The Unhappy Hero - Village Craftsmen of Ocracoke Island

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I recently came across a delightful story about Ocracoke native and U.S. Coast Guard officer, James Henry Garrish (1877-1947). It was in an undated newspaper clipping in a scrapbook in the Ocracoke Preservation Society library. A number of Captain James Henry’s great-grandchildren live on the island today. His house is on Lighthouse Road.

Enjoy!

The Unhappy Hero by Jonathan Daniels

The last of the surfmen are disappearing from the wide arc of sea islands which screen the “graveyard of the Atlantic,” before the beak of Cape Hatteras, where so many ships have been pounded ashore. There are planes watching in the sky now. A whole mass of new equipment for the saving of ships and men is succeeding the old combination of tough surfboats and surfmen which served the shore and the ships for so many years.

One of the last of the surfmen was old “Captain” James Henry Garrish, of Ocracoke Island and the U. S. Coast Guard, a huge man who never wore shoes in the summertime, even when Coast Guard brass came inspecting, and who sometimes astonished visitors by striking matches on the soles of his feet. His real rank was warrant boatswain, but everyone called him Captain.

Those who knew him believe that the most panicky moment of his life was not spent in a dune-high surf on the way to a ship in distress but at a dinner when he received a high Coast Guard decoration for a particularly daring rescue.

The commandant of the Coast Guard himself was present. There were congressmen and other dignitaries about the board. There were speeches from everybody — except Captain Garrish — until Captain Garrish made what the Commandant said afterwards was the most eloquent speech he had ever heard in his life. It did not come easy. Captain Garrish was a dumb [speechless] and miserable man when they pushed him to his feet. He got more red and more silent than ever in the applause. And finally the Commandant himself said almost peremptorily:

“Well, just tell us in your own words what happened.”

Captain Garrish’s Adam’s apple bobbed up like a red whaleboat in a storm.

“Well, we seen ’em out there and went and brung ’em in.”

“The Commandant himself led the tumultuous applause.

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