Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-05-07

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Re This does not mean
Il AkSS> that the beaches will
y u be without guard in
case Of shipwtecks. Keepers will be in charge
OF the posts, and are empowered. in the event
Of trouble, to summon the regular surfmen.
who nearly always reside in the neighborhood
of the stations. being fishermen and boatmen.
Also thoy may hire volunteers, at IS apiece, for
each occasion of service. One reason why
the men are off duty for one-third of every
year Is that they could not be hired by the
government in the summer season, so profita-
BILE to them in other employments, at the rate
OF pay allowed by law 1t is difficult to secure
capable hands at other times for the wages
given.
TO RAISE THE SALARIES.
It is precisely for this reason that Congress,
it is thought will raise the pay OF the life
savers in the government employ. Fifty dol
lars month, it is claimed. is no sort OF wages
Tor hero. So the Senate has passed bill
making the stipend sos, and elevating the
salary OF each station keeper from 900 to 5000
year. similar bill has been favorably
recommended to the House, granting the surf
men S15 a month and the keepers 81 600 year.
Inasmuch AS there are now 239 life saving
stations along 10000 miles OF sea and
lake shore, employing from five to eight
men each. this will signify large in
creases in expenditure over and above the
million dollars annually which the service has
been costing of late. 1t will doubtless be asked
whether the results obtained are likely to be
worth the price. Some light is thrown on that
question by the fact that 49l wrecks occurred
during the last year within the scope OF opera
tons Of the service. There were 3. 49l people
aboard the lost vessels and 3.44l Of them were
rescued. In the last twenty years 5. 943 vessels
have been wrecked. and OF the 49.s74 persons
on board OF them AZ, 274 were saved.
TIKI COAST IN SUMNER AND WINTER.
The life-saving service on the Atlantic coast
does not have to be very actively maintained
i'll summer. because few wrecks occur during
that season. There are few bad storms, the
seas do not run SO high. and there is no ice or
freezing cold 10 contend against. Accordingly.
when disasters happen, rescues effected
with comparative ease. But how different the
situation is In winter! 1t is reckoned that il all
the skeletons of vessels lying upon or embedded
in the sand betvc II Sandy Hook and Barnegat
could be ranged IN line the CHASTITY array would
reach unbroken from one point to the other.
Along this stretch o. beach in lS48 the govern
ment placed few rude nuts, supplied with
boats, which were manned ON occasion by vol
unteers, and from this nucleus the present life
saving service grew.
HOW THE STATIONS ARE LOCATED.
The life-saving stations are not placed at
regular intervals along the coast, but are dis
trlbuted according to the dangers which
threaten different localities Nearly right
angle is formed by the ocean shores of Long
Island and New Jersey. with the national me-
tropolis as its vertex. The shores are bordered
| with outlying sand bars, which have levied a
fearful tribute on passing commerce. being
literally strewn with half-buried and decaying
wrecks. Stations are established along them
at short intervals, averaging five
miles apart, so as to be within
mt, al
AID. With equal frequency they are scattered
OH the eastern borders OF Cape Cod. which,
with its fringe of shifting sands, stretches
forty miles out to sea and then turns abruptly
commerce of New Englands chief port Here
unnumbered craft have found burial ground.
HOUSES OF REFUGE on THE FLORIDA COAST.
Wrecks are Of rare occurrence on the Florida
| coast, but formerly the people who were so I'M
fortunate as to be cast away on that deserted
strand were exposed to the terrors of starvation
and thirst. Now there is Il continuous line of
so-called ''hOuses of refuge" along the shore
twenty-six miles apart, and at every mile there
is sign post pointing the way and telling the
distance to the nearest of these establishments
They are plain dwellings, each supplied with
cots and provisions to last Twenty-Five persons
for ten days and i'll charge of a keeper, who is
provided with only one small boat OF iron.
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN STATIONS.
The life-saving stations are nearly all con-
nected by telephone or telegraph, SO that the
entire coast line Of the United States might be
said to be at all hours of the day or night on
the alert Tor wreck at any point. through
stream OF intelligence communicable along
shore, and the same is true of the region of the
great lakes. In case of disaster three or more
''crews' can at any time combine their forces
for purposes OF rescue. On the occasion of the
great storm of September TO- 1882 TWENTY-FIVE
Str Id NJ
Three crews were concentrated by telephone
and l94 persons were taken of in safety, every
form OF appliance being utilized. Most of
them were brought ashore by means of the
"breeches buoy" others were fetched in the
life car and yet others were conveyed in the
surf boats. mot one life lost was the mes
sage that throbbed over the wires to all parts
of the country.
MEMORABLE OCCASIONS.
On another occasion of thrilling dramatic
interest q crew FROM the station at Sturgeon
bay, Lake Superior, in response to urgent
summons. was transported by special tram to a
point ITO miles distant near Marquette, Mich,
together with Its apparatus. There vessel
lay stranded and the people ON shore had
abandoned their fruitiess efforts at rescue. At
midnight, in u binding snow storm and bitter
cold, these heroes saved twenty-four persons,
all that wero on board. from the wreck n The
memorable storm of February 3, 1880 " .Iich
wrought such devastation ON the New JERSEY
coast, three crews, at the height of the
tempest and in the dead of night when not
even their own appliances could be seen res
cued the people from four vessels without mis-
hap. During the great floods of l8S3-'S4 the
floating station at Louisville, which is a big
scow with q two-story house on II. saved 500
persons from the roofs and upper stories of
buildings and supplied food and necessaries to
10000.
pIsASTROUs WRECKS.
In 1878 two awful disasters aroused Con-
gress to greater energy in providing means for
the saving OF life from wrecks On November
"a Of the former year, at Nag's Head, N. c.,
the steamer Huron was stranded and ninety
eight lives were lost because there was no sta
ton near at hand. Sixty-six days later, on the
same coast, the steamer Metropolis, bound
from Philadelphia to Brazil, went ashore, and
eighty.five people were drowned. every soul
being swallowed up. This also happened for
the reason that the stations we're too far apart
in that dangerous locality. The patrol had Just
gone by when the ship struck. So dense was the
fog that nothing could be seen, but witnesses
afterwnrd testified that they heard frightful
cries mingled with the roaring of the breakers.
Happily such dreadful accidents are well nigh
impossible now, when all perilous parts Of the
shore line are under daily and nightly watch.
Tales used TO be told Of vessels decoyed ON
shore BY wreckers with false lights, but such
horrors have long ceased to be heard of.
Not always do the heroic life.savers escape
penalty for their daring IN behalf Of Others. In