Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2016 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Rachel Fuller for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service For the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1901 [pg. 35-37] DEATH OF SUPERINTENDENT RICH By the decease of CAPTAIN BENJAMIN SWETT RICH, superintendent of the Sixth Life-Saving District, the Service lost one of its oldest and ablest officers. He was born in the town of Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, September 10, 1828, and from his childhood was familiar with the sea and with shipwrecks. His ancestry on both sides was Anglo-Saxon, and his first progenitors in America were Massachu- setts Bay colonists, who came from England in the seventeenth cen- tury. The name RICH appears in the oldest records of life-saving affairs in America. The first organization here devoted to the rescue of life from the perils of the sea was the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, established in 1786, of which association BENJAMIN RICH, a relative of the subject of this sketch, was one of the earliest members and for fifteen years the president. On the list of his predecessors in that office appear such names as JAMES BOWDOIN, THOMAS RUSSELL, and AARON DEXTER, while among the members were PAUL REVERE, JOHN HANCOCK, JOHN ADAMS, JOSIAH BARTLETT, ROBERT TREAT PAINE, and many others prominent in the beginning of our national life. SUPERINTENDENT RICH was the eldest son of CAPTAIN MULFORD RICH, a master mariner in his day, who acquired a modest competency by the time he reached early middle life and then retired from the sea. When the Massachusetts Humane Society established a lifeboat station at Cahoons Hollow, near Wellfleet, about 1841, CAPTAIN MULFORD RICH was placed in charge of it, and much of the time his son acted in the capacity of No. 1 man in the crew. The lifeboat station of that day was simply a rough building 20 by 8-1/2 feet, shingled on the roof and battened on the sides, and the crews were volunteers gathered together from the coast people on occasions of disaster. Their services were "considered as granted voluntarily for humane and charitable purposes, and whenever any meritorious act was performed in rescuing lives, the volunteers in the boat were suitably rewarded on a full representation of the same to the society." In 1849 young RICH was the first to discover the wreck of the immigrant ship Franklin, which was intentionally lost, and he also picked up on the beach a small box containing papers which not only disclosed the purpose to wreck the vessel, but afterwards furnished the proof in court which prevented the owners from pocketing ill- gotten gains from insurance companies. Many persons perished on this terrible occasion. CAPTAIN MULFORD RICH was in charge of rescue operations and the son was one of the boat crew. On one of their trips the rescuers carried ashore an infant whose mother had perished, and young RICH held it in his arms. The child was barely alive when landed, but survived for many years to become one of the first of the industrious and frugal matrons of the cape. For heroism in saving the lives of 21 persons on this occasion, both father and son were awarded medals of honor by the Humane Society. At the age of 9 years the late superintendent began the life of a seafarer, going on vesselsin the summers and to the local school in the winters. Later he attended school for some months in Boston, Massachusetts, and for a year in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a studious and orderly boy, who always attended to the business in hand, so that when he reached the years of manhood he was equipped with a good education, to which, through a habit of much reading, he added a large store of useful general information. He followed the sea, serving in every position on shipboard from cabin boy to master, until 1857, when he settled in Virginia and engaged in business and farming enterprises. When the Fifth, now the Sixth, Life-Saving District was organized, in 1875, CAPTAIN RICH was deemed the best man available for superin- tendent, and accordingly was appointed to the place on the 7th of August. To the end of his life he was vigilant and resolute in aiding the Department in keeping his district clean and in the first rank of efficiency. The district comprises the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, and Vir- ginia, from Cape Henlopen to Cape Charles - an extremely dangerous stretch of seaboard and outlying shoals, which have been the scene of many pitiful wrecks and heroic rescues. During his incumbency there were more than 800 disasters, jeopardizing the lives of 6,292 per- sons, of whom only 45 were lost, while of $12,104,157 of property imperiled, $8,588,875 was saved. CAPTAIN RICH died in hospital at Baltimore, June 22, 1901, and was buried at Onancock, Virginia, on the 23d. His death was the ultimate result of injury received while engaged in making a quarter- ly tour of inspection of his district, he being the sixth of the district superintendents who have died in the performance of duty or of disease or accident incident to it. =========================================================================== If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access more of our growing collection of FREE online information by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/ ===========================================================================