Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Breeches Buoy Drill
Channel: Jay Furr
Date: 2021-09-01

Taken at the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station in Rodanthe, NC on Thursday, August 26. 

 The United States Life-Saving Service was a predecessor of the US Coast Guard.   They had lifesaving stations every seven miles along the US coast.  If a ship was wrecking offshore, a lifesaving station would deploy a cart with equipment to shoot a hawser out to the ship that would then be used to deploy a breeches buoy that would allow crew and passengers to come to shore one by one.   

If the wreck wasn't happening directly at the site of the station, the gear would be hauled up to three and a half miles and then deployed (remember, with stations every seven miles, any given wreck would be at worst 3.5 miles from a station).  If the wreck was too far offshore to be reached with the breeches buoy, boats would be deployed and crew would row (or, later, use motors) out to the ship to take crew and passengers off.

The Life-Saving Service was merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the modern Coast Guard.  The lifesaving stations were discontinued in 1954 as helicopters became a more viable option.