DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Denmark sent a lot of things into the world — but one of its finer exports arrived on American shores as a thirteen-year-old boy named Andrew Rasmussen. Born in 1858, young Andrew came to the United States and took one look at the sea and apparently decided that was that.
He launched a maritime career that would last sixty years. Sixty. Years.
On the water. That alone ought to earn a man a marker. But the story gets richer.
In 1885, Rasmussen was captaining a schooner called the Dorio and Doria when the ship wrecked. Now, most men might've taken that as a sign from the Almighty to find a different line of work. Not Andrew Rasmussen.
Because the outfit that pulled his crew out of trouble — the Saluria Life Saving Service, right there in Calhoun County — well, he liked what he saw. He joined them. Think about that for a second.
The man got rescued and turned around and became the rescuer. By 1889, he was placed in charge of the station. That station would eventually become part of the United States Coast Guard.
Captain Rasmussen and his wife, Theresa Amelia Smith, built a home right here at this very site in 1911. He passed in 1933. They're both laid to rest in the Port Lavaca Cemetery — a Dane who came over at thirteen, got shipwrecked, and spent the rest of his life making sure it didn't happen to anyone else.
What the marker says
A native of Denmark, Andrew Rasmussen (1858-1933) came to the United States at the age of 13 and began a maritime career that lasted for 60 years. Following the shipwreck of his schooner, the "Dorio and Doria," in 1885, Rasmussen joined Calhoun County's Saluria Life Saving Service, which had rescued his crew. By 1889, he was placed in charge of the station, which later became part of the U.S Coast Guard. Capt. Rasmussen and his wife, Theresa Amelia (Smith), built a home at this site in 1911. They are buried in the Port Lavaca Cemetery. (1985)