The method adopted for restoring the apparently drowned is formulated
into rules which each member of the crew commits to memory. In drill
he is required to repeat these and afterwards illustrate them by
manipulations upon one of his comrades. The medicine chest is also
opened, and he is examined as to the use of its contents.
The dry clothing is taken from the supply constantly kept on hand at
the different stations by the Women’s National Relief Association, an
organization established to afford relief to sufferers from disasters
of every kind. The libraries at the stations are from the donations of
the Seamen’s Friend Society and sundry benevolent persons. The food is
prepared by the keepers or the station mess, who are reimbursed by the
recipients if they have the means, or by the government.
The life-saving service is attached to the treasury department. The sea
and lake coasts of the United States have an extent of more than ten
thousand miles, and are divided into thirteen life-saving districts,
each under the immediate supervision of a district superintendent. The
chief officer of the service is the general superintendent, who has
general charge of it and of all administrative matters connected with
it. An inspector from the Revenue Marine Service visits each station
monthly during the “active season,” which is ten months, from August 1
to June 1, and examines and practices the crews in their duties. On
his first visit, after the opening of the stations each year, if any
are found not up to the standard, they are promptly dropped from the
service. The district superintendents are promoted from the corps of
keepers, and must be residents of the respective districts for which
they are chosen, and are rigidly examined as to their professional
familiarity with the line of coast embraced within the district and the
use of life-boats and all other life-saving apparatus.
The keeper of each station has direct control of all its affairs,
and as his position is one of the most important of the service, the
selection is made with the greatest care.
[Illustration: A RESCUED SHIPWRECKED CREW.]
The indispensable qualifications are that he shall be a man of good
character and habits, not less than twenty-one and not over forty-five
years of age, with sufficient education to be able to transact the
business connected with the station, be able bodied, physically sound,
and a master of boatcraft and surfing.
No difficulty is found in filling vacancies that occur among the
keepers, as they must be promoted from the ranks of the surfmen, and
the merits of all the surfmen, having been ascertained by inspection,
drill, and active service, are on record. The keepers are required to
reside at their stations all the year round, and are entrusted with
the care, custody, and government of the station and property. They
are captains of their crews, exercise absolute control in matters of
discipline, lead the men, and share their perils on all occasions of
rescue, always taking the steering oar when the boats are used, and
directing all operations with the other apparatus.
[Illustration: WEEKLY TRANSCRIPT OF JOURNAL.]
The keeper and six men constitute the regular crew at each of the
stations on Cape Cod, except at the Monomoy Station, where the regular
crew is seven men. An additional man called “the winter man” is added
to all stations on December 1 of each year, so that during the most
rigorous part of the season one man, at least, may be left ashore
to assist in launching and beaching of the surf-boat, and to have
charge of the station and perform the extra work that winter weather
necessitates.
The life-saving crews are selected from able-bodied and experienced
surfmen after the rigid examination required by the department.
[Illustration: SURFMAN GAGE, ORLEANS STATION,
Dressed for cold night, with time clock, beach lantern, and coston
signal.]
The surfmen, in addition to being obliged to pass a rigid physical
examination before they can enter the service, must also pass a similar
examination yearly before the opening of the active season. No matter
how long they may have been in the service, the hardships they have
suffered, the perils they have faced, or the great deeds of heroism
they have performed, if they are found not to be physically sound they
are dropped from the service, ruined in health, without the slightest
compensation for the years of faithful service.
The profession of a surfman is entirely different from that of a
sailor, being only acquired by coast fishermen and wreckers after
years of experience in passing in and out through the surf. The method
of selecting the life-saving crews has resulted in securing the most
skilful and fearless surfmen, whose gallant deeds of heroism have made
them famous throughout the land. Upon original entry into the service
a surfman must be a citizen of the United States, not over forty-five
years of age.
He is examined as to his expertness in the management of boats and the
use of other life-saving apparatus, and matters of that character. He
signs articles by which he agrees to reside at the station continuously
during the active season, to perform such duties as may be required of
him by the regulations and by his superior officers, and also to hold
himself in readiness for service during the inactive season if called
upon. For this he receives sixty-five dollars per month. For each
occasion he is called upon, during the two months’ inactive season, he
receives three dollars.
The district superintendents, inspectors, keepers, and crews, the law
says, are to be selected “solely with reference to their fitness and
without reference to their political or party affiliations.”
[Illustration: STRANDED CLOSE TO SHORE.]
Every time a wreck occurs the keepers are required to make out and
forward to the department a wreck report, containing answers to a great
number of pertinent questions.
