It often happens, however, that some of the crew, and even captains of wrecked vessels, attempt to get their baggage into the surf-boats. At a wreck which Captain Cole and his crew went to in the night a few years ago the captain of the craft insisted that the life savers should wait until he could get his baggage ready to take ashore. Captain Cole, in a voice that could be heard above the roar and din of the storm, commanded the bow oarsmen, who was holding the painter that kept the surf-boat alongside the wreck, to cut the painter. The captain of the stranded craft no sooner heard this command than he jumped into the boat, leaving his effects behind, and was safely taken ashore.
Persons rescued from shipwreck are taken to the nearest life-saving station, the weak, sick, and the disabled are treated with remedies from the medicine chest, supplied under the direction of the Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service. Those who have escaped from shipwreck and are wet, hungry, and cold are provided with dry clothing, warmed, fed, lodged, and cared for until they are able to leave.
RESTORING THE APPARENTLY DROWNED TO LIFE.
The method adopted for restoring the apparently drowned is formulated into rules which each member of the crew commits to memory. In drill he is required to repeat these and afterwards illustrate them by manipulations upon one of his comrades. The medicine chest is also opened, and he is examined as to the use of its contents.
The dry clothing is taken from the supply constantly kept on hand at the different stations by the Women’s National Relief Association, an organization established to afford relief to sufferers from disasters of every kind. The libraries at the stations are from the donations of the Seamen’s Friend Society and sundry benevolent persons. The food is prepared by the keepers or the station mess, who are reimbursed by the recipients if they have the means, or by the government.
The life-saving service is attached to the treasury department. The sea and lake coasts of the United States have an extent of more than ten thousand miles, and are divided into thirteen life-saving districts, each under the immediate supervision of a district superintendent. The chief officer of the service is the general superintendent, who has general charge of it and of all administrative matters connected with it. An inspector from the Revenue Marine Service visits each station monthly during the “active season,” which is ten months, from August 1 to June 1, and examines and practices the crews in their duties. On his first visit, after the opening of the stations each year, if any are found not up to the standard, they are promptly dropped from the service. The district superintendents are promoted from the corps of keepers, and must be residents of the respective districts for which they are chosen, and are rigidly examined as to their professional familiarity with the line of coast embraced within the district and the use of life-boats and all other life-saving apparatus.
The keeper of each station has direct control of all its affairs, and as his position is one of the most important of the service, the selection is made with the greatest care.
A RESCUED SHIPWRECKED CREW.
The indispensable qualifications are that he shall be a man of good character and habits, not less than twenty-one and not over forty-five years of age, with sufficient education to be able to transact the business connected with the station, be able bodied, physically sound, and a master of boatcraft and surfing.