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Throughout the 19th century. the United States became increasingly dependent upon the maritime industry. Land travel was difficult then. There were few railroads, and travel by horse or coach was slow and uncomfortable. As sturdier ships were built, more Americans traveled by sea and more cargo was shipped onboard vessels. With more ships at sea carrying more passengers, the chance of disaster increased. Each year, nearly 90 American vessels were lost, and the North Atlantic coast was littered with the broken hulks of wrecked ships. To reduce the loss of life, the duties of the Revenue Cutters were again increased. In 1832 cutters began making winter cruises along the coast to assist vessels in distress a practice continued today. The effort was so successful that search and rescue was officially added to the duties of the Revenue Marine Service in 1837. For the service to keep up with the growth and changes of Americas maritime industry, it needed to adapt and grow. In 1843, Secretary of the Treasury John Spencer, decided to put an experienced sea captain in charge of the Revenue Marine Bureau. He selected a New York sailor, a veteran of cruises to the Orient and former first lieutenant aboard the cutter Alert, stationed in New York. From his command of the cutter Ewing, Captain Alexander Fraser was promoted to become the services first commandant. Fraser established order and regulation to replace what was merely tradition. Spencer reported to Congress that under Fraser Economy in expenditures and efficiency in service have been greatly promoted. The officers and men feel that the service has been elevated, and a corresponding zeal in the discharge of their duty has been strikingly exhibited. Perhaps more important was Frasers willingness to adopt the latest technology for the cutters. Within a year of his appointment, the service began construction of a cutter powered by steam. The Legare was built by H.R. Dunham & Company of New York City and launched in 1844. The propeller-driven Legare is most famous for beating the side-paddler Great Western in a race off Sandy Hook, N.J. in 1844, but the early steam cutters were largely a disappointment to Fraser. He decided that future cutters would be built only on tested and proven designs. Fraser also formed an early and temporary union between his cutters and the Lighthouse Service. The collectors of customs were directed to supervise lighthouses within their districts just as they did the cutters. The commanding officers of cutters inspected lighthouses and other aids to navigation. The Revenue Marine supervised the first efforts by the federal government to create a system of life-saving stations. In 1848, Congress gave the Bureau $10,000 to purchase life-saving equipment for New Jerseys coast. The cutters continued to aid ships in distress. Captain Josiah Sturgis and the cutter Hamilton, of Boston, earned a distinguished reputation for their humanitarian work and assistance to mariners. One newspaper account said, Having a perfect knowledge of the coast and experience of the dangers incident to shipping by a change of wind or a storm, Captain Sturgis always kept the cutter in a position where her services could be rendered most efficient in assisting vessels in distress. We hazard but little in asserting that he has rendered assistance to more than 100 vessels during the past winter... The Revenue Cutters returned to combat duty during the Civil War. Fifteen cutters patrolled the coast from Maine to New Jersey, guarding against Confederate privateers who disrupted Northern shipping. Rebel ships that successfully broke through the blockade of southern ports harassed ships and ports as far north as Long Island and Maine. Captain Charles Savvy Read was a daredevil Confederate pirate. After seizing several boats along the New Jersey coast in June, 1863, he sailed north. He planned to bombard Portland and plant a Confederate flag on Maine soil. The Revenue Cutter Caleb Cushing was moored in Portland. The captain had recently died and half the crew was ashore for his funeral. The new skipper, Lieutenant James Merryman, was sailing for Portland aboard the steamship, Forest City. Read and his men rowed into Portland harbor on the night of June 24. In the darkness, they boarded the cutter and quickly captured the few men onboard. He sailed the cutter out of Portland, directly in front of Forest City, with Merryman aboard. As soon as the alarm went up, a crowd gathered on the pier, ready to sail after Cushing. Three boats, loaded with armed volunteers went in pursuit, including Forest City. The steamers quickly overtook the cutter on the windless night. Read fired on his pursuers until the rebels ran out