, 1880-01-26
What Our Life-Saving Service Has
Done.

paper in Scribner on this topic, by Capt.
J. 81. Merryman, one of the inspectors,
has the quality Of freshness at least.
After describing in detail the actual
work of the coast crews, the writer
adds:
But, it will be asked, what results
have been attained by the service? At
this writing, the last published report
is that of the fiscal year ending June
3Oth, 1878. From this it appears that
during that year there were III disasters
to vessels within the limits of the op
erations of the service. There were on
board these vessels ,557 persons. The
number of lives saved was 1,331, the
number lost 226, and the number of
days succor afforded to shipwrecked
persons at the stations was $40. Of the
226 lost, 1873 perished at the disasters
to the steamers Huron and Metropolis,
the former occurring four days prior
to the manning of the stations, which
the appropriations for the maintenance
of the service did not then permit to
take place until the first of December,
and the latter occurring at u distance
so remote from the nearest station as
to render prompt aid impossible de
fects which the reports Of the service
had repeatedly pointed out, and asked
to have remedied. The loss of fourteen
others occurred where service was i'm
peded by distance, or where the sta
tions were not open. Making allow
ance for these, the loss of life legiti-
mately within the scope of life-saving
operations, was twenty-pine. The SAD
catastrophes of the Huron and Ncrop-
oils contributed largely in securing the
passage of the effective bill of June,
1878, which was introduced and warmly
advocated by Hon. S. S. Cox, and
which established the service on a stable
basis, with powers and functions some
what commensurate with its purposes
and capabilities. From November,
1871, the date of the Inauguration of
the present system, to the 30th of June,
1878, the number of disasters stated to
have occurred within the field of oper-
ations of the service, was SIS; the num-
ber of persons on board the vessels in
volved, was 6,2S7 the number saved
was 5,9S1 the number lost, 306, and
the number of days relief afforded to
shipwrecked persons at the stations,
3,716.
1t should be observed that during
the first of these seven years the service
was limited to the coasts of Long Island
and New Jersey the two following
years, to those coasts, with the addition
of Cape Cod the next year, to the
foregoing, with the addition of the
coasts of New England and the coast
from Cape Henry to Cape Hatteras
the next, to all the foregoing, with the
addition of Florida and the lake coasts
and the last year, to the coast at present
included.
1t is not claimed that the entire num-
Der of persons designated in the above
figures as saved would have perished
but for the aid of the life saving crews,
since not 1nfrequently, in cases of ship
wreck by stranding, a portion of the
imperiled succeed in escaping to tbs
shore. as did several in the instance-Df
the Huron; and it often happens that
the sudden subsidence of the sea spares
the threatened vessels from destruction.
But it is certain that large proportion
of the number would have perished.
A closer approximation to the real eff
cacy of the service could be reached, if
statistics of the loss of life in former
years upon the coasts where life saving
stations are now established, could be
obtained. Unfortunately, no such rec
ord exists, except an imperfect one,
consisting of meager data relative to
disasters between 1850 and 1870 in the
vicinity of the rude station huts of the
Long Island and New Jersey coasts.
1t is known that this record by no
means includes near all the disasters
which occurred on these coasts. A
comparison, however. of the record of
the service since 1871 with this list
shows an average annual reduction in
the loss of life of about eighty seven
per cent!
The record is a shining one. How
much of it is due to official organiza-
ton may readily be- conceived, but it is
less easy to realize how much of it be-
longs to the gallant crews of the sta
t1ons, some of whose hardships, to-
gether with the methods they employ,
the foregoing pages disclose. The pro-
fessional skill of these men, their un
faltering energy and endurance, their
steady bravery in the hour of supreme
ordeal, and at all times their sober
fidelity to duty, however hard or irk-
some, are beyond all tribute. None
can better know it than the officers in
charge of the service, whose main re-
lance must be, after all, upon the manly
virtue of these crews. What, indeed,
can ever stand in lieu of men!
Just before the public schools in New
Haven closed for the vacation, lady
teacher IN one of the departments gave
out the word fob" for her class to
spell. After it was spelled. as was her