Isaac Mayo was a junior surfman in the

United States Life-Saving Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian effort ...

, one of the agencies later amalgamated into the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

in 1915. On April 4, 1879, he led multiple and eventually successful efforts to rescue seamen stranded in an offshore wreck at the height of a violent storm. The schooner ''Sarah J. Fort'' was wrecked on a sandbank just off

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

. Initial attempts to row a rescue boat out to the wrecked and disintegrating schooner failed, with two boatmen lost overboard. By the time the tide had gone out the initial rescue crew was exhausted, and Mayo was part of a second boat crew. The boat was swamped and wrecked. Mayo rallied and led a third rescue attempt in a smaller rescue boat that was ultimately successful at rescuing the last four survivors of the schooner's crew. To honor his bravery and leadership, the Life–Saving Service honored Mayo with a

Gold Lifesaving Medal The Gold Lifesaving Medal and Silver Lifesaving Medal are U.S. decorations issued by the United States Coast Guard. The awards were established by Act of Congress, 20 June 1874; later authorized by . These decorations are two of the oldest med ...

. The

Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Captain Joshua James, volunteer The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, better known as the Massachusetts Humane Society was founded in 1786 by a group of Boston citizens who were concerned about the needless deaths resulting ...

awarded Mayo and the rest of the rescue boat's crew Silver Medals. As the captain of the rescue boat, Mayo was also awarded what the Humane Society called a "Diploma." In 1879 Mayo, his wife and grandson, moved to

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

, where they took up farming.

USCGC ''Isaac Mayo''

In 2010, when the Coast Guard decided that all the new

Sentinel class cutters The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as Fast Response Cutter due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System Program, Deepwater program. At it is similar to, but larger than the lengthened 1980s- ...

would be named after Coast Guard personnel who had been recognized for their heroism, Mayo was one of those to be honored. The twelfth cutter in the class, named the USCGC ''Isaac Mayo'', was commissioned on March 28, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayo, Isaac 1912 deaths 1828 births United States Life-Saving Service personnel Recipients of the Gold Lifesaving Medal