Everything about this true story is iconic. The place where it happened – Cape Hatteras; The saviors called “the greatest heroes of the American coasts,” – the surfmen of the United States Life-Saving Service; involving two of the most famous Life-Saving station Keepers; the backdrop of ferocious storms for which our area is infamous; and birthing a motto still often used by the Coast Guard today.
It happened on a cold, stormy day nearing Christmas of 1884. Gifts of life were in the offing. What was about to unfold would be one of the greatest, most daring, most dramatic and most improbable shipwreck rescues of all time. It would include four different coastal North Carolina Life-Saving stations. It would involve the iconic terms of “Cape Hatteras,” “Outer Banks,” “Storm Warriors” and the heroes of the day, Keeper Bejamin Dailey and ‘Old Salt’ Keeper Patrick Etheridge. It would also produce two of the best-known maritime mottos of all time – one frequently still used today by the United States Coast Guard. One might say it was a Dailey affair!
James D. “Keeper James” Charlet, a Hatteras Island resident, will highlight that incredible story the first time at the “Day At The Docks” in Hatteras Village on Saturday, Sept 16. The “live theater” presentation will be at 11:30 from the Main Stage.
The encore performance will be at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on Monday, September 18, 2023, at 1:30 pm. Each time, Keeper James will be using some excerpts from Chapter 11 of his best-selling book Shipwrecks of the Outer Banks: Dramatic Rescues and Fantastic Wrecks in the Graveyard of the Atlantic, Globe Pequot Press. He will be available after each presentation to sign and personalize his books.
Both upcoming events are free and open to the public.
Keeper James Presentations TM is a series of live programs presented by local historians, historical interpreters and performers Keeper James Charlet and Miz Linda Molloy. Each program about the U.S. Life-Saving Service consists of appetizers of true, exciting, highly dramatic Outer Banks stories of ‘America’s Forgotten Heroes.’ For more information, see www.KeeperJames.com/programs.