The Life Savers of Cape Cod

Overflowing with period photographs, illustrations, and maps, this book brings to life a unique age of heroism along the treacherous shores of Olde Cape Cod. In 1902, writer J. W. Dalton set out to visit each of the 13 U.S. Lifesaving Service stations on Cape Cod, from Wood End in the north to Monomoy Point in the south. This book is the result and remains the most minutely detailed account of station life at the high point of the service's existence. Dalton's research covers not only the history of the service and descriptions of each station, but also provides a paragraph on each and every keeper and surfman then serving along the Cape's seashore. He even includes entries on the names and habits of the stations' pets. Dalton even provides space for Keeper Seth Ellis of the Monomoy station to tell his version of the lifesaving disaster of the previous March 17, of which Ellis was the only survivor.