A most interesting department of the government service connected with nautical matters is the “Life-Saving Service of the United States,” to give it its legal title. This admirable institution was first organized by Act of Congress, in 1878. It is remarkable that it is the only existing government institution of the kind in the world, and our general government is abundantly justified for its creation by the results.
In England, and the British Islands generally, where so many wrecks occur, owing to the large traffic and the uncertain and stormy weathers so frequently met with, the admirable life-boat system is provided and supported by a society, to which society all honor is due. But their life-boats would be of little service on our coasts or lakes, where an entirely different kind of craft is, for the most part, in use. The British life-boat system is of very great interest, but has no place here.
Previous to 1878 the principal systematic efforts in the direction of succoring ship-wrecked persons along our coasts were due to the Massachusetts Humane Society, which, as early as 1789, had caused huts to be erected at some of the most desolate points on that coast for the shelter of ship-wrecked persons who were fortunate enough to reach the shore. The first life-boat station was established by this society at Cohasset, the scene of many dreadful wrecks, in 1807. This society still exists and does much good, although, of course, superseded at some points by the government establishment. In other parts of the country such societies were established, and saved many lives and much property, but are now, for the most part, discontinued. The first step toward a distinctively national life-saving service was taken in 1848, when Congress appropriated $10,000 for providing surf-boats and other appliances for rescuing life and property from shipwreck on the New Jersey coast, where such disasters are so common, owing to the numbers of vessels bound to the great ports, and the nature of the coast. Buildings and apparatus were provided at eight different points along this coast, and the system worked so well that the next year a larger appropriation was made for the coast of Long Island, and to increase the number upon the Jersey coast. Then the system grew very rapidly, extending to Rhode Island, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Texas, as well as the Great Lakes, especially Lake Michigan. It now extends to the Pacific Coast, and even points on our great western rivers. Up to 1878 it was a branch of the Revenue Marine Service, but in that year Congress separated it, and made it a definite establishment under its own head.
As now organized there are twelve districts and more than 200 stations, which are known as life-saving stations, life-boat stations, and houses of refuge. The life-saving stations have quite nice and pretty houses, with wide doors on the ground floor, out of which the life-boat is rolled when about to be put in service, and in another room are stored the life-car, wreck-gun, lines, and other apparatus. Up-stairs there are rooms for the men of the crew, and extra cots for use in emergencies.
At life-boat stations the houses are smaller, being made to accommodate only the life-boat, gear and crew. The houses of refuge are found only on the long, lonely stretches of the Florida coast, and can accommodate 25 persons. Here are stored wood, food for that number for ten days, means of lighting a fire, and other such things, which would allow of ship-wrecked persons who reached there refreshing themselves so as to be able to march. These houses have also a boat-house with a galvanized iron boat and oars.
There are regular inspectors, who are officers of the Revenue Marine, who visit these stations regularly, and see that the men are in good drill, can handle boat and apparatus properly, and that everything is kept in order for instant use.
Each station is in charge of a keeper, who selects his own crew under proper regulations. He is by law an inspector of customs, must prevent smuggling, and take in charge any wrecked property which may come on shore, and is responsible for everything in the station and for the conduct of his men.
The keeper and his men are always hardy and skilled men, familiar with the surf, and the methods of handling a boat in it. At night they patrol the beach with lanterns and night signals, and also keep strict watch by day, especially in bad weather. This system of patroling is a distinctive feature of the United States Life-saving Service, and its proved value in discovering stranded vessels causes it to be maintained with great vigilance and the manner of its performance to be strictly watched. Any evasion of this duty is promptly punished. When stations are only a few miles apart, on such frequented and dangerous coasts as those of New Jersey and Long Island, the patrolmen pass, at night, along the beach until they meet the patrol from the next station; then they exchange tokens to prove that they have met, and set out to return. It is boasted by the Life-saving Service that most lives are saved on wrecked vessels, when it is humanly possible to reach them, either by boat or line; and it is also boasted that no life-boat man has ever shown the “white feather” in the discharge of his duties.
No more interesting or instructive sight can be witnessed on our ocean or lake shores than a life-saving crew at its exercise. During the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago crowds were always attracted when these exercises took place. Especially interesting was the throwing of the line by means of the bomb-gun, the establishment of communication with a supposed wreck, and the bringing safely on shore by this means several men.