Dangerous shoals left behind by glaciers lie east of this spot. On the night of January 20th, 1892, the freight-laden schooner H.P. Kirkham, bound for New York from Nova Scotia, struck Rose and Crown Shoal in a howling winter storm and was wrecked there. Sankaty Lighthouse keeper Joseph G. Remsen thought he saw flares that night, but the crew was actually burning mattresses in the stricken ship's rigging. As dawn neared on January 21st, Remsen saw the Kirkham's masts 15 miles to the east from his lookout atop the lighthouse and alerted Captain Walter Chase at the Coskata Life-Saving Station, 6 miles to the north, beginning a rescue regarded as one of the most dramatic in lifesaving history. By midday, Chase and his surfmen reached the Kirkham and, battling high waves and winds, rescued the 7 crewmen. Unable to row against the tide in the overloaded boat, Chase anchored overnight and waited for fairer conditions. The next morning, the exhausted men reached 'Sconset by rowboat, ending a 26-hour ordeal.