Chapter I: Introductory

The development of the American Life-Saving Service covers nearly a century.

“... The initiatory movement was the organization by a few
benevolent persons of the Massachusetts Humane Society in
1786. In attempting to alleviate the miseries of shipwreck
on the Massachusetts coast, small huts were built; and in
1807 the first life-boat station was established at Cohasset.
The Society depended upon voluntary crews, but so much was
accomplished of value that some pecuniary aid was received, as
time wore on, from both State and general governments.

“The magnificent work of the Coast Survey, begun in earnest in
1832, absorbed the resources of Congress for a decade and a
half, during which period nothing was attempted in the way of
life-saving except through voluntary societies. A few public
vessels were, indeed, authorized in 1837 to cruise near the
coast for the assistance of shipping in distress, but it was
through the movement in aid of commerce, which extended to the
lighthouse system.

“In 1847, five thousand dollars were appropriated by Congress
toward furnishing lighthouses on the Atlantic with the
facilities for aiding shipwrecked mariners. The money, after
remaining in the Treasury two years unused, was permitted to be
expended by the Massachusetts society upon Cape Cod.

“In the summer of 1848, the Hon. William A. Newell, then a
member of the House of Representatives from New Jersey, incited
by some terrible shipwrecks on the coast of that State, induced
Congress, through his eloquence, to appropriate ten thousand
dollars for providing surf-boats and other appliances ‘for the
protection of life and property from shipwreck on the coast
between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Harbor.’ During the next
session a still larger appropriation was obtained. Twenty-two
station-houses were erected on the coasts of New Jersey and
Long Island, and although no persons were paid or authorized
to take charge of them, and they were manned by extemporized
crews, their value in several cases of shipwreck was so great
that Congress made further appropriations from year to year,
and stations and life-boats gradually multiplied.

“Through the pressure of a shocking event in 1854--the loss
of three hundred lives off the New Jersey coast--a local
superintendent was employed, a keeper assigned to each station,
and bonded custodians placed in charge of the life-boats, which
had been repeatedly stolen; but the absence of drilled and
disciplined crews, of general regulations, and of energetic
central administration rendered the record of the institution
unsatisfactory, and its benefits checkered by the saddest
failures.

“In the year 1871, Sumner I. Kimball succeeded to the head of
the Revenue Marine Bureau of the Treasury Department, under
the charge of which were the life-saving stations. He made
it his first business to ascertain their condition. Captain
John Faunce was detailed to make a tour of inspection, and was
accompanied a portion of the way by Mr. Kimball himself. The
buildings were found neglected and dilapidated, the apparatus
rusty or broken, portable articles had been carried off,
the salaried keepers were often living at a distance from
their posts, some of them too old for service, and others
incompetent, and the volunteer crews were in a quarrelsome
temper with each other and with the coast population.

“Then commenced that vigorous prosecution of reform which has
crowned the humane work with unprecedented success. Making the
most of slender appropriations, and in the face of perpetual
discouragements, this one man, the chief of a bureau, pushed
on by philanthropic impulses and guided by unerring judgment,
brought a complete and orderly system into effect. It was
not the work of a day, nor of a year. It required patience,
sagacity, and rare powers of organization and government. He
knew no office hours, working day and night at what many were
pleased to consider a hopeless task. In his brain originated
the idea of guarding the entire coasts of the nation through
the planting of a chain of fortresses to be garrisoned by
disciplined conquerors of the sea. It is a matter of public
record, and generally known to the country, that through
his practical devotion to the cause this has been so nearly
accomplished.

“In reorganizing what there was of the Service, he prepared
a code of regulations for its absolute control. The duties
of every man employed were minutely defined. The lazy, the
careless, and the unworthy were dismissed, and men chosen
to fill their places with sole reference to integrity and
professional fitness. Politics was abolished. That is, experts
in the surf were regarded as of more consequence to drowning
victims than voters of any particular political ticket. The
station-houses were repaired, and increased in numbers as fast
as the means afforded by Congress would allow; the appliances
for life-saving were restored, and improved from year to year
through the best inventions and discoveries in this or any
other country, and a rigid system of inspection and of patrol
was inaugurated....

