The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1884-11-21
Facts of Daring on Our Coast How 5000
Lives Were Saved


There is hardly day in the year
when some of the crews of the govern
ment life saving service are not engag-
ed in rescuing lives or saving property.
The value of the work which is done
by the brave fellows in this branch of
the governments employment is but
little known, and is deserving of far
more appreciation than it receives
There is no expenditure .ordered by
Congress for which the people obtain
more satisfactory return, or in which
SO little of the suspicion of corruption
il allowed to enter. The noble exploits
which are performed by the coastmen
in the face of some of the most tremen-
dous perils by which human fortitude
can be tried often fail to reach the
public ear. They are never heard Of
except in the tales of the grateful men
and women who have benefited by
them, or in the cold and dry reports Of
an official document Indeed the men
are generally of kind who never
think of fame and who go about their
utuOtIOUS bUSllltNS Ill -
way, indifferent to the fact that their
perilous duties are such as have often
won other men immortal glory in song
aud verse. As rule they are far re.
moved from the eye of the great mod
ern dispenser of fame---the newspaper
reporter. On dark and dreary and
desolate shores their humble lives are
spent, and when the moment of peril
comes there is scarcely any one to look
on and applaud and chronicle their
achievements.
From the annual report issued by the
government on the operations OF the
service, it is possible in the mass of
facts, figures and statistics prepared in
the official dry-as-dust style to obtain a
notion Of the magnitude and value of
the coastman's work There are at
present in operation 1914 stations dis
tributed along the most dangerous
points of the Atlantic coast, the shores
of the great lakes and the Pacific coast,
and one at Louisville, near the falls of
the Ohio river. These stations are in
Guided in twelve districts, over each OF
which superintendent has control, the
highest salary paid those officers being
$500, and the lowest $1,000.
5000 LIVES SAVED.
There are POP men who are kept re-
gularly on duty to man the life boats
and take charge of the houses of re-
fuge. They are paid on an average
about 500 year each: In addition
to these men there are crews of volun-
teer surfmen, who live near the various
stations and who are employed only in
case of a disaster. They are not al.
lowed by law to receive more than $40 a
day. How we'll these brave fellows earn
their money is shown in the record OF
their work. During the year there
were more than three hundred disasters
to large vessels along our coast, not in
cludihg one third as many more tc
smaller craft. On board of these three
hundred vessels there were three thous
and seven hundred and ninety six per
sons, and only fifteen of them were
lost The total value of the vessels
and their cargoes foots up more thar
S7,OOOOOO, and of this value more
than S5,5OO,000 were saved. 1t is 8
splendid record. Hundreds, if not
thousands, of these lives and most OF
this property would certainly have
been DESTROYED had it not been for the
efforts of the Signal Service. The few
lives that were lost could not have beer
saved The sudden capsizing of yes
sells, the hurry to get ashore through
rocks and breakers in disregard of the
assistance of the crews. the shock ol
collision and the effects of exposure
were responsible for what human aid
could not possibly prevent.
Yet all these valuable results, til.
saving of thousands oi precious lives
cost the government only little more
than 100000. What more benef
cent result does it receive for thai
amount of money Thus the more
than three thousand people who wert
rescued from death were saved at ;
cost of hardly more than S20 each
Can they begin to estimate the debt o.
gratitude which they owe the govern
ment? When the service was frs
established there used to be cries from
strict constructionsts and chese pairing
eoonomizers of "paternal government.
But these three thousand people q
least doubtless believe now that tn
functions of Federal rule extend t
something more than simply collecting
taxes and keeping the population il
good order.
MEDALS WORN BY HEROES.
When the surfmen execute NOR
than ordinarily heroic achievement the,
are honored with gold or silver medals
The first man to obtain silver media
last year was 9. A. j. Queckberner, O
New York, who at various times save,
more than thirty five lives. The gol
medal of the service was won by Wi
liam H. Daily, OF Santa Cruz, who's
record of saving lives on the Pacifi
coast numbers twenty-eight persons
by Dominick J. Ryder, of Rockawa
Beach, Long Island, who has brough
in eleven persons from the breakers
and by Julius w. Rohn, of Milwaukee,
who has snatched forty-seven, person
from the angry waters of Lake Micf
igau. The final average of the yes
was made to the two Cardran boy
living near the Spectacle Reef Ligf
House, in Lake Huron, who on a cole
bitter night struggled amid the ic
bergs and terrific gale to save th
crew of a capsized skiff There hs
never been a more gallant instance {
daring and self-sacrtice that the col
duct of these youths.
OIL ON THE TROUBLED WATERS,
One of the subjects which has G.
gagged much of the attention of the o
ticers of the Signal Service Is the II
of oil for calming the waters of a roue
sea. 1t has estimated that the e1trem
height of ocean waves is twenty fe,
and that tue force of a wave ia sun
,,,n, ,,,ontha "a. g I nnnnIa m tho oona