The passenger steamer City of Columbus ran aground on Devil's Bridge off the Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah, Massachusetts, in the early hours of January 18, 1884.

She was owned by Boston & Savannah Steamship Company and was built in 1878 by Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, at Chester, Pennsylvania.

Lighthouse keeper Horiatio N. Pease and a complement of Gay Head Wampanoag Native Americans, including Donald F. Malonson's grandfather, Thomas Manning, braved the waves in two lifeboats to save passengers that had held on.

The sea was so rough that the Wampanoags feared approaching the steamer would cause their own boat to get smashed, so they called to the men to dive off the rigging and come to the lifeboats.

[1] The rescue effort was then continued when the revenue cutter Dexter, skippered by Captain Eric Gabrielson, came to their aid.