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United States Lifesaving Service
In the mid-19th century, as the nation’s
commerce and population grew, so did the threat to life and cargo
posed by shipwrecks. The loosely organized system of volunteer lifesaving,
such as that carried forward by the Massachusetts Humane Society,
was insufficient - both in terms of administration and manpower
- to keep pace with the number of vessels running aground
near growing, major ports of the nation. Attempts at federalizing
a lifesaving service began after the catastrophic wreck of the Mexico
[story w. etching, phase 2] off the New Jersey coast in 1837 -
but the debate raged in Congress for another 11 years. In 1848,
the federal government allocated $10,000, specifically to be used
to strengthen lifesaving apparatus along the New Jersey coast. During
the mid-1850's funds were allocated to create more stations and
pay Keepers $200 a year, but still no money was earmarked to create
crews of surfmen or to provide oversight for lifesaving operations
or stations.
By the end of the Civil War, as loss of property
through shipwreck mounted, momentum was growing to more strictly
regulate the maritime safety infrastructure of the country's ocean
and lake shorelines. In response, Abraham Lincoln named Sumner Increase
Kimball [photo, phase one] the General Superintendent of the United
States Life Saving Service (U.S.L.S.S.) in 1878. He would remain
in that position, improving the system and advocating for its men,
for the next 37 years, the entire life of the service. During the
era of the USLSS, from 1878 through 1914, the men of the service
assisted 28,121 vessels and 178,741 people. Of those aided by the
U.S.L.S.S., only 2,424 ships were total losses and 1,512 people
died. In other words, the U.S.L.S.S. lost less than one percent
of the people it endeavored to save during its 36-year history.
Only 8% of the vessels were lost during that same time.
At its height, the U.S.L.S.S. was comprised of
271 stations nationwide, with 32 located in Massachusetts. Within
the Service, the country was divided into regions and districts,
each closely supervised to maintain profession
alism, often in adverse
conditions and remote locals. While the lifesavers of
the U.S.L.S.S.,
commonly known as Surfmen, were lauded in folklore as "Heroes
of the Storm" an
d "Storm Warriors," the real of life
of a surfman typically was a frustrating combination of long stretches
of boredom, loneliness, and routine interspersed with bursts of
extreme terror - for insupportably low wages and no retirement
benefits. Surfmen's lives revolved around
drills, preparing for
readiness in the event of danger. Their daily routine included rowing
and cap
size drills, [photo, phase one] working with sig
nal flags,
sw
ift deployment of the breeches buoy app aratus, and the basic
housekeeping of the statio
n. Typically, eight men were assigned
to a station - a Keeper and his crew, ranked surfmen #'s 1
- 7 depe
nding upon seniority. This designation also indicated duties
during boat and breeches buoy drills and particulars of li
ving conditions,
such as the seating arrangement at the dinner table. During the
ten months of the year that stations were manned, a constant lookout
patrolled the beaches near the Stations - their duty being
to meet up with the patrol from a neighboring station and to exchange
"checks", or small metal badges, to prove that they had
completed their rounds. If a wreck was sited, the patrol would illuminate
a Coston Flare, [image, phase one] which would be spotted by the
crewman standing watch in the Station's observation tower or cupola.
Then, swiftly, the crew would determine if the rescue would be affected
by surfboat or breeches buoy - and the work would begin.
The surfboat and breeches buoy were the weapons
in the Storm Warriors' arsenal. The Breeches Buoy [image or two,
phase one] is a mechanical device that allows for shore-based rescue
without imperiling the lives of the rescuers. In a Breeches Buoy
rescue, a stout line is stretched taught between shore and ship,
and, one by one, shipwreck survivors are pulleyed to shore in a
life-ring with pants (breeches) sewn in, which then is returned
to the ship for the next survivor. A small cannon-like device, a
Lyle Gun [image, phase one], was conveyed to the wreck site and
positioned facing the ship. If wind direction allowed, and the ship
was aground within 500 yards of shore, the crew would prepare the
Breeches Buoy apparatus - including burying the sand anchor,
positioning and sighting the Lyle Gun, and readying the Faking Box
[image] with its intricate weave of shot line to carry smoothly
out to the wreck. If the Lyle Gun projectile - a 20 lb. lead
sash-weight shaped object, was successful on the first shot at reaching
the ship's rigging, the crew could begin the process of establishing
the heavier lines for the rescue. If the shot line fouled, or the
projectile was poorly aimed or swept off co
urse by wind, the intricate
procedure might have to be repeated many times - with freezing,
wet lines and fingers. The life car [image] was established using
the same rigging as the breeches buoy, but was used when the lines
were tied too low to the water for the exposed breeches buoy to
be effective. The enclosed, metal life car, which could hold several
passengers, was considered highly effective -- and utterly terrifying.
On more than one occasion, wreck survivors chose to stay on board
ship and perish than risk being entrapped inside the life car.
The surfboat, the device for which Joshua James
and his crew were most renowned, was the second method of rescue.
Many types of surfboats [image] were designed and used, both in
the Massachusetts Humane Society and the U.S.L.S.S. - the
Race Point surfboat, the Monomoy surfboat, the various Beebe McLellands
- some self-baling and self-righting, all employing the characteristic
cork fenders. Made to both transit the most unimaginable waters
that nature could conjure and to return through the same surf loaded
with the storm's victims, these boats required a degree of skill
unparalleled among mariners. Keen knowledge of the vagaries of breaking
surf, instant, explosive power to take advantage of the interval
between combers and relentless grit to continue rowing while beyond
exhaustion were prerequisites to a crew even entering a surfboat.
In 1915, Woodrow Wilson signed into law the “Act
to Create the Coast Guard,” combining the Life-Saving Service
and the Revenue Cutter Service. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service
also was assumed into the Coast Guard. The nation’s 19th century
maritime services were finally unified in 1946 when the Bureau of
Marine Inspection (the former Bureau of Navigation and Steamboat
Inspection) was also made part of the U.S. Coast Guard. In 2003,
the Coast Guard was formally transferred from the Department of
Transportation to the newly created Department of Homeland Security.
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