752 



SERVICE, UNITED STATES LIFE-SAYING. 



at a distance from their posts, a number of 

 them too old for service, most of them appoint- 

 ed rather for their politics than their com- 

 petency; the crews at the alternate stations 

 chosen" for the same reason, fitness for duty be- 

 ing always a secondary consideration, and these 

 creu-s, under the system of arbitrary alternacy, 

 often falling to stations where they were least 

 needed, making discontent rampant among the 

 volunteers called into service by disaster at 

 the stations intervening, and breeding quarrel 

 and disaffection among the coast populations. 

 Such was the condition of affairs at that time. 

 The vigorous prosecution of reform was at 

 once begun. In obedience to a resolution then 

 adopted and ever since adhered to, though 

 against manifold obstacles, that professional 

 fitness should be the indispensable and the 

 only requisite for the agents of the Life-saving 

 Service, the removal of all incapable and in- 

 efficient keepers, and the appointment of the 

 best obtainable experts in their places, were 

 commenced. At the same time nearly all 

 the stations were manned with crews of care- 

 fully selected surfrnen, chosen without regard 

 to their politics, and for such periods as the 

 limited appropriations would admit ; and the 

 patrol of the beaches each night, and during 

 thick weather by day, was inaugurated. This 

 important feature, by which those imperiled 

 upon stranded vessels are promptly discov- 

 ered by the beach sentinels, and speedily made 

 the objects of life-saving effort, distinguishes 

 the United States service from all others in the 

 world, and largely accounts for its unparalleled 

 triumphs in rescuing shipwrecked seafarers. 

 Simultaneously with these measures, definite 

 instructions in regard to their duties were is- 

 sued to the keepers and crews. The next step 

 was to bring the stations within distances of 

 from three to five miles of each other, in order 

 that neighboring station crews might be massed 

 together by signal or message, should extra 

 help at a wreck be required. To this end, 

 twelve new houses were built on the New 

 Jersey coast and six on the Long Island, and 

 the location of some existing stations changed. 

 The old stations were also rebuilt or enlarged 

 for the accommodations of their occupants and 

 of rescued persons. Means being limited, all 

 the stations of this period were made the plain- 

 est possible houses, 42 feet long and 18 feet 

 wide, of four rooms and two stories. One 

 room below contained the boats, wagon, surf- 

 car, mortar, etc. ; the other was furnished as 

 the mess-room of the crew. In the tipper 

 story, one apartment was fitted with cot-beds 

 and bedding, and the second was adapted for 

 storing the lighter apparatus. These measures 

 and arrangements, somewhat provisional in 

 their character, and struck off to meet the 

 present exigencies, carried the young service 

 on the two coasts through the winter of 1871 

 ~ V-' . The ' result of the ne ^ organization was 

 king. The record of the season on the two 

 coasts shows that every person imperiled by 



shipwreck was saved. Fatal disasters, hitherto 

 incessant, appeared to have suddenly ceased, 

 as a plank when sawed through drops to the 

 ground. 



The success of this season excited lively in- 

 terest in the service. A station had been au- 

 thorized by Congress in March, 1871, for the 

 Ehode Island coast; and in June, 1872, one more 

 for that coast and nine for Cape Cod, Massachu- 

 setts, were authorized, thus extending the sys- 

 tem to the beaches of two other States. These 

 stations were built and put in operation by 

 the winter of 1872. Encouraged by the record 

 of the past season, operations were vigorously 

 continued for the one to come. The selection 

 of the best available apparatus first engrossed 

 attention. A commission to decide upon this 

 point was procured, consisting of officers of 

 the Treasury and Navy and experienced beach- 

 men, which met in May, 1872, at Seabright, 

 New Jersey, to examine and test various life- 

 saving appliances, and reported in favor of a 

 modification of the New Jersey cedar surf- 

 boat, an eprouvette mortar, the India-rubber 

 life-saving dress invented by Mr. C. S. Merri- 

 man, and the Coston night-signals, all of 

 which were brought into use at the stations 

 with satisfactory results. Before the arrival 

 of the season for opening the stations, a com- 

 prehensive code of regulations for the govern- 

 ment of the service was prepared. These reg- 

 ulations arranged the coasts of Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey 

 into three districts, assigning each district to 

 the charge of a local superintendent, chosen 

 from civil life, and placing the whole under 

 the inspection of an officer of the Revenue 

 Marine (Captain J. H. Merryman). Upon 

 these officers they laid the duty of periodical 

 examinations of the stations, and the drill and 

 exercise of the keepers and crews in life-sav- 

 ing manoeuvres with the boats and apparatus. 

 They also provided for the keeping of journals 

 or log-books by each keeper, recording the 

 state of the weather and the surf, and all oc- 

 currences at the several stations ; transcripts 

 from which were required to be forwarded 

 each week to the office at Washington. Each 

 keeper was furthermore required to transmit 

 to headquarters a carefully prepared report 

 of each disaster occurring within his precinct. 

 The regulations minutely defined the duties of 

 keepers and surfmen in regard to service at 

 wrecks and the performance of patrol, and 

 made provision for their instruction in resusci- 

 tating persons apparently drowned. The pres- 

 ervation and repair of the buildings, the regu- 

 lar outfit and supply of the stations, the peri- 

 odical returns upon proper books and forms of 

 the condition of the station appointments, the 

 methods of keeping the district accounts, and 

 the general fiscal management of the service, 

 came within the scope of their provisions. 

 They provided for boards of examiners to de- 

 termine the professional qualifications of the 

 keepers and crews, and to bar all but experts 



