United States
Life-Saving Service
Life-Saving before the USLSS
• Danger
• Lighthouse keepers and
volunteers
• Insufficient
Massachusetts Humane Society
• Founded in 1785
• Structures for
shipwrecked
mariners
• 1787- “Houses of
Refuge”
• Small sheds
• First on Lovell’s
Island
Dr. John Warren
One of the Founders and Initial Trustees of
the Massachusetts Humane Society
Problems
• Stations only
near busy ports
• large gaps of
coastline
• structures not
manned nor
maintained
• Vulnerable to
theft and
vandalism
• No Boats
House of Refuge
Making Improvements
Boston,
1800
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Society began looking into using small boats
British developed “lifeboats”
William Raymond
30-feet long, 11 crewmen
First lifeboat station at Cohasset, MA
Additional Measures
• 1831 – Gallatin
• First government
directive
• 1837 –
Congressional
authorization to
search
• Rescue on the high
seas
• Need for
Responsibility and
Means
USRC Gallatin
William A. Newell
• Congressman from
New Jersey
• Physician
• 14 August 1848-Congress appropriated
$10,000
• “surfboats, rockets,
carronades…”
• Limited to New Jersey
New Jersey coast
Douglass Ottinger
• Captain in the
Revenue Marine
• Interested in
lifesaving
• Established 8
stations with
equipment
• 12 January 1850Ayrshire rescue
Problems Continue
• Elizabeth wreck
• Stations added
• Systemic problems
– small
– voluntary crews
– neglect and theft
– no standardization
• 1848 legislation was
inadequate.
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Steps toward a National
Life-Saving Service
Winter of 187071-- Public Outcry
20 April 1871
Paid surfmen and
new stations
Captain John
Faunce
Report on the
state of life-saving
Captain John Faunce
Sumner Increase Kimball
• Born on 2 September
1834
• Attended Bowdoin
College
• A lawyer
• Appointed to Treasury
Department
• 1871-- appointed to
head Revenue Marine
Bureau
Founding of the U.S. Life-Saving
Service
• 4 June 1878-Representative
Samuel S. Cox
• 18 June 1878-Congress passed the
legislation creating the
USLSS
• President Hayes
nominated Kimball
• Congress approved
President Rutherford B. Hayes
Garnering Public Support
• William D. O’Conner
– Journalist
– Authored rescue
accounts in the
annual reports
– Vivid and Eloquent
– Accounts
disseminated to the
general public
• His reports ensured
support for the USLSS
Title Page from an
Annual Report
Life-Saving Equipment
• Beach Cart
• Boats
– Lifeboat
– Surfboat
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Cork Lifebelt
Heaving Stick and Line
Beach Apparatus
Lyle Gun & Faking Box
Breeches Buoy
Lifecar
Coston Flare
Beach Cart
Boats
• Lifeboat
• Surfboat
Launching Lifeboats
• RampLaunched
Launching Surfboats
• From the Beach
Cork Lifebelt
Coston Flare
• Benjamin Franklin
Coston
• Martha Coston
• Adopted by the US
Navy
• Adopted by USLSS-every station
equipped
• Helped save
thousands
Heaving Stick and Line
• Short-stick with
oval weight
• Surfman threw it
• Inadequate for
shore-based
rescues
• An alternative
was needed
Beach Apparatus
• Used to get rescue lines to the wrecks
• Beach Cart
Beach Apparatus all laid out
Lyle Gun
• David A. Lyle, US
Army.
• Improved design
Firing Lyle Gun
Faking Box
• Shotline
Surfmen Stringing the Shotline in the Faking Box
Completed Faking Box
Breeches Buoy
Breeches Bouy in Action
Crewmen Training with the Breeches Buoy
Lifecar
• Joseph Francis
• Carried 2 to 4 people
• Used until 1899
Organization of the Service
• Agency within the
Treasury Department
• Headed by Sumner I.
Kimball
• Inspected by the
Revenue Cutter
Service
• Districts with
Superintendents
• Each station named
and numbered
Life-Saving Stations
Equipment Storage Area of an
Unidentified Station
Surfmen entertaining themselves at their station
Life-Saving Stations in New England
Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Salisbury Beach, Massachusetts
Fletcher’s Neck, Maine
Life-Saving Stations in New England
Different Views of the Life-Saving Station
at Narragansett, Rhode Island
Life-Saving Stations in the Mid-Atlantic
Quogue, New York
Point of Woods, New York
Life-Saving Stations in the Mid-Atlantic
Indian River, Delaware
Deal, New Jersey
Life-Saving Stations in the Carolinas
Bogue Inlet, North Carolina
Currituck, North Carolina
House of Refuge in Florida
House of Refuge at Indian River Inlet, Florida
Life-Saving Stations on the
Gulf Coast of Texas
Sabine Pass, Texas
San Luis, Texas
Life-Saving Stations on the
Great Lakes
Ashtabula, Ohio
Evanston, Illinois
Life-Saving Stations on the
Great Lakes
Two Rivers, Wisconsin
Racine, Wisconsin
Jackson Park, Illinois
Floating Life-Saving Station
Louisville, Kentucky
Life-Saving Stations on the Pacific Coast
Gray’s Harbor, Washington
Baaddah Point, Washington
Golden Gate Park, California
Uniforms of the Life-Saving Service
Station Keeper
Surfman
Foul-Weather Gear
Gear for conducting rescues
On Beach Patrol
Uniform Variations
Lifesaving Medals
• Gold Lifesaving
Medal
• Silver Lifesaving
Medal
Some Heroes of the
U.S. Life-Saving Service
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Joshua James
Rasmus S. Midgett
Frederick T. Hatch
Crew of the Pea Island (NC)
Station
• Crew of the Evanston (IL) Station
Joshua James
• Massachusetts Humane
Society
• Keeper of Point Allerton
Station
• Gold Lifesaving Medal
Rasmus S. Midgett
• Gull Island Life-Saving
Station
• 18 August 1899-- singlehandedly rescued ten
people
• Awarded the Gold
Lifesaving Medal
Frederick T. Hatch
• Two-time
recipient of the
Gold Lifesaving
Medal
• 31 October-1
November 1883Sophia Minch
• 26 October 1891Wahnapitae
Pea Island crew
• Pea Island LS was
on the Outer Banks
• All AfricanAmerican crew.
• 11 October 1896E.S. Newman
• 5 March 1996Gold Lifesaving
Medal awarded to
the Pea Island
crew
Evanston Crew
• Outside of
Chicago
• Northwestern
University
• 28 November
1889- Calumet
foundered in a
blizzard
• 17 October
1890- Gold
Lifesaving Medal
awarded
USLSS & the Wright Brothers
at Kitty Hawk
• Kill Devil Hills
LSS assisted
Orville and
Wilbur Wright
• Surfman J.T.
Daniels
• Crew assisted
with subsequent
flights
Kill Devil Hills Station crewmen
First Flight of the Wright Brothers’ Flyer
End of the USLSS
• 20 January 1915 -- "Act to Create the Coast Guard"
• Combined the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the
Revenue Cutter Service
• 28 January 1915 -- President Wilson signed into law
• US Coast Guard created