Jeremiah M. Littlefield helped to rescue eight persons from exposure, Block Island, Rhode Island, February 12, 1907. The Elsie, a 60-foot, two-masted fishing schooner, was taken five miles to sea by her crew to look for survivors of the steamer Larchmont, which had collided with another boat during the night. The thermometer registered two degrees, the wind blew at 35 m.p.h., and the waves were running 20 feet high. The eight-man crew came across Larchmont wreckage holding 15 castaways, seven of whom were found to have been frozen to death. Littlefield, 40, fisherman, and three of the other crew members took two 12-foot dories to the wreckage, from which they removed the survivors, with much difficulty. After they returned to the Elsie, all hands assisted in getting the rescued aboard the ice-coated schooner, and the Elsie returned to Old Harbor, the mission having taken three hours. All but one of the eight victims survived.
1616-101Obituary
Jeremiah W. Littlefield, of Block Island, R.I., died on April 24, 1933, at his home. He was 67.
Littlefield was born on “the Island” and had been a fisherman all his life. He was a member of Atlantic Lodge.
(Edited from an obituary provided by a family member.)