Last Pea Island Surfman Dies

From the North Carolina Outer Banks Sentinel...

"Bill Charles" Bowser, Last Pea Island Surfman Dies

A wonderful life; a wonderful story by Sandy Seamans.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful story about a real hero. Wouldn't it be nice if one of the Anchor Bay models would be of a life saving boat of this vintage complete with surfmen?
Judy

A very nicely written story about a person who certainly made the very most of his life.

Judy, HL did make "the men of the LSS" a few years back. Of course, they were kind of large and I believe they didn't do very well sales wise.

Harbour Lights has done three of the LSS's so far, Indian River, Chicamacomico and Pt. Allerton. The PT. Allerton has removable pieces that include the surfmen's boat, lyle gun, life car, and a breeches bouy.
Pt. Allerton LSS

Judy, maybe 2007 will see another HL LSS, and wouldn't it be neat if it featured the surfmen - scaled to the building this time.

Btw, I highly recommend the book, Fire on the Beach by David Wright and David Zoby. It's the story of Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers (Surfmen). It's good reading!

Yes, it would be nice to see another Life Saving Station. I'm not sure if they did real well as all of them still seem to be available. It would be nice however to have a Duluth style station to complete all of the main types.

Judy,
Thanks for sharing this great story!
HCS

It would be a nice addition to do Pea Island with pewter Surfmen to scale as African Americans.

Could it open up another avenue for Harbour Lights?

The Pea Island LSS does still exist (correction of what I said earlier). I knew I should have referred to Stephen Wilmoth's site - I consider him the expert on NC LSS's.

The station was sold when no longer in use and moved to Salvo, NC to be used as a private residence. Stephen has some great coverage of this station on his Beach Bum's Site...check out this page:
Pea Island LSS

Thanks again for the wealth of research/information/photos on your site, Stephen!

I do remember the HL surfmen but they were just too large. I was thinking that an actual boat with the surfmen in it would be a nice addition to the Anchor Bay collection. I'm not too keen on the separate little people.

Judy, thanks for the recommendation on the book.

Judy

RADM Stephen W. Rochon, Commander U.S. Coast Guard's Maintenance and Logistics Command Atlantic, will attend the service Saturday Afternoon in Elizabeth City, NC.

From a Press Release by the Fifth District USCG...
William Charles "Bill Charles" Bowser will be laid to rest with military honors.

Thanks for the update, Judy. And thanks to the RADM for laying "Bill Charles" to rest with honors.

Hadn't had a chance to go through this thread. Thanks for starting it, Judy. What a terrific man Bill Charles must have been. I hope everybody checks out Stephen's website. I got hooked on the LSS after checking his site the first time. David Stick's book The Outer Banks of North Carolina 1584-1958 (recommended to me by Judy) has a lot of information about the locations and relocations of the stations there.

I was able to purchase an old autographed copy of this book in an Phoebus Antique store several days after the Tidewater event. Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but will move it up to the top of the stack of "to be read" so it will be next.

Thanks for the plug, Grace!

I will have to get that book and check it out. I have this feeling that there is one more station in exestince on the N. OBX but I haven't had the time to explore to find it. Maybe it will help.

I'm not so sure, Stephen. You expressed that concern a while back, so I tried comparing your list with Stick's info. If I recall correctly, you seemed to have it all.

Very interesting.