of ammunition. The cutter was loaded with wartime ammunition, but when it was seized the first lieutenant threw the key to the stores overboard. Unable to escape or fight, Read blew up the cutter and surrendered. After the war, the service continued to grow and expand. In 1871, the Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell, appointed a civilian to head the Revenue Marine. A native of Maine, Sumner Increase Kimball proved an able and thorough administrator and a man of vision. He lead the service for seven years before he became General Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service, a position he held until 1915. Kimball wrote the first regulations of the Revenue Marine and gave the service a system for discipline. He established an advancement system based on competition rather than political consideration. Kimball also established a two-year training program for officers on board the cutter Dobbin. In 1878, Dobbin was replaced by a new training ship, the cutter Chase, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1910, Chase was transferred to Arundel Cove, Maryland. As the size of the school grew, Arundel Cove grew cramped. A new School of Instruction was established at the former Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut, in 1910, near the home of the present Coast Guard Academy. After Kimball left to build the Life-Saving Service, the Revenue Cutter Service continued to build its own reputation for life-saving. Cutters, like Gallatin on the Massachusetts coast, remained at sea during storms and throughout the winter months to render assistance. During a gale in March, 1879, Gallatin assisted five widely scattered vessels. One of the most famous rescues of the century was performed by the Revenue Cutter Samuel Dexter on January 18, 1884. The passenger steamer City of Columbus ran aground on Marthas Vineyard with 87 passengers and 45 crewmen. Through rugged surf and gale winds, Dexters small boat ventured into the submerged wreck and plucked survivors from the rigging of the ships masts. Between the efforts of the Dexter crew and local Indians using a Massachusetts Humane Society boat, 29 people were rescued. After the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, the cutters Seneca and Miami began patrolling the North Atlantic to warn trans-Atlantic steamers of ice conditions. The Ice Patrol was made an official function of the Revenue Cutter Service in 1914. The versatility of the Revenue Cutter Service was repeatedly praised by politicians and journalists. One service that performed so many missions seemed to exemplify American efficiency. Indeed, there was only one duplication of effort... to resolve. In 1912, the Captain Commandant of the Revenue Cutter Service, Captain E.P. Bertholf and the elderly Kimball, still General Superintendent of the Life-Saving Service, wrote a bill to join the two agencies. In 1915, the bill passed and the Coast Guard was born. You have to go out If first settlers complained the new colonial lands were inhospitable, they got little sympathy from early American sailors. The North Atlantic waters are cold and unforgiving. The rocky coast is protected by submerged ledges and treacherous shoals. The violent winter gales can blow for weeks at a time. The first ships in America were relatively small, usually about 100 feet in length. Driven by sails, they were at the mercy of the wind. Early navigation was not very precise so sailing on the open ocean was dangerous and time-consuming. Most ships traveled along the coastline. Before railroads and automobiles, most cargo in this country was moved by ship. In 1789, 70,000 tons traveled by sea, by 1830 that increased to 500,000 tons and before the Civil War the volume grew to 2.6 million tons. This method of trade was called coasting. Coasting meant navigating the dangerous rocks and shoals. Ships were blown ashore by sudden storms or grounded in uncharted waters. As more passenger ships began the coastal routes, the chance for loss of life was great. Even if victims of shipwrecks reached the shore, they could expect little help. In the winter months, survivors might die of exposure on the isolated beaches. The ill-fated schooner Nottingham Galley wrecked on Boon Island, Maine, during a winter storm in 1710. The crew survived the wreck, but there was no food on the island. They ate mussels and seaweed scraped from the rocks until they lost their fingers to frostbite. Finally, they resorted to cannibalism. As early as 1786, Americans acted to help the shipwrecked sailor. The Massachusetts Humane Society built a shelter on Nantasket Beach in Boston Harbor to protect survivors from the weather. Twenty years later they built a boathouse at Cohasset, Massachusetts. Local