The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19
LIE SAVERS OF THE UNITED STATES Attention of Congress to Be
 Drawn to Them  ARE POORLY RECOMPENSED There is Room for Better Equipment of This Important service-How
 Work of Salvage is
 Performed.

purpose Is not a very large one. The
 entire cost, indeed of maintaining sta
 tions and houses of refuge to which hun
 dreds of Americans owe their lives is
 less than the expense of maintaining the
 fire department of city the size of Boston.
 |, Dwellers in inland places away from the perils of the sea and the Great Lakes have as a rule little understanding of
 the usefulness of this branch of govern
 ment service. Consequently 1t has somc-
 times been difficult to secure even the modest appropriations that are necessary for carrying on the work at all. Many features regarded as essential have been but sparingly provided. Yet, in spite of deficiencies in equipment caused by this frugality, the United States life saving service has an international reputation for efficiency, bearing comparison in every important respect with the famous Coast Guards of Great Britain, who are much more generously maintained, not by the British government at all but by popular, patriotic subscription. The Amer ican life saving department which has been built up under the superintendence of Sumner l. Kimball is, with the sin gle exception of the one in Denmark, the only governmentally supported in- l stitution of the kind among civilized countries.
 There are some 2S0 life saving stations | scattered along the Atlantic, Pacific and | Gulf coasts and on the shores of the Great Lakes. The ocean graveyard that has probably been most thickly occupied | by wrecks in the past two centuries or | more is at the corner of New England | terminating in Cape Cod. The dangerous | nature of this spot, due both to the | shoals extending far into the sea and | to the enormous shipping which passes, | has necesstated 32 life saving stations | in the single small state of Massachu- | setts disposed in the more dangerous To- | calities at intervals of three miles. Everything that goes by on the sea | is under constant surveillance. For Uncle | Sams watchful eye Is constantly on the | tiniest of craft hugging the shore as well | as the big ocean liner skirting the horizon. | The part played by the telephone in such supervision Is significant and some of | the desire for increased appropriation for l the service concerns the installation of 1 communicating lines which will connect | all the stations along a coast so that they can actaas one either in preventing disaster or relieving suffering, Today | many life-saving stations are still ut | terly isolated and can talk with their 1 neighbors only in weather conditions
 that are favorable to signalling with flags | or torches-just the kind of weather con- | ditions that are likely to be wanting when | the need of communication Is most ur- | gent. Here and there a chain of stations | In the same district is linked together by l telephone lines built by the government 1 and equipped with specially designed Bell | apparatus. And a few of the more for tunate keepers, as the commanders of life- | saving crews are called, have secured | connections with the nearest Bell ex-
 
 l portant long distance lines-fa cilitles that again and again have proved of inestl- l mable value in the emergencies of the he- | roic work that each year saves thousands of lives and millions of dollars worth of 1 property.
 l Especially in winter Is means of instant | and sure communication indispensable to | the life-savers All day long on some commanding height above the station | looker-out watches the sea. His vigil | ance must never cease, for even on the | calmest day vessel may run too close in | shore, or in some other way, through l ignorance, carelessness or mishap, be put in serious jeopardy. If anything untoward | appears the man in the lookout cannot | afford to lose time in running to the sta l tion to sound the warning, even though l the distance may be only few. hundred
 
 | tance as the surveyor measures may mean ! half an hours scramble over rough l ground in actual travel afoot.
 | The lookout calls the keeper on tho | telephone and reports briefly but fully what he has seen. Then instantly l there is a flashing of signals to let the vessel in distress know that she is ob- served, and, If necessary, a hurrying l forth of the surf boat and all multi
 farious equipment for rendering assist ance to the distressed. At the same | time word is flashed over the wires to | the nearest stations on either side that | their. crews may stand ready to aid if need be- and over the long distance | lines to the superintendent of the dis l trict.
 If the surf is running so high and strong that 1t casts back the life boat each time it is launched, in spite of | all human strength can do, the life | savers appeal to the closely allied revenue cutter service for assistance. l At some port within a hundred miles or 1 so in one direction or the other & cutter l Is sure No be found with steam up. By l telephone the location of the wreck
 and the difficulties to be met are de- scribed; a surf boat and life saving | crew are loaded on to, the revenue | vessel; and with the least delay possi- | ble the rescuers are brought to the | side of the distressed craft. Running | the life boat ashore through the surf
 is, of course, possible, If risky prop l osition. A
 When the weath CT is thick by day,
 and always through the night watch es, l much more than the lookout is main-
 tained. Then comes the ceaseless pa- | trolling of the beach by hardy surf | men. On the more dangerous stretch es | of coast the stations are not more than | three miles apart and. midway be-
 tween them is a, halfway house. d | little rough shelter containing a tele- | phone At this point all the night through meet the patrols from the ad- | joining stations.
 | With his eye constantly on the sea the pacing surfman watches for the | slightest intimation that vessel is in distress. Most often he can see the 1 lights on passing craft and knows from | their behavior whether all Is well. 4
 rocket or human cry from the dark ness may be his call to action. Some
 times on a foggy or snowy night the first sign that a wreck has taken place is when bit of wreckage drifts ash ore.
 When the call comes. in whatever way. the patrols first duty Is to flash a powerful red-light torch as a token to those in distress that their plight has | been discovered. His next Is to make for the telephone, from which he is | never more than half an hour away. I r,t.~ ,oh %f,,,au rf y,o In