SANDY HOOK

Photo: National Park Service

Pictured above are the early surfmen of Sandy Hook, a peninsula in central New Jersey, gateway to New York Harbor - and scene of many a shipwreck in the early days of our republic.

Today, it's home to a U.S. Coast Guard station, which traces its roots to a U.S. Life-Saving Service post that opened in 1879. For many years, the Ambrose Lightship marked the busy channel off Sandy Hook. 

The handwritten caption on the photo reads: 

"Wreck of the Edmund J. Phinney Sandy Hook December 14, 1907. driving rain storm wind 70 miles per hour.

"Brin[g]ing the Captain and Mate ashore in the breeches buoy. Showing [USLSS] Captain Woolley and [USLSS] James Moran waist deep in the surf"

Cranking the canon-launched buoy line, surfmen hauled the sailing vessel's entire crew ashore before it broke apart 300 yards off Sandy Hook's North Beach. "The seven crewmen were wet, cold, and dazed, but still alive," according to the National Park Service, which today maintains the area.