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On a cold blustery day in March of 1948 three Coast Guardsmen made a daring and rare breeches buoy rescue of five shipwrecked fishermen off the coast of Nauset Beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Rescuing stranded and disabled crews from ships is not rare for the Coast Guard; they have been doing it for years. But, what was rare in this case is that the rescue was done by a breeches buoy, a type of rescue that, up until that time had not been done on Cape Cod for ten years or more.
The crew had tried to reach the shipwrecked vessel with a “duck,” which is one of those amphibious vehicles that can travel on land or water. When it was realized that the water rescue was impossible, they drove the duck up to the top of the cliff and rigged her as a platform for firing the breeches buoy gun. Their first shot was short, but their second shot was right on target. Within seconds the breeches buoy was sent out to the disabled craft and the five nearly frozen fishermen from New Bedford, MA were brought ashore and saved from the jaws of death.
This story appeared in the September 2001 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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