April 25, 1885
Marcus Aurelius Hanna, the head keeper at Cape Elizabeth Light (also known as Two Lights) at the mouth of Casco Bay on Maine’s southern coast, received the prestigious Gold Lifesaving Medal. Daniel Manning, who was U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1885 to 1887, awarded this medal to Hanna for his heroic rescue of two shipwrecked sailors earlier that year.
Hanna had been born in the town of Bristol, Maine, on November 3, 1842. His father James T. Hanna was a keeper at Franklin Island Light in Muscongus Bay in south-central Maine. James T. Hanna’s own father, Thomas Hanna, had served as the first keeper at Boone Island Light; this navigational aid is near Cape Neddick on the southern coast of the Pine Tree State. Marcus Aurelius Hanna developed his own strong interest in a maritime life at an early age. He first went off to sea when he was only 10.
By the time Hanna was 18, he had attained the position of ship’s steward. He was working in this capacity on board a ship making regular runs between Gloucester, Massachusetts, and New York City when the American Civil War broke out in 1861. Hanna enlisted in the Union Navy and served in this military branch for a year.
Following his discharge from the navy, Hanna fought with various Union Army volunteer regiments during the remainder of the war. He was part of the 50th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry when this unit saw combat during the siege of the Confederate stronghold of Port Hudson, Louisiana, between May and July of 1863. This siege was more than just a Union victory; it also marked the final military engagement in this army’s efforts to recapture the Mississippi River.
With many of the other soldiers in his regiment suffering from heat exhaustion at one point during the siege of Port Hudson, Hanna volunteered to retrieve an ample supply of water for these troops. He consequently zigzagged on his own through the battleground there and into Confederate territory to get that urgently needed water. Hanna soon made it to Union lines with a dozen canteens of water wrapped around his neck. He had also acquired a minor shrapnel wound during that excursion.
Within the first several years following the end of the war, Hanna embarked on his own career as a lighthouse keeper in Maine. In 1869, he became head keeper of Pemaquid Point Light in his hometown of Bristol. He served in this position until 1873, when he was transferred to Cape Elizabeth Light. It was during his tour of duty at this lighthouse that Hanna achieved one of his greatest claims to fame.
On January 28, 1885, a schooner named Australia – making her way from the town of Boothbay further up the Maine coast – wrecked on the rocks just below Cape Elizabeth Light in midst of heavy snow and a wind chill of minus 10 degree Fahrenheit (minus 23.3 degrees Celsius). Only two sailors survived this smashup. Hanna, despite the hazardous weather conditions and the fact that he was dealing with both a bad cold and the side effects of malaria, put on his winter gear and braved the slippery rocks as well as pounding surf to rescue those men. Hanna managed to toss a rope to the sailors and then safely got both of them off the battered ship. Hanna’s heroic efforts earned him the Gold Lifesaving Medal a little less than three months later.
A decade later, Hanna received the Medal of Honor in overdue recognition of the bravery under fire that he had displayed during the siege of Port Hudson. Hanna has the distinction of being the only person who has been awarded both the Lifesaving Gold Medal and Medal of Honor, which are among the United States’ highest decorations for heroism.
Hanna, who remained head keeper at Cape Elizabeth Light until 1888, died on December, 21, 1921, in the city of South Portland, Maine. He was 79. In 1997, the U.S. Coast Guard named one of its new vessels after Hanna. The coastal buoy tender USCGC Marcus Hanna (WLM-554) is based in South Portland, which is not all that far from where Hanna’s history-making 1885 rescue of two sailors took place.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Marcus Aurelius Hanna, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Hanna_(lighthouse_keeper)
Additional information on USCGC Marcus Hanna (WLM-554) is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USCGC_Marcus_Hanna
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