THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408020136
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 151 lines
WHEN BEACHCOMBER Rick Raehl looked down and saw a muzzle, he knew it was a cannon.
He pulled on the sand-and-rust encrusted barrel and the whole contraption - cannon, wooden carriage and all its fittings - just popped up out of the wet sand.
Thanks to Raehl, the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia now has an original Lyle gun used in shipwreck rescues early in the century at Little Island Coast Guard Station.
``It's a major maritime discovery for Virginia Beach,'' museum director Fielding Tyler said, ``because there aren't that many around and we know exactly where it came from and the story behind it.''
This Lyle gun was used to shoot life lines from the Virginia Beach shoreline out to floundering ships offshore from 1900 until it was lost in the infamous August 1933 hurricane, the eye of which passed over Little Island Station.
The brass cannon in its oak carriage, which was taken away by the raging ocean that summer day long ago, was returned to the arms of beachcomber Raehl on May 24. He found the cannon at low tide right in front of the Little Island Station which is now Little Island City Park.
Raehl, a retired Navy man, just happened to look down and see the round muzzle of a gun sticking just above the sand. He said he instinctively knew he had found a cannon.
He had purposely gone beachcombing that Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend, because there was an astronomical low tide. At astronomical low tides, the moon's gravitational pull is very strong and causes unusually high and low tides. When the tide is extremely low, objects not normally seen at low tides are often revealed.
On his low-tide beachcombing forays, Raehl usually looks for things such as driftwood, old bottles, buoys and shells. A 160-pound cannon was definitely out of the ordinary.
``It totally wrecked my back pulling it up,'' he said.
On the way back to his Red Mill Farms home, Raehl stopped at Marshall Belanga's house on Sandbridge Road. Belanga, who came from a U.S. Life-Saving Service family, identified the cannon as a Lyle gun. Named for its inventor, Army Col. David A. Lyle, the gun traditionally was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s to fire a metal projectile with a shot line attached out to shipwrecked boats offshore. The line would haul out successively heavier lines until there was a line strong enough to support a breeches buoy which could carry crewmen, one at a time, to shore.
Raehl took his treasure back home and began trying to clean the cannon up. ``I started chipping away at it,'' he said, ``and I saw the letters USLSS.''
USLSS stands for United States Life-Saving Service. Raehl knew then he had found something significant and went back to the beach the next day with his 8-year-old son Bryan. That day the two found five of the cannon's 17-pound metal projectiles lying in an encrusted pile 30 to 40 feet from where the gun had been.
When children in the Red Mill Farms neighborhood, who had toured the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia last year as part of their third-grade local history unit, also identified the cannon as a Lyle gun, Raehl called the museum.
Museum director Fielding Tyler and board member John ``Bruddy'' Baillio visited Raehl, examined the cannon and confirmed the Lyle gun identification. Then Raehl offered to donate it to the museum.
``Oh, I wanted to keep it bad!'' Raehl said later. ``But it just doesn't belong to me. Why couldn't I have found some insignificant little cannon?''
According to Baillio, ``It's an enormously significant find, but even more important, what a civic-minded fellow he was.''
Tyler began to research the gun's origin. He and Raehl went back out to the beach at Little Island Station.
``Where did you find it exactly?'' Tyler said he asked Raehl. ``I looked up and saw where we were. Bingo! We were in front of the station.''
In further research, Tyler learned that the original 1878 Little Island station was destroyed in the August 1933 hurricane. At the time of the hurricane, it had been replaced by the current 1920s building and was being used as an equipment building.
The Lyle gun's origins became very clear after Tyler spoke with former retired U.S. Coast Guardsman Ben Wroton, a museum board member. (Incidentally, Wroton retired from the Coast Guard, as group commander of the historic station that is now the Life-Saving Museum.)
At the time of the August hurricane, Wroton was a Coast Guard boatswain mate, stationed at Little Island Station. Wroton recalled that the gun and every other piece of rescue equipment was lost when the equipment building was totally destroyed in the fierce storm.
``The old building was out where the pier is now, about 300 to 400 yards out from the beach,'' Wroton said. ``When the building went down, we lost everything we had, all the equipment and all the rescue gear.
``It was 61 years ago, too, by golly.''
Baillio took on the task of restoring the cannon and carriage which had been under water for all those 61 years.
``It was just a big crusted lump, encrusted with a cake of sand,'' Baillio said. ``We took a little tap on it and here was the marvelous clear brass cannon. Amazing! Just amazing!''
The cannon was so well preserved that not only were the USLSS initials visible but a few more taps revealed the serial number, the manufacture date, 1900, and the name of the factory, the American Ordinance Co.
The cannon and other metal fittings on the wooden carriage were soaked in chemicals to clean them. The heavy oak carriage also spent time in a chemical bath to soften the iron and sand encrustation. But all in all, 61 years under the water was not very detrimental.
``It's in good shape,'' Baillio said.
The shiny brass cannon in its oak carriage will be unveiled in a ceremony Thursday evening and goes on public exhibit Friday in at the Life-Saving Museum, at 24th Street and Atlantic Avenue.
``We're as proud as peacocks, of course,'' Tyler said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff color cover photos by CHARLIE MEADS
LEFT: Rick Raehl returns to the spot on Little Island Park in
Sandbridge where he spotted the muzzle of a cannon that had been
uncovered by an extremely low tide.
BELOW: Bruddy Baillio examines the wood grain of the Lyle gun's oak
carriage during restoration at the Life Saving Museum of Virginia.
The U.S. Coast Guard device and its projectiles are now on display.
Staff photos by CHARLIE MEADS
ABOVE: Rick Raehl, left, who found the Lyle gun, watches as Fielding
Tyler, director of the Life Saving Museum of Virginia, loads a
projectile that was used to shoot life lines from the Virginia Beach
shoreline out to floundering ships.
BELOW: Also recovered were metal parts from the old Lyle gun, named
for its inventor, Army Col. David A. Lyle.
Bryan Raehl helped his father find these projectiles in the sand at
Little Island Park the day after dad found the Lyle gun.
Using a knife, Bruddy Baillio chips away sand that had been
encrusted in the oak carriage of the Lyle gun. Baillio, a board
member of the Life Saving Museum, said of Rick Raehl: ``It's an
enormously significant find, but even more important, what a
civic-minded fellow he was.'' Despite being submerged for 61 years,
the cannon's brass finish was so well preserved that the USLSS
initials were visible, as were the serial number, the manufacture
date, 1900, and the name of the factory, the American Ordnance Co.
ON DISPLAY
The newly discovered Lyle gun in its oak carriage will be unveiled
in a ceremony Thursday evening and goes on public exhibit Friday at
the Life-Saving Museum of Virginia at 24th Street and Atlantic
Avenue. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon
to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 422-1587.
by CNB