DATE: Friday, August 15, 1997               TAG: 9708150737

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JENNIFER LANGSTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RODANTHE                          LENGTH:   63 lines

LIFESAVING ACTORS TAKE VISITORS BACK TO DAYS OF MEN VS. THE SEA

This week at the Chicamacomico lifesaving drill, the volunteers were rescuing precious cargo.

During the drill volunteers use ropes, pulleys and a ``breeches buoy'' to show visitors the techniques once used by U.S. Lifesaving Service surfmen to ferry victims of shipwrecks safely to shore.

The victim in question, perched safely on a makeshift mast, was Tyrique Wise, a fifth-grader from Manteo, who was carrying on a family tradition.

His great-grandfather Stanley Wise and great-uncle Benjamin Bowser were members of the only black U.S. Lifesaving crew in the country, stationed at Pea Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

They battled icy waters to rescue nine people from a wrecked schooner during a hurricane in 1896 - one of the most legendary lifesaving feats on the East Coast.

``We felt like it was a privilege and an honor to represent your ancestors,'' said Dellarva Collins, Wise's aunt. ``We've tried to instill that in his heritage. He knows the importance of it.''

But like any 10-year-old who has just flown through the air, Wise was more lighthearted about the experience.

``It was fun,'' he said.

This summer, crowds of 400 people have gathered on Thursdays to watch the rescue re-enactments at the historic Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station. After recounting hair-raising tales of storms, shipwrecks and oceans blazing with kerosene, volunteers dressed in bleached-white skivvies roll out a cart full of equipment from a weathered boathouse.

On the strip of beach they fire a Lyle gun, which looks like a miniature cannon polished to a spit-shine.

``This is the only gun made by the government to save lives,'' said Dick Darcey, an interpreter for the Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station.

When seas were too rough to reach shipwrecks by boat, men shot the ropes through the rigging of floundering ships, where sailors were often clinging for their lives.

With a system of ropes and pulleys that allowed them to pull at four times their normal strength, surfmen ferried victims through the air in a ``breeches buoy'' - a lifesaving ring with shorts sewn into the bottom.

That primitive rescue system, last used at Chicamacomico in the early 1960s, eventually gave way to helicopter baskets. But Steve Dunn, a retired Coast Guard Officer who watched the beach drill Thursday, said a similar technique is still used to carry food and supplies between ships.

``The tradition is very much alive and well,'' he said.

Volunteers from local communities act in the beach drills. Some recount U.S. Lifesaving history while others regale the crowd with tall tales - like the one about the cook who grew watermelons so big they could drown two men when split open.

Larry Grubbs, a Waves plumber who has played the part of the station master for the last three years, said he felt it was important to educate people about the little-known risks and the rewards of lifesaving crews.

``It's pretty recent history. It's not ancient. And it's really important to all of us that it be kept alive.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

WILLIAM P. CANNON/The Virginian-Pilot

Atop a training mast, John Contestible of Salvo, left, and Gary

Hardison of Buxton watch Tyrone Wise of Manteo slide down the line

to a waiting Larry Grubbs...

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