The first watch down to Point Rip from 8 to 12 was a man by the name of Almond Wixon of Dennisport. He was walking down the “Bend,” halfway down from the old Monomoy Lifesaving Station to the old Monomoy Lighthouse was a bend in the beach they referred to as “The Bend”, so walking down the bend that night he saw an object washing in the surf. A sea would break, run up the beach, and the object would roll over and over; the sea would recede and the object would roll back. In telling the story, Almond Wixon admitted that for a minute he had the jitters, but he waded in, kicked the object, and it was nothing but a bunch of seaweed rolled up in the shape of a man, washing in the surf. He went on five minutes more--ten minutes more--then he saw another object in the surf. This time a sea would break, run up the beach, the object would roll partly over, the sea would recede, and the object roll back. Wixon wasn’t concerned this time for he said to himself, “It’s nothing but another bunch of seaweed.” So he waded in again and kicked the object. As he did, he had the sensation of kicking an old decayed pumpkin. Remember that in those days they never carried lanterns so he bent way over and looked, and, there at his feet was a dead man washing in the surf. Poor Almond Wixon, standing there that night at nine o’clock, two miles from the Station with a dead man washing at his feet! Thirty-seven years after he perished in the sea himself as one of the crew of the ill-fated Cross Rip Lightship which was torn from her moorings by drifting ice, floated off into oblivion and was never heard from again. Previous to this, a surfman found a body in the surf and hastened away to the station for help. When they returned, the body had floated away and was lost. After that, the orders were that whenever you found a body in the surf, before going for help, to haul it up over the high-water mark. So Almond Wixon bent over, turned the dead man on his back, put his hands down under his armpits, raised up, and as he did, the dead man fell against his stomach. In that position he walked backwards--up, up, over the beach, up over the high-water mark, and laid the body down. He hastened away to the station and notified Captain Tuttle. The captain, in return, called out every surfman and put them out on the beach to hunt more bodies. At daylight they had found four. They found two to the north of the station, and two to the south. Then the orders were to assemble those bodies over on the inside, on the bay side, ready to take them across to the mainland. The two they found to the north of the station they took over on an improvised stretcher. With two men carrying a stretcher, they went over the sand dunes, down the hollows and through the sand, ankle deep. The two they found to the south of the Station they pushed over in a pushcart, wheels with wide tires, over the sand dunes, down in the hollows, and through the sand. At last they were assembled on the inside.