The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-24
THE LIFE SAVING SERVICE IN AMERICA Stories of HeroiSm Against Sea
 and Storm THOROUGH ORGANIZATION Merit System Has Done Much to EIe- vate the Calling but no Pension
 is Provided When Men
 Are Worn Out.
THOROUGH ORGANIZATION
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

"They that go down to the sea in
 ships today have the same winds and
 rocks to face as did the Roman leaders on
 their gilded triremes, or Norae adven-
 turers in their hide-covered boats, but
 they have more people and more appH-
 ances to help them in braving those dan
 gers. There are lighthouses set along our
 coast lines on the principal headlands or
 on dangerous shoals to warn the mariner
 and direct his course by lights that burn
 steadily or flash at regular intervals. l There are floating buoys painted in divers
 fashions to mark treacherous channels by
 day, and whistling or bell buoys to sig
 nal by day and night. while fog horns
 and sirens that sometimes be heard
 twenty miles shriek consistently every
 minute during thick weather. These are
 the warning influences But better thon
 these is the great life saving service com
 posed of vigilant, daring men who patrol
 almost the entire coast of tho United
 States day and night. year in and out to
 aid vessels in distress.
 In fair weather and in foul these men
 with lion hearts and muscles of steel pa
 trol the rocky lodges or shifting sand
 dunes of the countrys coast line with I eyes ever alert for signals of distress. | There are occasional needs of their ser
 vices on fair days, but 1t is when the fall
 and winter storms harass the coast and
 the sea turns into a great savage creature
 eager for prey that the real work begins.
 The patrol in some icy gale may be sud-
 denly aware of a helpless schooner be-
 ing driven out of her course in the tooth 1 of 8 slxty-mile wind, straight on the
 rocks where she will surely be beaten to pieces, He quickly fires a Coston sig
 nal to warn her off the rocks or to prom
 ise her aid, quickly notifies his sta l ton, and then the work of heroes be- l gins. Clad in oilskins that are little proof
 against January gale, the keeper of | the station and his men run the life boat ] down to the beach, take out the Lyle gun
 or mortar ready to fire a line across the
 helpless vessel and bring off her passcn-
 gers and crew either in a brooches buoy
 or life car Should the line fail, the res
 cut must be made by the life boat driven | by sturdy arms through heavy seas. The tales of heroism that may be told | of such rescues are among the finest in
 the world, Each year there is printed a
 modest little black book, the report of | the United States life saving service
 which is a branch of the treasury depart.
 ment. It is a busness-like volume in which is tersely set forth the work of the 1 various districts and their stations. Yet in the two dozen volumes that hold the reports of the service there are more
 deeds of heroism related than in any
 other like number of books in existence. | The men who enlist do so with the knowl-
 edge that it is not to go against man or
 the war implements that man has made
 as does the recruit for the army, but to l contend with the primitive elements of nature that for unnumbered centuries | have defeated man and have made sport i of his inventions. It is for war against
 the sea, the wind and the fog, for cru
 sade against chance and for the rescue of
 total strangers, mayhap of an alien race. | It was great tragedy that precipitated l the governments organization of the life
 saving service. Massachusetts had al- l ready led the rest of the world-except
 China-in this work, beginning in the l year 17S6 when in the famous Bunch of l Grapes" tavern the blind physician
 Moves. called a meeting and organized
 the Humane Society of the Common
 wealth of Massachusetts" They built l huts along the coast that year for the l shelter of shipwrecked folk who might l come ashore, and in 1907 built life boats 1 that were first in service at Cohasset In l 1887 the bark Mexico" loaded with im-
 migrants, went ashore on Long Island in
 a winter gale and though fishing boat
 brought off eight the others could not | be reached, and 1l5 persons froze to death | on deck tn full sight of the fires that help ! less would-be rescuers had lighted on l shore The recital of this great tragedy | by a New Jersey representative in 1S4S
 secured an appropriation for life boats | on the Jersey coast, and awakened pub | lie interest that afterward crystallized in
 the life saving service.
 The United States has been divided into 1 thirteen districts for convenience. The | first five, with 130 stations, are along the | New England states and as far south as i Maryland. The sixth, seventh and eight,
 with sixty-two stations, are scattered
 along the southeastern coast. The ninth | district, with eight stations, is on the
 gulf coast. The tenth includes the eleven | stations on Lakes Erie and Ontario. and l the one river station at Louisville. Dis | triots eleven and twelve have forty-nine | stations on the other three great lakes, l and the thirteenth lies along the Pacific l coast with seventeen stations. There are | PTS stations in all. Last year the men of | these stations reported S4S disasters, Tn
 which forty-nine of the vessels were total
 wrecks They saved 532O persons, and l through no fault of their own witnessed
 the loss of twenty-nine. They saved prop
 erty to the value of S15, coo. GOO and saw only | S2, ,0OO OOO destroyed. In the whole period ! of its existence the live saving service | has rescued 117,O0o persons, has saved ! nearly S200 000,00O worth of property and | reported 16,500 disasters.
 !
 The greatest fortitude has been exhib l tied by these life savers There is the
 story of the rescue of the crew of 1 British schooner by the men of Coskata 1 Station. Nantucket Island. It was twen | tV-six hours from the time they began 1 the work until they brought in the crew 1 of the wrecked vessel, and they had | worked the entire time without rest and | in a driving storm with the thermometer l 20 degrees below zero Medals were award | ed these men. but they came too late | for one who contracted consumption and | died soon after, the bit of silver being | given the mother of the hero. There | is the story of Jerome G. Kiah of Point aux Barques Station, Michigan, who was | put out in a life-boat to try and reach | wreck, and of the volunteer crew of the | Northwest university, whose Thanks giving game one November was fight | with the elements of ice and wind on | Lake Michigan. They dragged their boats | twelve miles and made three trips to bring off the crew from sinking | steamer.