SERVICE, UNITED STATES LIFE-SAVING. 



759 



enrolled, and are required to be on the watch 

 for the signal for their assembly in thick or 

 stormy weather. They receive $3 per man 

 for each day devoted to drill and exercise, and 

 $10 per man for each occasion of service at 

 wrecks. 



The scheme of the service places the long 

 chain of complete life-saving stations on the 

 Atlantic beaches within an average distance 

 of five miles of each other, the object being to 

 maintain the intercommunication of patrol, 

 and effect tne speedy assembling of several 

 crews in case of the occurrence of a wreck 

 requiring multiplied effort. The complete 

 life-saving stations are generally situated just 

 behind the beach, among the low sand-hills 

 common to such localities. They are typically 

 two-story houses, mainly built of tongued and 

 grooved pine, with gable roofs, covered with 

 cypress or cedar shingles, and strong shutters 

 to the windows, and are securely bolted to a 

 foundation of cedar or locust posts, sunk in 

 trenches four feet deep. Their architecture is 

 of the pointed order, somewhat in the chalet 

 style, with heavy projecting eaves and a small 

 open observatory or lookout deck, on the 

 peak of the roof, from which spires a flag- 

 staff. The walls of the houses are painted 

 drab, with darker color for the door and win- 

 dow trimmings, and the roofs dark red. Over 

 the door is a tablet with the inscription " U. S. 

 LIFE-SAVING STATION." The appearance of 

 the houses is tasty and picturesque. Their 

 dimensions are from 18 to 20 feet wide by 40 

 feet long ; the later houses are 20 by 45. Be- 

 low they contain two rooms. One of these is 

 the boat-room, about 10 feet high, occupying 

 over two thirds of the ground-floor space, or 

 measuring about 16 by 30 feet, and opening by 

 a broad double-leaf door into the weather. In 

 this are stored the boats, life-car, wreck-gun, 

 and most of the apparatus. The other room, 

 about 8 feet high, and measuring about 12 by 

 16 feetj is the general living-room of the crew. 

 The second story contains three rooms, one for 

 the storage of the lighter apparatus, one for 

 the sleeping-room of the keeper, and one for 

 that of the men ; both of these furnished with 

 cot-beds in sufficient number for the accommo- 

 dation also of the occasional guests sent to the 

 stations by shipwreck. At stations where 

 there is communication with the Signal Service, 

 there is an additional room in the upper story 

 for the accommodation of the signal officer. 

 The later and better built stations have interior 

 walls of lath and plaster, and are furnished out- 

 side with cisterns for the collection of rain- 

 water. The lack of fresh water on the beaches 

 is one of the hardships of station-life. 



The life-boat stations are usually 24 feet 

 high from base to peak, 42 feet long by 22 feet 

 wide, exterior measurements, and contain a loft 

 above, and a room below 12 feet high, 20 feet 

 wide, and 40 feet long, for the accommodation 

 of the life-boat and its gear. They are built 

 of matched and grooved pine, with gable roofs 



shingled with cedar, and are painted like the 

 other stations. They are placed on piles at 

 the water's edge, or set on the inner side of 

 the piers, and are furnished with an inclined 

 platform, or trap in the floor, along which 

 the life-boat i.s let down and launched into the 

 water by a windlass. Over the door of each is 

 a tablet inscribed " U". S. LIFE- Bo AT STATION." 



, 



LIFE-SAVING STATION. 



The houses of refuge are two-story struc- 

 tures, of a style common at the South, with 

 broad gabled roofs, an ample veranda 8 feet 

 wide on three sides of the structure, and large 

 chimneys in the rear, built outside of the wall. 

 The houses are of pine, raised about six feet 

 from the ground on light wood posts, and the 

 roofs shingled with cypress. Instead of glass, 

 the windows are fitted with wire-gauze mos- 

 quito netting. The houses are about 37 feet 

 long by 15 feet wide, not including the veranda 

 space. The upper story is a loft, the lower has 

 three apartments. Each house has capacity 

 for succoring twenty-five persons, with pro- 

 visions to feed that number for ten days. A 

 boat-house is provided for each station, fur- 

 nished with a galvanized iron boat with sculls. 



A complete life-saving station, fully equipped, 

 costs about $5,000 ; a life-boat station about 

 $4,500 ; and a house of refuge about $3,000. 



The stations are fully equipped with all minor 

 appurtenances apposite to their purpose, such 

 as anchors, grapnels, axes, shovels, boat-hooks, 

 and wreckers' materials and implements gen- 

 erally ; and those which are inhabited are also 

 furnished with stoves, cot-beds, mattresses, 

 blankets, and the utensils requisite for rude 

 housekeeping. The crews find their own pro- 

 visions. The stations are also provided with 

 all the most approved appliances for saving life 

 from wrecks. First among these is the six- 

 oared surf-boat, the light weight and draught 

 of which make it the only boat yet found suit- 

 able for service for the flat beaches and shoal- 

 ing water of the Atlantic and Gulf coast. 

 Though not invariably of the same model, it 

 is usually of cedar, with white-oak frames, 

 without keel, varying in dimensions, but gen- 



