The Rescue of the Crew of the "H.P.Kirkham"

The above talk took place on Wednesday, July 19th, and went very well, so I am informed. I thought it might be interesting to reproduce part of the talk here.

The rescue of the crew of the "H.P.Kirkham" is regarded as one of the most dramatic rescues in the history of lifesaving, and one that was recognized by the U.S. Government by awarding a Gold Medal to Captain Chase, and a Silver Medal to each of the lifesaving crew.

The "H.P.Kirkham" was a three-masted schooner, carrying a crew of seven men, sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia on Saturday 16th January 1892 bound for New York, loaded with salt and pickled fish. On the night of January 20th she was battling her way through heavy seas and had become lost in the driving sleet of the storm.

At seven o'clock that night she struck heavily on the dreaded Rose & Crown Shoal, some 15 miles off Great Point, Nantucket.

Within an hour a portion of the schooner's bow was torn away by the force of the sea and she settled down on the shoal.

The crew had to take to the rigging as the decks were awash. They dragged mattresses into the rigging and set light to them to act as flares. All they could do was to wait helplessly, hoping that their distress signals had been spotted.

The Keeper of Sankaty Lighthouse had thought that he had seen flares during the night. At daybreak on the 21st, using a telescope, he spotted the masts of the schooner through the snow squalls.

He telephoned the Coskata Lifesaving Station and informed Captain Chase. The wreck wasn't visible from the Coskata Station which had been built on the Nantucket Sound side of Great Point. Skipper Chase and his surfmen had to haul the surfboat on it's carriage across the land to the ocean side to launch it.

Captain Chase knew that it would be difficult to return from the scene of the wreck so he requested that a tug be sent to assist them.

As it turned out the tug never arrived as the weather conditions were so appalling.

Captain Chase and his men were well aware of the dangers but neither hr or his men hesitated. Soon after launching, a sail was raised and they headed for the shoals. It wasn't until they were five miles from the wreck that they spotted it and it was 11 o'clock before they reached her.

The hull of the schooner was under water and the crew had been desperately clinging to the rigging in freezing and storm lashed conditions for 15 hours.

During the next hour the training of Captain Chase and his crew was the decisive factor. It was a remarkable example of skill in boathandling.

They ran as close as practical to the ship and then dropped an anchor. They then paid out the line allowing the surfboat to drift down toward the wreck, with the Skipper manoeuvring the frail craft with the massive steering oar while his crew responded to his orders for their work at the oars.

There was danger of being tangled in the rigging of the schooner as they came up alongside. At one moment the surfboat would be 6ft. above the rail of the ship and the next they would be 6 ft. below.

When they were close enough the bow oarsman threw a heaving stick with line attached over the schooners rail. The sailors were ordered to attach a stronger line. This was done and the lifesavers pulled in the end of the schooners topsail clew line. The oarsmen then had to slowly and carefully pull the boat toward the wreck.

But the crew of the stricken schooner panicked and began to haul in on their end of the line which put the boat in danger of swamping, as the raging water crashed against the side of the ship.

Skipper Chase rose to his full height and bellowed at the sailors to stop hauling on the line and threatened that if they did so again he would cut the line. To make sure that they realized he meant business he passed his knife to the bow oarsman who stood up and prepared to cut the line.

By skill and very careful manoeuvring Keeper Chase managed to take all 7 members of crew off the schooner one at a time, having to judge precisely the optimum time for each man to jump into the boat.

Within an hour the wreck broke up and disappeared.

Although the survivors were on the surfboat their ordeal was not over and the worst was still to come. No land was in sight. The wind had come up again and was against them, so the mast and sail, which helped their passage out to the wreck, were thrown overboard to lighten the boat which, with 14 men on board rode very low in the water.

It took three hours of hard work at the oars just to clear the shoals. The shipwrecked crew could not help. They lay or sat in the bottom of the boat, numbed by the cold and exposure.

After clearing the shoal Captain Chase anchored the boat to wait for a favourable tide. They had to constantly bail out as the breaking seas came aboard.

As darkness fell six hours had elapsed since leaving the wreck and they had traveled one mile of the fifteen that lay between them and land.

The gale slackened a little, but after several hours struggle the wind became too strong and they were compelled to anchor again.

The thermometer stood at twenty degrees below freezing point, the rescued crew were almost lifeless and the surfboat crew werethoroughly exhausted. They were allowed to sleep for 15 minutes, one at a time, but had to be woken so as to keep them from freezing to death.

As it grew light conditions improved slightly. The sun broke through the clouds and Skipper Chase urged his men to pull on the oars again - hour after hour.

Finally, 26 hours after launching the surfboat at Coskata, they touched the beach at 'Sconset.

26 hours of agonizing anxiety for the crew and relatives and friends ashore. They had been given up for lost. The men, rescuers and rescued had all survived the night, but one surfman, Roland Perkins, developed pneumonia following the ordeal and died three months later, before he was able to receive his medal.

The subject of this painting was suggested to me by my friend and patron Albert "Bud" Egan,Jr. I completed the painting in December '99 and sent a photograph of the completed canvas to him. He approved the painting but sadly passed away on January 19th before I had managed to send the painting. I made arrangements to fly to Nantucket to pay my respects. The night I arrived there I was laying awake in the early hours of the morning and could hear a strong wind blowing outside and snow was thick on the ground. It occurred to me that these were the conditions in which the Lifesaving crew had been at sea for such a long time. Then a chill went down my spine as I realised that this was the night of the 21st/22nd January - the date and time of the rescue ...........108 years earlier!

I have felt a bit guilty about profiteering from the brave exploits of these men who risked their lives in the most extreme conditions. So, by way of easing my conscience a bit, I made a promise to produce another painting of the rescue, and to present it to the Lifesaving museum, to the memory of Bud Egan.