SERVICE, UNITED STATES LIFE-SAVING. 



753 



from the service ; and they established a code 

 of signals, with flags for day service and rock- 

 ets for night, to enable the patrolmen to com- 

 municate with the stations, and the stations 

 to effect intercourse with each other. Under 

 these regulations the efficiency of the service 

 was greatly promoted, and the season of 1872 

 -'73 was triumphantly passed, only one life 

 being lost by shipwreck within the domain of 

 the establishment. 



This continued success induced Congress in 

 March, 1873, to extend the system to other 

 coasts, and mainly by the efforts of the Hon. 

 John Lynch, of Maine, then a Representative 

 in Congress, and a leading member of the Com- 

 mittee on Commerce, to the charge of which 

 matters relating to this service were committed, 

 a bill was passed appropriating $100,000 for 

 new life-saving stations, and calling for a report 

 of points for others upon the sea and lake 

 coasts, with detailed estimates of cost. This 

 magnanimous legislation resulted in the crea- 

 tion of two new districts, one embracing the 

 coasts of Maine and New Hampshire, the other 

 the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina be- 

 tween Capes Henry and Hatteras, and placed 

 five new stations on the Maine coast, one on 

 the New Hampshire, five on the Massachusetts, 

 one on the Rhode Island, three on the Virginia, 

 and seven on the North Carolina. The stations 

 were not, however, put into operation until 

 the year following, owing to delay in selecting 

 sites and procuring titles. To make the report 

 called for by the law, a commission was formed 

 in March, 1873, immediately after the passage 

 of the bill, consisting of Mr. Kimball and Cap- 

 tains John Faunce and J. H. Merryman, of the 

 Revenue Marine. Their report, made in view 

 of the actual and prospective extension of the 

 serrice on a national scale, was the prominent 

 feature of the work of the year, and involved a 

 comprehensive mental survey of the nature and 

 characteristics of our vast and varied coasts on 

 the ocean and the lakes, personal inspection 

 and study of the principal localities, and nu- 

 merous consultations with underwriters, ship- 

 owners, captains of vessels, veteran surfmen, 

 and all varieties of sources of relevant infor- 

 mation. It was transmitted by the Secretary 

 of the Treasury to Congress, with his approval, 

 in January, 1874. Guided by its recommenda- 

 tions, Congress passed the act of June 20, 1874, 

 authorizing the classification of stations into 

 three groups, designated respectively as com- 

 plete life- saving stations, life-boat stations, and 

 houses of refuge ; establishing a number of sta- 

 tions of the several classes upon the Southern, 

 Pacific, and Lake coasts; creating five new 

 districts, each with its local superintendent at 

 a salary of $1,000 per annum ; providing for 

 the bestowal of medals of honor, in two class- 

 es, upon persons endangering their lives to save 

 others; and empowering the collection and 

 tabulation by the Life-saving Service of statis- 

 tics of disaster to shipping, both in Govern- 

 ment and maritime interests, and also with a 

 VOL. XTIII. 48 A 



view of determining, by reference to the pe- 

 riodicity of marine casualties, the points neces- 

 sary for the protection afforded by life-saving 

 stations, and other means for preventing anJ 

 mitigating marine disasters a matter of the 

 grayest importance on this and other accounts, 

 which had up to this time been strangely and 

 unaccountably neglected by the Government. 

 The operations of the service for the year 

 1873-'74 had meanwhile been actively con- 

 tinued. The storm-signal system of the Signal 

 Service had been connected with seven sta- 

 tions on the New Jersey coast, an appropri- 

 ation of $30,000 having been made by Con- 

 gress for the general connection of the system 

 with the life-saving stations and lighthouses. 

 The record of the season at its close showed 

 1,165 lives saved on the three coasts; only two 

 were lost. 



During the year 1874-'75 twenty-two new 

 stations established under the act of March, 

 1873, were put into operation. The number 

 of lives saved this season was 855, and there 

 were 16 persons lost. Fourteen of these were 

 from the Italian bark Giovanni, wrecked on 

 Cape Cod on March 4, 1875, too far from shore 

 to be reached by the shot-line from any ord- 

 nance then invented, and in a surf in which no 

 boat could live. This loss was the first serious 

 disaster which the service had suffered since 

 its organization, though fortunately it was one 

 not chargeable to any fault of the establish- 

 ment. By direction of the central office, efforts 

 were at once commenced by Captain Merry- 

 man, assisted by officers of the Ordnance Corps, 

 to increase the range of the wreck artillery. 



In the following year, 1875-76, the work 

 of creating the stations authorized by the law 

 of June 20, 1874, was actively pushed. Six 

 stations on the Maryland and Virginia coast 

 were completed and put into operation, involv- 

 ing the organization of an additional district 

 designated No. 5. A gun, designed by R. P. 

 Parrott, Esq., of the West Point Foundry, 

 Cold Spring, N. Y., with a maximum range of 

 631 yard?!, but too heavy for transportation in 

 ordinary life-saving use, was placed at Peaked 

 Hill Bar, Cape Cod, the scene of the wreck of 

 the Giovanni. A life-raft was added to the 

 apparatus at several stations. A new self- 

 righting and self-bailing life-boat, derised by 

 Captain J. M. Richardson, the Superintendent 

 of the First Life-saving District, of much less 

 weight and draught than the English, was sta- 

 tioned for trial at Whitehead Island, Me. The 

 storm-signal system was still further extended 

 to several of the Atlantic stations. This year 

 several incompetent keepers and surfmen were 

 discovered in the Sixth District stations by the 

 Examining Board, put there by local politicians, 

 and were promptly ejected, and the District 

 Superintendent was dismissed. The number 

 of persons saved from wrecks was 729. The 

 persons lost were 227 of them washed over- 

 board before stranding, 6 drowned by attempt- 

 ing to land in the ships' boats, and 9 by in- 



