The Lost Colony is not the live action entertainment that can be enjoyed on the Outer Banks in the Summer. The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe reenactment of an early 20th century rescue may be only seven minutes long, but it may be the most action packed seven minutes anywhere.
The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station is a faithfully restored lifesaving station and the performers for the reenactment are volunteers—but volunteers or not, what Chicamacomico brings to the public is exciting and as far as we can tell, there is nothing else like it anywhere.
As ship founders in the surf, the crew races to save lives, pulling by hand the half-ton rescue cart across the sand to the wreck site. They then place their Lyle gun in the sand and fire a shot to the sinking ship.
A line is attached to the shot, and it attaches to the ship and then, one by one, crew members are brought to shore via a breeches buoy.
What the volunteers are reacting is perhaps the most important drill that would have taken place at a Life-Saving station. The fact is that rescues almost never occurred in ideal conditions. Usually conditions were dangerous if not actually life-threatening—hurricanes, nor’easters, sometimes even in war. It didn’t matter; if a ship was in trouble, much like the US Coast Guard who sprang from the Life-Saving Service, the crew had to go.
The Chicamacomico Station was involved in a number of notable lifesaving actions. Its most notable was the sinking of the British tanker in August of 1918. Torpedoed by a German Uboat, crewmen from Chicamacomico rowed to the fiery wreck and braved burning seas to rescue almost all of the ship’s crew.
The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station reenactment tales place every Thursday at 2:00 p.m. through Labor Day.
There are so many Outer Banks tales to tell from Corolla to Hatteras Village. Take some time to explore this sandbar by the sea while staying in a Brindley Beach Vacations home.