Isaac Mayo (Surfman USCG)

rdf:langString Isaac Mayo (Surfman USCG)

rdf:langString Isaac Mayo

rdf:langString Isaac Mayo

rdf:langString heroic life saving

rdf:langString United States

rdf:langString seaman, farmer

rdf:langString Isaac Mayo was a junior surfman in the United States Life-Saving Service, one of the agencies later amalgamated into the United States Coast Guard in 1915.On April 4, 1879, he led multiple and eventually successful efforts to rescue seamen stranded in an offshore wreck at the height of a violent storm. The schooner Sarah J. Fort was wrecked on a sandbank just off Cape Cod.Initial attempts to row a rescue boat out to the wrecked and disintegrating schooner failed, with two boatmen lost overboard.By the time the tide had gone out the initial rescue crew was exhausted, and Mayo was part of a second boat crew. The boat was swamped and wrecked. Mayo rallied and led a third rescue attempt in a smaller rescue boat that was ultimately successful at rescuing the last four survivors of the schooner's crew. To honor his bravery and leadership, the Life–Saving Service honored Mayo with a Gold Lifesaving Medal.The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts awarded Mayo and the rest of the rescue boat's crew Silver Medals.As the captain of the rescue boat, Mayo was also awarded what the Humane Society called a "Diploma." In 1879 Mayo, his wife and grandson, moved to North Dakota, where they took up farming.