the snarled lines where they were attached to the life-sling. Removing the line from his waist, he then tied that line to the sling so that rescuers could pull the sling toward the shore.
Cold and wet, and strained by the exertion, Ramsdell now faced the return trip to the beach without the safety of a line around his waist. Friends on shore no longer held a rope that could save him by dragging him back to the beach. One slip from the soggy hawser would send him to a watery grave. Hand over hand, hanging below the thick hawser, he passed through the misery inflicted by wind and wave. Late on that cold October afternoon, Frederick Ramsdell stepped onto the beach a hero.
[…]
The Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror foresaw the timeless appeal of the day’s events:
Darkness crept on apace; but the lights around every fireside burned brighter that night, and eyes opened wider, at the thrilling story of five men who were rescued from a watery grave. God was thanked, and the brave man remembered, who risked his own life that three men might live. It will be a long time before that day’s deeds will be forgotten.
For his efforts Frederick Ramsdell was recognized with a silver medal, the Massachusetts Humane Society’s highest award.
Source:
Pletcher, Larry. “The Wreck of the Eveline Treat.” Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. Insiders Guide, 2006. 14-16. Print.
Along the Outer Banks of North Carolina there were men called "Pea Island Rescuers" that would go out in row boats and rescue men from the raging seas of the Outer Banks. This is fascinating stuff.