Have you ever heard about the first African-American man to command a life-saving station? His name was Etheridge, Captain Richard Etheridge. This is a documentary about the life and accomplishments of Captain Richard Etheridge. Richard Etheridge was born a slave on January 26, 1842, on the land claimed by John B. Etheridge. His home was on the Atlantic coast in North Carolina. Because he lived on the coast, he learned to swim, fish, pilot boats, work the sea, and scour the beach for the items lost in shipwrecks. Though it was illegal, Richard was taught how to read and write by John. Then the Civil War came, John’s land was taken over, therefore freeing the slaves. After Richard was free, he fought against the Confederates, also known as the South, and helped win the war. Richard then gained a ”real life“ and started to help others. During Richard’s mid-life he joined a lifesaving station in Pea Island. While he served there, he and his crew saved a great multitude of lives. One job was especially spectacular, the saving was of the E. S. Newman. This specific wreck is spectacular because during a hurricane the weather was so terrible that Richard had called off the normal siting of shipwrecks. Though from the watching eye of Theodore Meekins, a surfman, he saw a flare and immediately notified …show more content…
The solution they used was tying two of his strong swimmers together by a rope and then pulling the survivors to shore. After all the passengers were safe, the captain, crew, and passengers thanked them for saving their lives. As an award the captain found the part of the ship with the name of it and gave it to the station as a thank you. Richard attended to the station until his death on May 8, 1900, after 20 years of service. After his death and the decommissioning of the station, he and his crew were awarded the Gold Life-Saving Medal from the Coast Guard in