THETA, STRANDED IN A BAD PLACE.
BEACH COMBERS WAITING TO STRIP THE WRECKED VESSEL.
The distinction of having founded and created the United States Life-Saving Service having been the subject of much discussion in recent years, General Superintendent Kimball, in his report to the Secretary of the Treasury as to the claims of W. A. Newell, as the originator of the system of the Life-Saving Service of the United States, in conclusion states as follows:—
“The fact is, the credit of originating and developing the United States Life-Saving Service cannot truthfully be awarded to any single individual.
“In Congress and out of Congress many men have contributed, some in a great and some in a less degree to the success of its fortunes. To even write down the names of the legislators in both houses of Congress, who have been its advocates and champions, and to refer ever so briefly to their valuable assistance, would occupy much space and require considerable research, but there occurred to me at once as conspicuous among the host of its promoters, Senators Hannibal H. Hamlin, O. D. Conger, W. E. Kenna, W. J. Sewell, and William P. Frye, and Representatives S. S. Cox, Charles B. Roberts, John Lynch, James W. Cobert, and Jesse J. Yeates. Presidents of the United States and various Secretaries of the Treasury have promoted its welfare. Many officers of the life-saving service also, as well as officers detailed to it from the Revenue Cutter Service, have, from time to time, suggested and assisted to carry into effect important improvements.
“The life-saving service was not designed and laid out at one stroke, in a single comprehensive plan, as an architect designs a building, or a military genius, perhaps, devised a scheme of army organization, but its system and development have been accomplished step by step, day teaching unto day the necessity and wisdom of each successive measure of progress.”
CAPT. BENJAMIN C. SPARROW.
Capt. Benjamin C. Sparrow, superintendent of the second life-saving district, was born in Orleans, Oct. 9, 1839. He is a lineal descendant of Richard Sparrow, who came over in the ship Ann, landing at Plymouth. When a boy he always accompanied his father, a well-known life saver and wrecker, to the shipwrecks that occurred along the coast, and at an early age became familiar with the scenes of disaster from which the shores of Cape Cod have become noted.