~

Three Years & Two Days

~

by Morgan Evans

~

~

On another cold winter day I had been working on the radio equipment at Cleveland Ledge Lighthouse which is in Buzzards Bay. They had picked me up that morning at Cape Cod Canal. After lunch I was ready to go back to the canal to pick up the truck and return to Woods Hole.

We started towards the canal in their 28 ft motor lifeboat and about two miles from the lighthouse the engine died. We kept trying to get the engine started but I noticed that we were going to drift past the lighthouse. It started snowing and was getting heavier all the time. I told him that we needed to start rowing because we were going to miss the lighthouse. But by the time we started it was too late and we drifted on past. The visibility was very poor now and we could barely see the lighthouse. We were drifting down Buzzards Bay and I knew that we probably would end up in the Atlantic Ocean. It was getting late in the afternoon and starting to get dark and still snowing hard. We doubted that we could make it through the night in the cold and snow.

Just before dark I heard a beautiful sound. It was the twin exhausts of the 63 ft crash boat. We lit a flare and heard the boat coming toward us. Luckily the chief on the light house had seen us drifting by and called Woods Hole. We went on the crash boat and they towed the lifeboat back to Woods Hole.

Woods Hole Administration Bldg.

~

Woods Hole

~

NEXT PAGE

~

Page 2 of 26

Back                 All things "Lightship"              Library                 Menu Menu 

1

© 2009 USCG Lightship Sailors Association International Inc. Larry Ryan, President

Rick Gryder Webmaster

~

~

~
~