Location: NC 12 at Pea Island
County: Dare
Original Date Cast: 2010
The United States Lifesaving Service (USLS) established eighteen stations along the Outer Banks in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Black veterans of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) found work in the stations not only as cooks and stewards, but also as surfmen. In 1879, the M & E Henderson wrecked near Pea Island. When the survivors reached shore, they found the surfmen of the Pea Island station fast asleep. An inquiry by the Lifesaving Service found the members of the all-white crew grossly negligent and they were fired.
In their place, the senior inspector suggested the appointment of Richard Etheridge as the new station keeper. Formerly a sergeant in Company F, 36th USCT, he proved exceptional at his job. With the permission of the USLS, he hired a crew composed mainly of veterans with whom he had served. Until closing in 1947, Pea Island remained the only all-black facility.
Etheridge had been born a slave in 1842, the property of John B. Etheridge. According to Richard’s widow’s pension application, supported by depositions by John’s children, Richard was a “member of the family,” and lived with them after a period at the Roanoke Island freedmen’s colony. Historians have concluded that Richard likely was the son of John B. Etheridge.
Shortly after Etheridge took command, fire destroyed the station house. Although never proven, it was thought to have been the work of the former lifesaving crew. The new crew rebuilt the station. Their discipline can be attributed to Etheridge, a very strict chief who ran his station with military ardor. During his tenure, the crew rescued over 200 survivors from nearly twenty wrecks, a record unsurpassed by any other crew in North Carolina.
Their most dramatic rescue took place on October 11, 1896, with the sinking of the E. S. Newman, a three-masted schooner. Etheridge tied a rope to the two strongest swimmers in his crew and sent them out to the vessel. They tied two survivors to themselves, and then were dragged back to shore. Thus, the nine crew and passengers, including a woman and child, were rescued.
In 1995, after a campaign to gain them recognition, Etheridge and his crew were posthumously awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal. The story of the crew has been documented more recently in book and film, and a life-size statue of Etheridge stands in a traffic circle in Manteo.
References:
Joe A. Mobley, Ship Ashore!: The U.S. Lifesavers of Coastal North Carolina (1994)
David Wright and David Zoby, Fire on the Beach: Recovering the Lost Story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers (2000)
David Wright, “Ignoring Jim Crow: Turbulent Appointment of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers,” Journal of Negro History (1995)
Rescue Men: The Story of the Pea Island Lifesavers, film (2010)
http://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/372/