Part 2

The Massachusetts Humane Society, originally formed in 1786, and incorporated for general purposes of benevolence a few years later, was the first to attempt organized relief for shipwrecked seafarers in the United States as well as upon Cape Cod.

The Society first began its work of rendering assistance to shipwrecked mariners by building huts on many of the desolate sections of the coast. These huts were for the shelter of shipwrecked persons who might reach the shore. The first building of this kind was erected on Lovell’s Island in Boston Harbor in 1807. Later, the Society established the first life-boat station at Cohasset, subsequently erecting others along the coast, and extending its good work to the shores of Cape Cod.

While the Society relied solely upon volunteer crews to man these life-boats in times of disaster, its efforts in saving life and property were of great value, and both the state and general government tendered it pecuniary aid at various times. When the government extended the life-saving service to Cape Cod, the Society was relieved of its burden of protecting that dangerous coast, thus enabling it to better provide for other sections of the coast of Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Humane Society may be considered the parent of the United States Life-Saving Service. The Society is one of the oldest in the world. It originated its coast service more than thirty-six years before the English did, while the French service dates its birth much later.

In 1845, a few years before Congress took steps for providing means for rendering assistance to wrecked vessels along the coasts of the United States, the Society had eighteen stations on the Massachusetts coast, with boats and mortars for throwing life lines to stranded vessels, in addition to numerous huts of refuge.

With the exception of the Life-Saving Benevolent Association of New York, chartered by the Legislature of that State in 1849, no other successful organized efforts outside of those of the government were made up to this time to lessen the distress incident to shipwreck.

The first appropriation made by Congress for rendering assistance to the shipwrecked from shore was March 3, 1847. For nearly a half century prior to this time the efforts of the government for the protection of mariners upon the coasts of the United States were mainly in establishing the coast survey and extending the lighthouse system.

In 1848 the attention of Congress was called to the immediate needs of providing further means for rendering assistance to wrecked vessels along the Atlantic coast, and a second appropriation of $10,000 was made. The first appropriation of $5,000 remained in the treasury as an unexpended balance.

Later, this money was placed in the hands of the Collector of Customs at Boston for the benefit of the Massachusetts Humane Society, for use in the work of building and equipping new life stations along the Massachusetts coast.

The second appropriation of $10,000 was for expenditure upon the New Jersey coast. With this appropriation eight boat-houses were erected and supplied with appliances for saving life and property. This marks the beginning of the life-saving service of the United States.

In 1849 Congress appropriated $20,000 for life-saving purposes. With this sum eight life-saving stations were built on the Long Island coast and six additional stations erected on the shores of New Jersey. While these newly established life-saving stations were not manned by regular drilled crews of surfmen, as at present, they often proved of great value at times of disaster, and in 1850 Congress made another appropriation of $20,000 for life-saving purposes.

Of this sum half was expended in erecting additional stations along the shores of Long Island, and for a new station at Watch Hill, R. I.

The attention of Congress having been called to the needs of some means of rendering assistance to wrecked vessels along the coasts of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, the remaining $10,000 of this appropriation was expended in placing life-boats at the most exposed points on these coasts.

In 1853 and 1854 Congress made liberal appropriations for life-saving purposes, and fourteen new stations were built on the coast of New Jersey.

The service was at this time extended to the Great Lakes, twenty-three life-boats being stationed at different points on Lake Michigan, and several others on the other lake shores and on the Atlantic coast. In 1854 there were one hundred and thirty-seven life-boats stationed along the coasts of the United States. Of this number fifty-five were at stations on the New York and New Jersey coasts.

The absence of drilled and disciplined crews at these stations, however,--together with irresponsible custodians and the lack of proper equipments, the result of pillage or decay,--contributed to great loss of life and heartrending scenes of disaster along the Atlantic coast. The inefficiency of the life-saving service, as it then existed, was apparent to all. Public sentiment had now become excited, and Congress was appealed to for immediate relief from the existing conditions.

In 1853 a bill which provided for the increase and repair of the stations and the guardianship of the life-boats passed the Senate; but, unfortunately, failed to reach the House before adjournment. An appalling disaster, the wreck of the _Powhatan_, on the coast of New Jersey, in which three hundred lives were lost, caused the bill to be promptly and favorably acted upon at the next session of Congress. Under the provisions of this bill a superintendent at a salary of $1,500 per annum was appointed for the Atlantic and Lake coasts, keepers were placed in charge of the stations at a salary of $200, bonded custodians secured for the life-boats and other apparatus, and the stations and equipments speedily put in order.

