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Sarah D. J. Rawson Lifesaving Crew Medal Reissue with Congressman Walter B. Jones

  • Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center (map)

Congressman Walter B. Jones and members of the United States Coast Guard will join families of the Lifesaving Crew of the Sarah D.J. Rawson to remember the historic rescue and to reissue Lifesaving Medals to decedents. The program will begin at 11 am  followed by a luncheon for families and visitors.  

Please RSVP Core Sound Museum @ 252.728.1500 by Wed, Nov 9th if you would like to join us for lunch. Everyone is invited.

The 387-ton, three-masted schooner Sarah D. J. Rawson, with a crew of seven, sailed from Georgetown, SC for New York with a full cargo of lumber on 2 February 1905. While standing under short canvas in a SSE gale at 5:30 PM on the 9th, the vessel stranded in the breakers on the south side of Lookout Shoals. She became a total loss. As soon as the schooner struck the master gave orders to take in sail. While the crew reformed this work, a heavy sea swept the decks and carried Jacob Hansen, a Norwegian seaman, into the surf. He soon disappeared.

Had it not been for the brave lifesaving crew of Cape Lookout Station, all hands might have been lost. The fate of the Sarah D. J. Rawson and her crew would never have been known but for the unflinching heroism of the crew of the Cape Lookout Life-Saving Station. Each was subsequently awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for extreme and heroic daring in saving life from the perils of the sea. Those awarded for their rescue of the six crewman on Sarah D. J. Rawson included Keeper William H. Gaskill, Surfmen Kilby Guthrie, Walter M. Yeomans, Tyre Moore, John A. Guthrie, James W. Fulcher, John E. Kirkman, Calupt T. Jarvis, and former Surfman Joseph L. Lewis. - From the United States Coast Guard Record

For more information about the rescue of the Sarah DJ Rawson visit https://www.nps.gov/calo/learn/historyculture/rawson.htm