WRECKS. 359 



Life-saving Station. 



Some facts in relation to the life-saving service of 

 the United States are here given. They are taken 

 from the " Eevised Regulations for the Government 

 of the Life-saving Service of the United States," kindly 

 loaned the compiler by Joseph B. Macy, Esq. 



The line of coast upon which the life-saving service 

 is established is divided into eleven districts, which 

 embrace all the life-saving and life-boat stations and 

 houses of refuge within their respective limits. The 

 second district includes the coast of Massachusetts and 

 Nantucket. 



There are three classes of stations authorized by law, 

 which are designated as Life-Saving Stations, Life-Boat 

 Stations, and Houses of Bef uge. The first are estalished 

 in localities remote from settlements, and are furnished 

 with every approved appliance for rescuing the ship- 

 wrecked from stranded vessels, and with the means 

 for ministering to the immediate necessities and com- 

 fort of the rescued, and for the convenience of the 

 crews regularly employed at such stations during the 

 inclement portions of the year. To this class belongs 

 the one on Nantucket. It has a keeper and seven 

 men, who go on duty at sundown and are relieved ev- 

 ery four hours. Many a life has been saved by these 

 men, who patrol, night after night, miles upon miles of 

 sandy beach in the most inclement weather. Theirs 

 is no easy task, and the pay is hardly adequate for the 

 hardships which they undergo. One life-saving station 

 upon this island is hardly enough, and it is hoped that 

 at no distant day the government will see fit to place 