The service was somewhat improved as a result of this, but there were still many defects in it, which were brought to light as disaster followed disaster along the seaboard. Up to this time the life-saving crews were not regularly employed.

A bill providing for the employment of regular crews of surfmen was presented to Congress in 1869. Strange though it may seem, in view of the terrible disasters and loss of life which had so recently taken place along the Atlantic coast, the bill suffered defeat. A substitute bill, however, which provided for the employment of crews of surfmen, though only at alternate stations, was passed. This marks the beginning of the employment of crews of surfmen at the United States life-saving stations, and was the first step in the direction of their employment at all stations for regular periods.

During the winter of 1870–71 a number of appalling, fatal disasters occurred along the Atlantic coast. These disasters not only revealed the fact that the coast was not properly guarded, but also that the service was inefficient and needed a more complete organization. In 1871 Congress again appropriated $200,000 and authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to employ crews of surfmen at such stations and for such periods as he might deem necessary.

Mr. Sumner I. Kimball, the present general superintendent of the United States Life-Saving Service, was at that time in charge of the Revenue Marine Service, and the life-saving stations being then under the charge of that bureau, he at once took steps to ascertain the conditions of the service.

An officer of the Revenue Marine Service was at once detailed to visit the life-saving stations and to make a report of their condition and requirements.

The report made by the officer was a startling revelation. Absolutely no discipline was found among the crews, no care had been taken of the apparatus, some of the stations were in ruins, others lacked such articles as powder, rockets, and shot lines, every portable article had been stolen from many stations, and the money that Congress had appropriated had been practically wasted.

From the report it was plainly evident that the reorganization of the service must be speedily brought about, and in accordance with an act of Congress in 1872, the organization of the present system of life-saving districts with superintendents took place.

The inefficient keepers were at once removed and the most skilled boatmen obtainable were placed in charge of the stations.

The stations were also manned by the most expert surfmen to be found along the coast, and the patrol of the coast at night and during thick weather by day was inaugurated. It was soon found that the life-saving stations, however, were too far apart for the crews to be of assistance to one another in the event of a wreck, and measures were adopted to place them within distances of from three to five miles of one another. To bring about this result, twelve new stations were built on the New Jersey coast, six on Long Island, while the location of some of the existing stations were changed.

The stations were plain houses forty-two feet long and eighteen wide, of two stories and four rooms. One room below was used by the crew as mess-room, the other room contained the boats and other apparatus used at wrecks. One of the upper rooms was used as a sleeping room for the crew, the other room was used as a storeroom.

As a result of the reorganization of the service, the record for the first season shows that not a life was lost in the disasters that occurred on either the Lake shores or the Atlantic coast.

Interest in the success of the life-saving service under the new system was now keyed up to a high pitch. Congress had authorized a new station for the coast of Rhode Island in 1871, and in June, 1872, one more was ordered for that coast, and nine for the coast of Cape Cod. These stations were built and manned in the winter of 1872. The nine that were erected on Cape Cod were located as follows: Race Point and Peaked Hill Bars, at Provincetown; Highlands, at North Truro; Pamet River, at Truro; Cahoon’s Hollow, at Wellfleet; Nauset, at North Eastham; Orleans, at Orleans; Chatham, at Chatham; and Monomoy, on Monomoy Island. Since that time four new stations have been established, the Wood End, High Head, Old Harbor, and Monomoy Point.

The life-saving stations on Cape Cod are situated among the sand hills common to the eastern shores of the Cape, at distances back from the high-water mark as to insure their safety. In most instances they are plain structures, designed to serve as a home for the crew and to afford storage for the boats and other apparatus. In most of the stations on Cape Cod the lower floor is divided into five rooms--a mess room, which also serves for a sitting room for the crew, a kitchen, a keeper’s room, a boat and beach apparatus room. Wide double-leafed doors with a sloping platform permit the quick and easy running out of the surf-boat and other apparatus from the station.

The second story contains two rooms: one the sleeping room for the crew; the other has spare cots for rescued persons, and is also used as a storeroom.

