Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-12-19
The Life-Saving Service.

When they who pillow the land have
resped and garnered their harvests and
are about to sit down at their ease to
enjoy them, those whose keels furrow
the sea are threatened with destruction
by every one of the thirty two winds Of
the compass, and the labors of life
time are liable at any moment to be-
come the spoils of elemental warfare.
In an obscure corner Of the United
States Treasury building are the head.
quarters of service devoted to COM
bats with the tempest and storm, that
mitigates the horrors Of shipwreck by
rescuing those who cling with the to-
nacity of despair to the splintering tim
bers of foundered ships, and rssusci-
tates the apparently lifeless, cast mp by
the remorseless waves.
The brave deeds OF these "storm
warriors" as they are called in the
thrilling history of the English life
boat service, pales the achievements OF
the worlds greatest captains on we'll
fought fields.
THE great descent of the winds
upon the world takes place at the eqli.
noxes, and the vast blue plains of the
oceans are their delight" In weird
chapter on the winds, in the "Toilers
of the Sea-" Victor Hugo tells of the
power and purpose Of these commo-
tions-when "the solitudes have their
gamut and rise to o terrible crescendo."
The first of September is the time
fixed by law for the men Of our Lie
saving stations to enter upon active
service along our entire sea and coast
line, which in extent exceeds that of
any other country, being 10000 miles
in length.
On the shifting sands of the New
Jersey coast the service has all the rose
colered tints OF comfort and many of
the Injuries of town residences. The
stations are we'll built and furnished
with libraries, musical instruments and
pictures, the gifts of interested friends.
They are also within daily mail facili.
ties-that pioneer of civilization to the
intelligent. These things set at def
snoe the monotony and isolation of
Carolina, from Cape Henry to Cape
Hatteras, the lighthouses are often
quenched in spray aud curtained from
the mariners anxious gaze. Here the
surglng of the sea resumes appalling
aspects the world of waters that rolls
unchecked over the broad Atlantic as.
sails the treacherous beach with its
menacing power all the year round.
The breakers, revolving like the steam
driven wheels of an engine, snatch
back again into their depths the drown
ing victims they fling upon the sands, a
line of graves, sand-heaped and YER
dureless o gull, white and spectral,
sweeping out to sea the dull thud OF
waves, pounding without cessation ;
the desolate oast-houses, built from
the blanched bones of stranded ships
their furnishings the fotsam and jetsam
of the sea; gun and q fishing-rcd
their implements of husbandry unable
to read and having no communication
with the outer world, save when storms
cast the ship-wrecked at their doors
such is the pathos and loneliness of q
surfman's existence on the North Caro-
lima coast. This coast was long the
wrecker's paradise. But the same mo-
tives that once made them wolves to
prey on commerce and their kind has
changed them into lambs of humanity
in succoring the shipwrecked and saw
ing life.
The methods employed at these sta
tions are on exhibition. They are in.
genious, curious and interesting, and
vary according to the requirements OF
the service and its stations.
The ponderous English life-boat,
self-bailing and self.adjusting, weighs
5000 pounds; the surf-boat, light as a
feather and buoyant as cork, when we'll
manned, can climb the comb of the
breakers as easily as q man ascends a
ladder, and the life.car, whose slender
roadway is but few strands of braided
linen rope-these three are the most
important factors in the life.saving
service; but their whole efficiency
depends on other auxiliaries which
human skill, perseverance, and expert
ence has brought almost to perfection.
Lukin, an English coach. maker, in.
vented the life-boat. But prejudice is
such an unoonquerable attribute that
the English Board of Admiralty resist.
ed its acceptance by the government
for half century, while these pig
headed Sir Joseph Porters, K. G. B., OF
the British navy, scorned to notice the
invention of o landsman and trades.
man.
Ahumsne gentleman, Rev. DR.. Sharp,
kept life-boat service on the coast OF
Bambury, terrible for its shipwrecks,
at his own expense for twenty years.
It WAS the means of saving hundreds OF
human lives, and caused the life boat
to triumph over the apathy of the
Lords Of the Admiralty at last. Lukin's
model has been so improved that but
little of the original invention remains.
The life. boat of the Life Saving Service
rides like sovereign the tumultuous
surf. Though engulfed, it rises to the
surface and shakes itself free, to plunge
again and free itself for another plunge,
until its work is done. Its great weight
will only allow it to be used in water of
q certain depth. The long piers of our
inland waters make it easy to be
launched, so that it is great favorite
on the lake coast service.
Surf.boats are beauties of lightness.
and there is witchery of daring about
them in the surf. They are painted a
brilliant crimson, and when climbing
the gray wall of the breakers they look
1,l,.. roI va11sp,o-o,c /,