Our Sister Service: Just Give Me a Chance, Charles Jennings and the Wreck of the USS Alacrity

In 1902, writer J. W. Dalton set out to visit each of the thirteen U. S Life-Saving Service stations on Cape Cod, from Wood End in the north to Monomoy Point in the south. His book, The Life Savers of Cape Cod, published late that year, remains the most minutely detailed account of station life at the high point of the Service's existence. Dalton's book covers not only the history of the Service and descriptions of each station, but also provides 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. And at the end of the book, Dalton leaves space for Keeper Seth Ellis of the Monomoy station to tell his version of the life-saving disaster of the previous March 17, of which Ellis was the only survivor.