Podcast: The Black Surfmen Behind One of the Greatest Water Rescues Ever

In North Carolina's Outer Banks—a place so treacherous it was nicknamed the "Graveyard of the Atlantic"—there's a bridge bearing the name of Captain Richard Etheridge. Most drivers pass it without a thought. But over a century ago, the lifesaving crew stationed on nearby Pea Island, led by this remarkable man, executed one of America's greatest water rescues. For decades, their story was nearly forgotten. Richard Etheridge was born into slavery in eighteen forty-two on Roanoke Island. He taught himself to read, fought for the Union in the Civil War, and afterward joined the Life Saving Service—the precursor to today's Coast Guard. In eighteen eighty, just thirty years after the Civil War ended, Etheridge became the first Black man appointed to lead a lifesaving station. His crew became one of the service's most successful. But their triumph came with a steep price: shortly after his appointment, someone burned down the station. According to Atlas Obscura, the arsonists may have been Etheridge's own cousins—white men from a neighboring station who resented his authority. The story of Etheridge and his Black surfmen remained largely lost to history until writers recently uncovered it.

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