The Great Gale - March 31 - April 2, 1879

On March 31, 1879, a violent storm swept across Nantucket Sound, bringing powerful winds, freezing rain, snow and heavy fog.  By dawn on April 1, over sixty-eight vessels lay wrecked or disabled around the island.  Nantucket’s volunteer life-savers would soon find themselves participating in the largest rescue effort in the island’s history. 

Struggling through treacherous seas, Captain Thomas F. Sandsbury and his crew of volunteer life-savers rowed a Massachusetts Humane Society surfboat steadily towards the first of the wrecks, the schooner John W. Hall.  Pounded by the sea throughout the night, her hull had begun to break apart, filling with icy water as her crew fled to the rigging. Sandsbury and crew rapidly pulled alongside and the crew scrambled aboard the surfboat which took them to the safety of the shore. Going back into the storm, Sandsbury and his crew made for the schooner Emma J. Edwards. She was rolling from side to side as the sea crashed over her.  Her masts thrashed the water with each turn, making it impossible to get near her.  A sole survivor was visible.  He was rescued by George E. Coffin, who jumped from the surfboat to the schooner, with a line around his waist to prevent him from being swept away. 

Sandsbury and his crew continued to move from wreck to wreck, looking for survivors.  Their efforts were mirrored by other volunteers around the island.

For thirty-two consecutive hours Sandsbury his crew heroically endured the hardships of the storm, rescuing more than a dozen mariners.  By the time the storm began to break, Nantucket’s volunteer life-savers had rescued over forty mariners. The courage of Sandsbury and his crew was recognized by the US Congress with a gold medal presented to Sandsbury and silver medals to each of the crew.