On every station there is a lookout or observatory, from which the life savers, during the day when the weather is fair, keep a careful watch of all shipping along the coast. In order that the life-saving stations may be distinguished from a long distance at sea, they are usually painted dark red, and as a further aid to shipping, they are marked by a flagstaff about sixty feet high erected close by them. This flagstaff is also used to signal passing vessels by the International code. These stations are manned from the 1st of August until June 1st following, the keeper remaining on duty throughout the year. The stations are generally furnished with two surf-boats (supplied with oars, life preservers, life-boat compass, drag, boat-hooks, hatchet, heaving line, knife, bucket, and other outfits), boat carriages, two sets of breeches-buoy apparatus (including guns and accessories), carts for the transportation of the apparatus, a life-car, cork-jackets (life preservers), Coston signals, signal rockets, signal flags of the International and General signal code, medicine chests with contents, patrol lanterns, barometer, thermometer, patrol clocks, the requisite furniture for housekeeping by the crew and for the succor of rescued persons, fuel, oil, tools for the repair of the boats and apparatus, and minor repairs to the buildings, and the necessary books and stationery.

With the International and General code of signals, shipping, when miles at sea, can, by this means, open communication with the stations, be reported, obtain latitude and longitude, or, if disabled, can thus send for assistance.

All the life-saving stations on Cape Cod are connected by telephone with lines running to central stations in Provincetown and Chatham. Close watch of the movements of all shipping is in this way easily maintained, and in time of disaster help is quickly summoned and obtained from one station to another.

In the life-saving service the week begins on Sunday night at midnight, and the days are each set apart for some particular kind of employment.

On Monday the members of the crew are employed putting the station in order. On Tuesday, weather permitting, the crew are drilled in launching and landing in the life-boat through the surf.

On Wednesday the men are drilled in the International and General code of signals.

Thursday, the crew drill with the beach apparatus and breeches-buoy.

Friday, the crew practice the resuscitation drill for restoring the apparently drowned.

Saturday is wash-day.

Sunday is devoted to religious practices.

SALARIES OF THE KEEPERS AND SURFMEN.

The keepers of the life-saving stations receive $900 per year for their services, and the surfmen $65 per month.

In the early history of the life-saving service the keepers received but $200 per year, later their salary was increased to $400, then to $700, and, finally, to the present figure.

The surfmen in the early days of the service received but $40 per month, later it was increased to $45, then to $60, and, finally, to the present sum.

At the opening of the “active season,” August 1 of each year, the men assemble at their respective stations and establish themselves for a residence of ten months, being allowed one day in seven to visit their homes between sunrise and sunset. They arrange for their housekeeping, usually forming a mess, each man taking turns by the week in cooking. The crew is organized by the keeper arranging and numbering them in their supposed order of merit, the most competent and trustworthy being designated as No. 1, the next No. 2, and so on. These numbers are changed by promotion as vacancies occur, or by such rearrangement from time to time as proficiency in drill and performance of duty may dictate. Whenever the keeper is absent, the No. 1 surfman assumes command and exercises the keeper’s functions. When the rank of the crew has been fixed, the keeper assigns to each his position and prepares station bills for the day watch, night patrol, boat and apparatus drill, care of the station, etc. Then all is ready for the active work and the watch of the sea and shore that never ceases, day or night, until the close of the active season ten months later.

The patrol of the beaches each night, and during thick weather by day, by which stranded vessels are promptly discovered and the rescue of the imperiled crews made the object of effort by the life saver, distinguishes the United States Life-Saving Service from all others in the world, and in a great measure accounts for its unparalleled triumphs in rescuing shipwrecked seafarers.

If the surfman sights a vessel in distress or running into danger during the night, he fires a brilliant red Coston signal which he always carries. This is a signal to the shipwrecked crew that they have been seen and assistance has been summoned, and to the crew of a vessel which is approaching the danger line along the coast that it is time to haul offshore.

During the daylight on clear days the watch is kept from a lookout on the station, or by observation from points where the entire beach and sea limits of the station’s district can be clearly seen. Foggy days, and during thick weather, and every night, fair or foul, the watch is by the patrol of every foot of the water front of each district. The stations are located about five miles apart, and the district patrol beats of each are thus about two and one-half miles on either side of the station. The boundaries of each district are marked by a little hut in some protected spot on the beach called “The half-way house,” except at the Wood End Station. The night patrol is divided into four watches, one from sunset to 8 o’clock (the dog watch), one from 8 to 12, one from 12 to 4, and one from 4 to sunrise. Two surfmen are designated for each watch.

