Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1897-12-09
New York Advertiser.


other night news of her perilouH plight
was flashed Immediately to the nearby
life saving Stations by telephone. The
life-savers turned out at once aud the
vessels crew was saved.
The telephone has proved to be inval-
uable to the life savers along the coast
Officers in tho life.saving service say
that has made rescues possible to-day
that could not have heen attempted
before. OF course, as in thousands OF
other cases, the most prominent OF mod
ern electrical inventions has knocked
q great deal of romance out of the coast
guards life and duties, just as the
steamship has taken most Of it out of
the life of the "deep water" sailer.
The coast guards candle lantern has
been replaced by electric lights. His
post is along the same beaches and over
the same ever changing sand dunes,
but they are not so long. and they are
Lroken by comfortable wRtuhhou5es.
The veteran sailors have bean replaced
by sturdy haymen, whose business is
that of saving property and life, and
who know every shoal an eddy within
miles of the spot where they are sta
toned.
The old fashioned lifeboat, too, has
given way to the modern unsuitable
craft. Modern guns ehoOt lines over
wrecks long distances from shore.
Modern machinery of every kind has
reduced the heroic work of the crews
to a scientific basis. Though the dan
ger may be as great as it was 80 years
ago the work has been robbed Of many
of its terrors and of the delay that
makes a man who is hanging on TO the
ice clad rigging Of stranded vessel
believe that five minutes lie five hours.
The telephone has removed this de-
lay, and it is the telephone that 10 about
the latest improvement added to the
life saving service. OF course, there
have been isolated telephones in uHe
for years at some points along the coast.
But complete lines on the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts have Just been com
pleted, and now information can be
transmitted from Florida to Maine by
the life savers.
More than 200 instruments are in use
nloug the Atlantic coast. and more are
10 be put in. The total Wire mileage
along the Eastern coast is more than
1000 miles now, and wire connects
every life saving station, half way
house, lighthouse and other buildings
on the coast, including the Islands of
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,
Block Island and Cape Cod. Wires
also have been extended along the
shores Of the Great Lakes. The Pacific
coast has 100 telephones and about GOO
miles Of wire that centre in San Fran
cisco. There is another wire extending
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
from the southern boundary of Texas
-
Thus it will be sean that the littoral
of tho United States is girded with
Telephone wires over which messe &c
could perhaps be repeated around the
country from Seattle, on the Pacific, oil
Puget Sound to Bangor, Me-, in less
than half a day. And the wires over
which the message would travel are
never out Of sight of salt water.
To understand perfectly the great i'm.
provement the telephone has made il
the saving Of life and property, few
words describing the life saving eeryict
are necessary. The life saving Htatiunl
are scattered all along the coasts, ant
are from five to 10 miles apart, on coast
where there 10 little Hea traffic. ant
from two to three miles apart wher
traffic is great, as along tho New Jerse,
and Long Island coasts. There ar
300 such stations on the Atlantic sea
board.
A captain, who is man OF excep
tional personal bravery and great ex
perience, usually lives with his family
If he has one, in a cottage provided b,
the government and adjoining the sta
tion. He receives $50 month. Unde
him are two mates and is men. Thes
brawny fellows do almost daily in win
ter, when storms lash the seas, deed
that have made heroes of many, bu
which they consider only matter OF fac
labor, and for which they receive onl
$40 month. During the summer the
receive nothing. The crews are die
persed, and only the captain is retaine
to care for the boats, station an
machinery.
When the November gales begin tn
men are re.enlisted. They are divide
into watches and all through tho winte
days and nights there is not momen
that keen eyes are not watching the Sc
from Maine TO Florida. When the day
are bright and clear. and the night
permit OF long renge of vision, th
guard has little work to do. But who
snowstorms and gales, with banks {
low-hying clouds and dense fogs prevail
the guard is a very busy man. Tn
2.G00-mile coast line is divided into dis
tricts and guard patrols each lionel
waste. He may patrol only mile, c
it may be 10 miles. il is often that
helpless ship is forced through tn
breakers, shouts and kissing rocket
warning the life guard Of work 10 40.
Until a few years ago the guar
would in such a case burn sma
rocket to assure the distressed sailor
that help was near, and then elowl
work his way through the storm or
mile or 10 miles, to his station and te
OF the wreck. Hours would elapse be
fore boat or line could be gotten
ths stranded vessel. 1t would be un
usual, indeed, II the storm had M
claimed many victims in the meaptim,
Now with the telephone il is diffe
emit. The guard is never more than
few hundred yards from a half wa
house. He runs to this, calls up Ii
main station on the telephone, an
scarcely half an hour elapses before I'll
crew and their boat are on the scene,
William Bolton, superintendent I
the telephone lines, said this lorenzo
that losses had been reduced on,
quarter by the telephone. 1--WE can q,
wrecking vessels" he said, "help ,
all kinds. transmit news that passiu
vessels signal us from sea and do
thousand and one things that we're in
possible few years ago. The teephor
has been great Improvement. -
The copper wires for the telephone al
strung on cedar poles that follow I'll
shore. When inlets are met the wir,
are carried under than in cable
Electricity is obtained from the now,