“The record of the first season on the New York and New Jersey
coasts, where the new system first went into actual operation,
showed that every person imperiled by shipwreck was saved.
Consequently a commission, consisting of Mr. Kimball, Captain
Faunce, and Captain J. H. Merryman, of the Revenue Marine,
surveyed in 1873, by order of Congress, the vast and varied
coasts of the oceans and lakes, investigating personally the
characteristics of the dangerous localities, and holding
consultations with underwriters, shipowners, captains of
vessels, and veteran surfmen. The report of this commission
placed before Congress a minute account of the disasters to
vessels on every mile of coast for the previous ten years; a
bill based upon it, prepared by Mr. Kimball, became a law June
20, 1874. It provided for the extension of the field of this
great national work of humanity; for the bestowal of medals
of honor upon persons risking their lives to save others; and
empowered the collection and tabulation of statistics of
disaster to shipping, which, by reference to the periodicity of
marine casualties, aided in determining the points most needing
protection, and in various other ways benefited both government
and maritime interests....

“The life-saving stations on the Atlantic seaboard are now
within an average distance of five miles of each other, each
crew consisting of a keeper and six surfmen. At sunset two
men start from each station, one going to the right and the
other to the left. They are equipped with lanterns and Coston
signals, and each pursues his solitary and perilous way
through the soft sand, in spite of flooding tides, bewildering
snowfalls, overwhelming winds, and bitter cold....

“The night is divided into four watches. The keeper is required
to register in his log-book the name of each patrolman, his
hours on patrol, ... the direction and force of the wind at
sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight, together with the events
of each day. This record is sent to the chief of the Service at
Washington at the end of every week....

“The stations consist of three classes, severally denominated
life-saving stations, life-boat stations, and houses of
refuge. Each of the twelve districts is provided with a local
superintendent, who must be a resident of the district and
familiarly acquainted with its inhabitants....

“The stations are visited frequently, and the men examined
in the exercises of the apparatus drill, and obliged to give
verbal reasons for every step in their operations. They are
trained with their life-boats in the surf, in the use of the
life-dress, in saving drowning persons by swimming to their
relief, in the methods of restoring the partially drowned, and
in signalling. When a wreck is attended with loss of life,
a rigid examination follows to see if any of the men have
been guilty of misconduct or neglect of duty. The keepers are
empowered to protect the interests of the government from
smuggling, and they guard all property that comes ashore from
a wreck until its rightful owners appear. They are charged
with the care and order of the stations, and the boats and
apparatus; and they must keep accurate accounts of all receipts
and expenditures, journalize all transactions, and maintain
all necessary correspondence with superior officers. Thus
it appears they must possess a certain amount of education
and high integrity, as well as surfmanship, intrepidity, and
commanding qualities....”--_Harper’s Magazine_, February, 1882.

At the close of the year 1894 the total number of stations in the Life-Saving Establishment was 247. Of this number, 182 were situated on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, 51 on the coasts of the Great Lakes, 13 on the Pacific Coast, and 1 at the Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky. Their distribution by life-saving districts was as follows:

First District (coasts of Maine and New Hampshire) 12

Second District (coast of Massachusetts) 24

Third District (coasts of Rhode Island and Long
Island) 39

Fourth District (coast of New Jersey) 41

Fifth District (coast from Cape Henlopen to
Cape Charles) 17

Sixth District (coast from Cape Henry to Cape
Fear River) 29

Seventh District (coasts of South Carolina,
Georgia, and Eastern Florida) 12

Eighth District (Gulf Coast) 8

Ninth District (Lakes Erie and Ontario, including
Louisville Station) 12

Tenth District (Lakes Huron and Superior) 15

Eleventh District (Lake Michigan) 25

Twelfth District (Pacific Coast) 13
---
Total 247

--Report of the United States Life-Saving Service.