When the time for their patrol arrives, the surfmen set out from the station, in opposite directions, keeping well down on the beach as near the surf as possible until they reach the half-way house. Here they get warmed, and the surfmen from the adjoining station are met and checks exchanged. If a patrolman fails to meet the patrolman from the adjoining station at the half-way house, he, after waiting for a reasonable time, continues his journey until he either meets the patrolman or reaches the other station and ascertains the cause of failure. He thus patrols the neglected shore and is at hand to assist in case of disaster detaining the other patrolman. At the stations where the patrolmen carry watchmen’s time-clocks the key is secured to a post at the end of the beat, and the patrolman is required to reach it, wind the clock, and must bring back the dial in his clock properly recorded.

The means employed at the life-saving stations for rescuing persons from wrecked vessels is everywhere essentially the same, either a life-boat is sent out through the surf or the breeches-buoy, or life-car used. The rescues by boat are the most thrilling and hazardous. The method of establishing communication with stranded vessels is over a century old, successful experiments with this method having been made as early as 1791 by Lieutenant Bell of the Royal Artillery. He demonstrated the practicability of the method by means of a mortar, which carried a heavy shot four hundred yards from a vessel to the shore. Lieutenant Bell also observed that a line might be carried from the shore over a stranded vessel by the means of his mortar, but the credit for the actual execution of this method of establishing communication is given to Capt. G. W. Manby, according to a report of a committee of the House of Commons, dated March 10, 1810. A London coach-maker first conceived the idea of a life-boat. The present type is the product of a century’s devoted study and experiment.

Practice drills in the use of the breeches-buoy and surf-boats are carried on constantly at each station, until so proficient are the crews that practice rescues are often made in less than three minutes. The practice is carried on under conditions as near active work in a disaster as are possible, and a description of a drill will give the best idea of actual work at a wreck.

For the practice with the beach apparatus, the breeches-buoy, each station has a drill ground prepared by erecting a spar, called a wreck pole, to represent the mast of a stranded vessel seventy-five yards distant. This is over the water, if possible, from the place where the men operate, which represents the shore.

Each man knows in detail every act he is to perform in the exercise from constant practice, and as prescribed in the Service Manual. At the word of command they drag the apparatus to the drill ground, where they effect a mimic rescue by rigging the gear and taking a man ashore from the wreck pole in the breeches-buoy. If one month after the opening of the active season a crew cannot accomplish the rescue within five minutes, it is considered that they have been remiss in drilling.

No such celerity, however, is expected of the life savers in effecting rescues from shipwrecks, when storm, surf, currents, and motion of the stranded crafts conspire to obstruct. The hastening of the work of mimic rescue, however, gives the life-savers the utmost familiarity with the apparatus and prepares them for working speedily and successfully in utter darkness and under the most trying weather conditions.

The boat practice consists in launching and landing through the surf, capsizing and righting the boat, and practice in handling the oars. Drill signaling is interrogating each surfman as to the meaning of the various flags, the use of the code book, and actual conversation carried on by means of sets of miniature signals provided for each station.

The beach apparatus, the breeches-buoy, is used to effect the rescue of shipwrecked seafarers when vessels have stranded near the shore and the conditions make it inexpedient to use the surf-boats. At such times the apparatus is hauled to the scene in the beach cart; horses, kept at all the stations for the purpose, assisting the life savers in the work.

Frequently the storms which sweep the beaches are so violent that the horses refuse to pull the cart, and the life savers are then obliged to cover the head of the animals before they can be induced to face the fury of the elements. The life savers when on such journeys are usually driven to the back of the beaches by the tides, and the task of dragging the apparatus over the sand dunes is extremely difficult and hazardous.

The “cut throughs” in the beaches, places where during storms the seas rush through to the lowlands, further contribute to the dangers that confront the life savers as they rush along with the apparatus.

These “cut throughs” are also the dreaded menace of the surfmen on patrol, during stormy weather and high tides, the seas, as they sweep through them, often entrapping the life savers, throwing them down, burying them in the rushing waters, and jeopardizing their lives.

As soon as the life savers reach the scene of disaster, the Lyle gun is quickly taken from the cart, loaded, sighted, and fired, the captain, who sights and fires the gun, taking good care that he has sent the shot flying through the storm well to the windward of the wrecked vessel, so that if the shot should fail to go across the vessel, yet beyond it, the line will be carried to the wreck by the force of the gale.