FIRST - Only U.S. Lifesaving Station manned by black crew-Pea Island Lifesavers - Waves NC
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 35° 43.029 W 075° 29.643
18S E 455313 N 3952689
Only U.S. Lifesaving Station manned by black crew. Led by Richard Etheridge, 1880-1900.
Waymark Code: WM16XGT
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 10/24/2022
Views: 1
LOCATION: SR12 Near the Pea Island NWR visitor Center.
TEXT ON THE HISTORIAL MARKER:
Only U.S. Lifesaving Station manned by black crew. Led by Richard Etheridge, 1880-1900. Operated near here.
From Wikipedia:
"Pea Island Life-Saving Station was a life-saving station on Pea Island, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was the first life-saving station in the country to have an all-black crew, and it was the first in the nation to have a black man, Richard Etheridge, as commanding officer. On August 3, 2012, the second of the Coast Guard's 154-foot Sentinel-Class Cutters, USCGC Richard Etheridge (WPC-1102), was commissioned in his honor.
Etheridge made his living fishing and serving in the newly formed Life-Saving Service, first at Oregon Inlet in 1875, then at Bodie Island.
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