Life Savers

The buryin' grounds along our coast hold many unmarked graves;
resting places of poor seamen, tumbled in by ruthless waves.
The shoals of Barnegat became well known to sailor's fears,
as they racked up ships in numbers in those early sailing years.
And, tho' unorganized as such, our shoremen did their best
to rescue stranded seamen when their vessels were distressed.
Coastal wrecks were first recorded, seventeen and five.
Many victims of these early wrecks did not survive.

In Manahawkin, there once lived young Doctor William Newell;
he loved the sea, but wondered why it had to be so cruel.
One night on Long Beach Island, thru' strong winds, he heard the wails
and cries of helpless seamen, from a brig wrecked by the gales.
A mere three hundred yards from shore they perished in the brine,
so close and yet so far from help.  Could he invent a line
whereby to ships disabled, a beach patrol could reach
these helpless souls and bring them to a refuge on the beach?

Haunted by this scene, the seeds were planted in his mind;
the 'buoy-line' was born of Newell's compassion to mankind.
This was the thought he lived with night and a day for seven years;
motivated by this dream, the doctor changed careers.
In eighteen forty-six, Newell ran for Congressman and won. 
The years passed by, then he got a chance to speak, in Washington.
He described in wrenching detail Barnegat's disastrous coast,
and how shifting shoals there made it much more dangerous than most.
And the House of Representatives listened to his plea;
it appropriated funds for rescue work at sea.
It sponsored apparatus - surboats, rockets, cannonades;
with Newell's bucket buoy lifelines, valiant rescues could be made.

But volunteers still manned them; Congress intervened again;
this time, a bill was passed to recruit boatkeepers and surfmen.
With nine years of crusading, because a man believed,
Barnegat's Life Saving Service* was finally conceived.

Life Saving Service veterans recounted harrowing tales,
how they'd braved all kinds of weather - blizzards, storms and gales.
Oft'times they kept their vigils throughout the dark of night,
listening to cries of help, awaiting morning light.
The frigid weather was the worst; they almost froze.  In fact,
sometimes it was so cold, that when they moved, their oilskins cracked.

One February night, in eighteen eighty-six, it's told,
how the keeper and his surfmen were summoned in the cold.
The bark, Kraljevica, bringing salt from Marseilles, France,
was headed for New York port, when it met dire circumstance.
It occurred off Long Beach Island in a strong Nor'eastern squall;
Ol' Barney, shrouded by the fog, could not be seen at all.

Suddenly, the boat struck shoals.  The captain summoned aid
by shooting flares into the sky - but then became afraid!
For his ship began to crumble, so the captain and his crew
drifted off into their lifeboat, to attempt their own rescue.

But when they entered on the bar, where raging waters churned,
they faced a frantic struggle, for the lifeboat overturned.
Eight crewmen tried to swim to shore, but they were quickly drowned.
The other six men gripped the boat and prayed they would be found.
In desperation they hung on, as currents swept them back.
Six hours later, reaching land, found refuge in a shack.
And there they ate, and warmed their bones, and slept the hours away,
never dreaming of the drama that was taking place that day.

The beach patrol responded, as daylight streaked the dark.
Scanning offshore, they made out the skeleton of the bark.

Her rocket had been sighted at a station on the beach,
but they saw it was too far out for their buoy-line to reach.
So, the captain summoned surfmen and ordered out the boat -
two hours in the storm-tossed sea they strove to keep afloat.
They found the craft deserted, and were halfway back again,
when a towering wave capsized their boat and spewed out all the men.
Struggling just to stay alive, they fought the raging sea,
but for some a losing battle; it claimed the lives of three.
Helplessly, the others watched them pay the price supreme,
to be relived a thousand times within nightmarish dreams.

No words can tell the anguish and sorrow that was borne
as word spread thru' the villages that cold and wint'ry morn.
It was a day of sadness, when friends and families met
to pay tribute to these heroes in a church in Barnegat.

To further honor these brave men, an act of Congress gave,
for each, a marble marker, to be placed upon his grave.
The old Life Saving Service answered many an urgent call.
These Samaritans of the Breakers were true heroes, one and all!

*A forerunner of the Coast Guard

- Lillian Arnold Lopez "Pineylore"

An early Life -Saving Service crew testing their boat.
(Photo from Down the Jersey Shore,
by Russell Roberts and Rich Youmans)

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