CHAPTER

XXXII.

UNITED STATES LIFE-SAVING SERVICE.

Prepared by Lieutenant C. H. MCLELLAN, U. S. R. C. S., Assistant Inspector Life-Saving Stations, under the direction of the General Superintendent.

GENERAL INFORMATION.

Life-saving stations and houses of refuge are located upon the Atlantic and Pacific seaboard of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, and the lake coasts.

Houses of refuge are located exclusively upon the Florida coast, where the requirements of relief are widely different from those of any other portion of the seaboard.

All life-saving stations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are manned annually by crews of experienced surfmen from the 1st of August to the 31st of May following, inclusive.

Upon the lake coasts the stations are manned from the opening until the close of navigation, and upon the Pacific coast they are manned the year round.

All life-saving stations are fully supplied with boats. wreck guns, beach apparatus, restoratives, etc.

Houses of refuge are supplied with boats, provisions, and restoratives, but not manned by crews; a keeper, however, resides in each throughout the year, who, after every storm, is required to make extended excursions along the coast, with a view of ascertaining whether any shipwreck has occurred and finding and succoring any persons that may have been cast ashore.

All stations are provided with the International Code of Signals, and vessels can, by opening communication, be reported; obtain the latitude and longitude of the station, where determined; information as to the weather probabilities in most cases; or, if crippled or disabled, a steam tug or revenue cutter will, if requested, be telegraphed for to the nearest port where facilities for telegraphing exist.

All services are performed by the life-saving crews with

out other compensation than their wages from the Government, and they are strictly forbidden to solicit or receive rewards.

Destitute seafarers are provided with food and lodgings at the nearest station by the Government as long as necessarily detained by the circumstances of shipwreck.

The station crews patrol the beach from two to four miles each side of their stations four times between sunset and sunrise, and if the weather is foggy the patrol is continued through the day.

Each patrolman carries Coston signals. Upon discovering a vessel standing into danger he ignites one of them, which emits a brilliant red flame of about two minutes' duration, to warn her off, or, should the vessel be ashore, to let the crew know that they are discovered and assistance is at hand.

If the vessel is not discovered by the patrol immediately after striking, rockets or flare-up lights should be burned on board, or, if the weather be foggy, guns should be fired to attract attention, as the patrolman may be some distance away, on the other part of his beat.

Masters are particularly cautioned, if they should be driven ashore anywhere in the neighborhood of the stations, especially on any of the sandy coasts, where there is not much danger of vessels breaking up immediately, to remain on board until assistance arrives, and under no circumstances should they attempt to land through the surf in their own boats until the last hope of assistance from the shore has vanished. Often when comparatively smooth at sea a dangerous surf is running, which is not perceptible three or four hundred yards offshore, and the surf, when viewed from a vessel, never appears so dangerous as it is. Many lives have unnecessarily been lost by the crews of stranded vessels being thus deceived and attempting to land in the ship's boats.

The difficulties of rescue by operations from the shore are greatly increased when the anchors are let go after entering the breakers, as is frequently done, and the chances of saving life are correspondingly lessened.

INSTRUCTIONS.

Rescue with the Lifeboat or Surfboat. The patrolman, after discovering your vessel ashore and burning a Coston signal, hastens to his station for assistance. If the use of a boat is practicable either the large lifeboat is launched from its ways in the station, and proceeds to the wreck by water, or the lighter surfboat is

hauled overland to a point opposite the wreck and launched,, as circumstances may require.

Upon the boat reaching your vessel the directions and orders of the keeper (who always commands and steers the boat) should be implicitly obeyed, Any headlong rushing and crowding should be prevented, and the captain of the vessel should remain on board to preserve order until every other person has left.

Women, children, helpless persons, and passengers should be passed into the boat first.

Goods or baggage will not be taken into the boat under any circumstances until all persons are landed. If any be passed in against the keeper's remonstrance he is fully authorized to throw it overboard.

Rescue with the Breeches Buoy or Life Car. Should it be inexpedient to use either the lifeboat or surfboat recourse will be had to the wreck gun and beach apparatus for the rescue by the breeches buoy or the life car.

Fig. 1.

A shot with a small line attached will be fired across your vessel.

Get hold of the line as soon as possible, and haul on board until you get a tail block with a whip or endless line rove through it. This tail block should be hauled on board as quickly as possible to prevent the whip drifting off with the set of the current or fouling with wreckage, etc. Therefore, if you have been driven into the rigging, where but one or two men can work to advantage, cut the shot line and run it through some available block, such as the throat or peak halliards' block, or any block which will afford a clear lead, or even between the ratlines, that as many as possible may assist in hauling.

Attached to the tail block will be a tally board, with the following directions in English on one side and French on the other:

"Make the tail of the block fast to the lower mast, well up. If the masts are gone, then to the best place you can find. Cast off shot line, see that the rope in the block runs free, and show signal to the shore."

The above instructions being complied with, the result will be as shown in Figure 1.

As soon as your signal is seen a three-inch hawser will be bent on to the whip and hauled off to your ship by the life-saving crew.

Fig. 2.

If circumstances will admit you can assist the life-saving crew by manning that part of the whip to which the hawser is bent and hauling with them.

When the end of the hawser is got on board a tally board will be found attached, bearing the following directions in English on one side and French on the other:

"Make this hawser fast about two feet above the tail block; see all clear, and that the rope in the block runs free, and show signal to the shore."

These instructions being obeyed, the result will be as shown in Figure 2.

Take particular care that there are no turns of the whip line round the hawser; to prevent this, take the end of the hawser up between the parts of the whip before making it fast.

When the hawser is made fast, the whip cast off from

the hawser, and your signal seen by the life-saving crew, they will haul the hawser taut, and by means of the whip will send off to your ship a breeches buoy suspended from a traveler block, or a life car from rings, running on the hawser.

Figure 3 represents the apparatus rigged, with the breeches buoy hauled off to the ship.

If the breeches buoy be sent, let one man immediately get into it, thrusting his legs through the breeches. If the life car, remove the hatch, place as many persons in it as it will hold (four to six), and secure the hatch on the outside by the hatch bar and hook, signal as before, and the buoy or car will be hauled ashore. This operation will be repeated until all are landed. On the last trip of the life car the hatch must be secured by the inside hatch bar.

In many instances two men can be landed in the breeches buoy at the same time, by each putting a leg through a leg of the breeches and holding on to the lifts of the buoy.

Children, when brought ashore by the buoy, should be in the arms of elder persons or securely lashed to the buoy. Women and children should be landed first.

In signaling, as directed in the foregoing instructions, if in the daytime, let one man separate himself from the rest and swing his hat, a handkerchief, or his hand; if at night, the showing of a light, and concealing it once or twice, will be understood; and like signals will be made from the shore.