The Pea Island Station crew wheels out a lifesaving boat in this newly discovered 1938 image from the SR.44.47 Conservation and Development Travel Information Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina. They are being made available to encourage continued awareness and research about the historic Pea Island station. The Pea Island Station crew moves equipment across the beach in this newly discovered 1938 image from the SR.44.47 Conservation and Development Travel Information Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina. Today, while many now know the inspiring story of Keeper Richard Etheridge and the Pea Island Lifesavers about their most famous rescue, the harrowing Oct. 11, 1896, rescue of the shipwrecked E.S. Pruden’s retirement in 1937, which he would later allege was forced, broke the continuous cycle of Black men being placed in command at the Pea Island station after Etheridge’s command.