If a life is lost the law requires that a thorough investigation be
instituted with a view of ascertaining the circumstances, and whether
the fatality was due to any neglect or misconduct on the part of the
service. Any misconduct or incompetency at other times is likewise
subject to rigid investigation. The results of the investigations into
the circumstances of loss of life are fully set out in the annual
reports of the service, which the general superintendent is required to
make.
Life savers, disabled in the line of duty, are retained upon the
payrolls during the continuance of their disability, not to exceed
one year, though in certain cases the period may be extended upon
recommendation for a greater period, but not more than two years. In
case of their death from service or from disease contracted in the
line of duty, their widows and children under sixteen years of age are
entitled to be paid during a period of two years the same amount that
the husband or father would have received.
In addition to saving the lives of the imperiled, an important part of
the duty of the life savers is that of saving property. The amount of
property saved annually by these guardians of the coast largely exceeds
the cost of maintenance of the service. The keepers are authorized and
required by law to take charge of and protect all such property until
claimed by those legally entitled to receive it, or until otherwise
directed by the department as to its disposition. The keepers have the
powers of the inspectors of customs and faithfully guard the interests
of the government in all dutiable wrecked property.
[Illustration: LIFE SAVERS FLOATING A SCHOONER.]
Doubtless the United States Life-Saving Service system appears to
be an expensive and elaborate one, but it must be remembered that,
putting aside entirely the consideration of the value of human life,
which is beyond computation, it saves many times its cost in property
alone, and that it fulfils the functions usually allotted to several
different agencies. It rescues the shipwrecked by both the principal
methods which humane ingenuity has devised for that purpose, and
which, in some countries, are practiced separately by two distinct
organizations; it furnishes them the subsequent succor which elsewhere
would be afforded by shipwrecked mariners’ societies; it guards the
lives of persons in peril or of drowning by falling into the water
from piers and wharves in the harbors of populous cities, an office
usually performed by humane societies; it nightly patrols the dangerous
coast for the early discovery of wrecks and the hastening of relief,
thus increasing the chances of rescue, and shortening by hours intense
physical suffering and the terrible agony of suspense; it places over
peculiarly dangerous points upon the rivers and lakes a sentry prepared
to send instant relief to those who incautiously or recklessly incur
the hazard of capsizing in boats; it conducts to places of safety
those imperiled in their homes by the torrents of flood, and conveys
food to those imprisoned in their homes by inundation and threatened
by famine; it annually saves, unaided, hundreds of stranded vessels,
with their cargoes, from total or partial destruction, and assists in
saving scores of others; it protects wrecked property after landing
from the ravage of the elements and the rapine of plunderers; it
extricates vessels unwarily caught in perilous positions; it averts
numerous disasters by its flashing signals of warning to vessels
standing in danger; it assists the custom service in collecting the
revenues of the government; it pickets the coast with a guard, which
prevents smuggling, and, in time of war, surprise by hostile forces,
which makes the service unlike all other organizations established for
similar purposes.
[Illustration: THETA, STRANDED IN A BAD PLACE.]
[Illustration: BEACH COMBERS WAITING TO STRIP THE WRECKED VESSEL.]
The distinction of having founded and created the United States
Life-Saving Service having been the subject of much discussion in
recent years, General Superintendent Kimball, in his report to the
Secretary of the Treasury as to the claims of W. A. Newell, as the
originator of the system of the Life-Saving Service of the United
States, in conclusion states as follows:--
“The fact is, the credit of originating and developing the United
States Life-Saving Service cannot truthfully be awarded to any single
individual.
“In Congress and out of Congress many men have contributed, some in
a great and some in a less degree to the success of its fortunes.
To even write down the names of the legislators in both houses of
Congress, who have been its advocates and champions, and to refer
ever so briefly to their valuable assistance, would occupy much space
and require considerable research, but there occurred to me at once
as conspicuous among the host of its promoters, Senators Hannibal H.
Hamlin, O. D. Conger, W. E. Kenna, W. J. Sewell, and William P. Frye,
and Representatives S. S. Cox, Charles B. Roberts, John Lynch, James
W. Cobert, and Jesse J. Yeates. Presidents of the United States and
various Secretaries of the Treasury have promoted its welfare. Many
officers of the life-saving service also, as well as officers detailed
to it from the Revenue Cutter Service, have, from time to time,
suggested and assisted to carry into effect important improvements.
“The life-saving service was not designed and laid out at one stroke,
in a single comprehensive plan, as an architect designs a building, or
a military genius, perhaps, devised a scheme of army organization, but
its system and development have been accomplished step by step, day
teaching unto day the necessity and wisdom of each successive measure
of progress.”