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| branch = 25px U.S. Life-Saving Service | serviceyears = | rank = | servicenumber = | unit = | commands = | battles = | battles_label = | awards = Gold Lifesaving Medal | memorials = | spouse = | relations = | laterwork = | signature = | website = | module = }} Joshua James (November 22, 1826March 19, 1902) was an American sea captain and a U.S. Lifesaving Station keeper. He was a famous and celebrated commander of civilian life-saving crews in the 19th century, credited with saving over 200 lives from the age of about 15 when he first associated himself with the Massachusetts Humane Society until his death at the age of 75 while on duty with the United States Life-Saving Service. During his lifetime he was honored with the highest medals of the Humane Society and the United States. His father, mother, brothers, wife, and son were also lifesavers in their own right.〔"Captain Joshua James, USLSS", Personnel, U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office〕 James was a recipient of the Gold Lifesaving Medal, awarded by the United States Government, along with four medals, a Certificate, and numerous monetary awards from the Massachusetts Humane Society. ==Early life and education== Joshua James was born on November 22, 1826, in Hull, Massachusetts. He was the seventh of ten children to Esther Dill, who of Hull, Massachusetts, and William James who had emigrated from Dokkum, the Netherlands as a young man. Little is known of William James' early life except that he was a soldier in the Dutch Army before running away and becoming a sailor. In time he made his way to America, landing in Boston, where he earned a living as a sailor on numerous small schooners that provided paving stones to the city.〔Kimball, Spencer, ''Joshua James, Life-Saver'', American Unitarian Association, 1909, Boston, MA, at 7, 8, 12, 15, 17-19, 23, 25, 52, and 53.〕 Eventually he made his home in Hull and via frugality became the owner of his own schooner and engaged in the paving-stone business for himself. Esther Dill was the daughter of Nathaniel and Esther (Stoddard) Dill, of Hull, both descended from the early English colonists. Her great-grandfather, John Dill, who "for a number of years," was the Skipper of the Boat which supplied the Market at Oliver's Dock () with fresh fish." Three of Esther's uncles, Daniel, John, and Lemeul, a "famous drummer," served in the Continental Army under George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Another uncle, Samuel, appears to have died in the Maine Wilderness while driving with General Arnold against Quebec. Esther's father, Nathaniel (1756-179?), occasionally mustered as a fifer, spent most of his Revolutionary War service at Boston Harbor forts, but also appears to have served in the Continental Army early in the War. One of Esther's brothers, Nathaniel, lost his life aboard the U. S. Frigate BOSTON during its engagement with the French corvette BERCEAU in 1800, while another, Caleb, died on a military expedition to Canada during the War of 1812. Esther Dill was the only girl in a family of seven children and was sixteen at the time of her marriage to William James in 1808.〔 Not long after Joshua's birth, about 1829, William James purchased the Dill home by the sea along present-day James Avenue in Hull. He was a Lutheran, and it was his custom to read from the Bible he brought with him from the Netherlands. When his children were old enough they were required to read every morning in English from the King James version of the Bible. During Joshua's childhood, there were occasinal Methodist itinerant preachers who visited Hull as they had for decades. There was no church building save a one-room schoolhouse prior to construction of a Town Hall in 1848. He was described by his elder sister Catherine that he had a thoughtfulness and reserve that distinguished him from other children. He was the favorite of his father, beloved by his brothers, idolized by his sisters.〔 Joshua was a great reader from childhood on, preferring historical and scientific books, notably astronomy. His preference for practical literature is most likely due in part to his parents, whose strict religious views largely guided the children’s choice of reading. Esther Dill prohibited the reading of novels and fiction of all kinds, and forbade the neighbors lending her children novels. On one occasion she destroyed a beautiful and expensive copy of ''The Children of the Abbey'' that she found in the hands of one of her daughters.〔 At a very early age Joshua began to go to sea with his father and his elder bothers, Rainer and Samuel; there his fondness for astronomy stood him in good stead, and he soon became an expert navigator. His father in later years was fond of relating incidents illustrative of Joshua's good seamanship and the confidence reposed in him by other sailors. William James continued in the paving-stone trade between Hull and Boston until cobblestones were replaced by more modern paving materials. At one time he had a large contract for filling in the west end of Boston, and owned a fleet of twelve vessels of from 50 to 125 tons burden.〔 It was his practice to give each of his sons on reaching the majority age of 25 a complete outfit for the business, including a new schooner. Joshua, with his deep love of the sea and his early training on his father's and brothers' vessels, was a natural seaman, and with such an outfit provided by his father, entered business for himself, lightering and freight-carrying. Captain Joshua James, as he now came to be called, continued in his chosen profession until his appointment as keeper of the Point Allerton Life-Saving Station in 1889.〔 On April 3, 1837 Joshua witnessed a pivotal event in his life; he was an eye-witness to the death of his mother and a baby sister in the shipwreck and sinking of the schooner ''Hepzibah'' in Hull Gut, only a half-mile from safe harbor. Mrs. Ester James was returning from a visit to Boston in the ''Hepzibah'',a paving-stone hauling vessel owned by her son Reinier James. As they were passing through the treacherous Hull Gut, a sudden squall threw the vessel on her beam; the ''Hepzibah'' filled and sank before Mrs. James and her baby, who were in the cabin, could be rescued.〔 This event was no doubt influential in shaping Joshua's life. His older sister by five years, Catherine, took over the raising the family after the death of their mother.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joshua James (lifesaver)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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