volunteers used the boat and equipment but there was no assigned crew or formal training. Other boathouses followed, but they were located primarily around busy ports. The long stretches of barren coastline remained without haven or assistance for the shipwrecked. The effort gained strength from other charitable agencies and business concerns, including the New York Life-Saving Benevolent Association and the Philadelphia Board of Underwriters . The federal government also attempted to reduce the loss of life by constructing lighthouses, improving coastal charts and having the Revenue Cutters patrol during the winter. The coast of New Jersey was particularly dangerous. The passenger ship Mexico ran aground on sandbars there in 1837, claiming all 112 lives. At the time, New York City was the busiest port in the hemisphere. The dangerous approach to New York Harbor was a constant threat to the immigrants and cargo bound for the city. In the decade prior to 1848, 338 ships wrecked along the New Jersey and Long Island coasts. A Congressman from New Jersey, Dr. William Newell, sponsored a bill to spend $10,000 for a series of huts along his states coast to shelter the survivors of wrecks. The Revenue Marine constructed the eight stations, the first at Spermacetti Cove, near Sandy Hook, N.J., and provided some equipment to be used by volunteers. Revenue Marine Captain Douglas Ottinger surveyed what was available at the time and purchased surfboats, mortars and, a recent invention, life-cars. The life-cars were enclosed, watertight metal boats that could be hauled back and forth between the shore and a wrecked ship by a guideline. The life-cars were particularly effective along the Atlantic coast where storms and heavy surf could prevent rescuers from launching boats. Like the Cohasset station, the stations did not have full-time personnel but depended upon volunteers from the local towns to use the equipment according to instructions Ottinger had printed. Six months after the shelters were complete, volunteers performed the first rescue of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. The British bark Ayrshire ran aground several hundred yards offshore from Squan Beach, N.J. Volunteers used a mortar to shoot a hawser to the ship. A pulley system shuttled the lifeboat to the wreck and returned loaded with passengers. Of 202 persons aboard, 201 were rescued. One man died when he ignored the rescuers and attempted to ride ashore clinging to the outside of the life-car. Within 10 years, 56 stations lined the shores of New Jersey and Long Island. Investment in life-saving was sporadic. There was no money for training or to maintain the equipment until the New Era disaster in 1854. The 1,800-ton ship ran aground 500 yards off the coast of Asbury Park, N.J., and its master and crew quickly abandoned ship, leaving more than 500 German immigrants aboard. Nightfall delayed rescue efforts until the next day, and when the line-cannons were finally used, the lines snapped due to corrosion and decay. Some passengers were able to wade ashore, but more than 350 people perished. As a result, paid keepers were hired in 1856 to direct the volunteers. More stations were built in New England under the direction of the Humane Society, and by 1874 stations stretched up the coast to Maine. However, there were no regulations and little administration. Sumner Kimball, then Chief of the Revenue Marine Division, organized the Life-Saving Service into one of the most efficient agencies of the federal government. In 1878, he became General Superintendent of the Service, the only person to hold that job. The service used primarily two methods to rescue people from distressed ships. Surfboats or lifeboats were used to reach those who were farther from shore. Ships that were aground close by the beach could be assisted with the breeches buoy, or a life-car. When ships were within a few hundred yards of the beach, the life-savers fired a projectile with a line attached over the ship. These were fired from small cannons, the most famous of these was the Lyle gun. Once the line was fastened to the ship, a pulley system was used to transfer the survivors in either the breeches buoy or the life-car, depending upon the surf conditions. The crews at the stations were called surfmen. Typically, they were experienced sailors or fishermen who had proven their abilities against the sea. They drilled almost daily, and at night walked long beach patrols, keeping constant watch for distressed ships. The work was seasonal, depending upon shipping and weather but usually lasted from November to April. By the turn of the century, many stations were manned all year. Newspapers sang the praise of these soldiers of the surf and storm warriors. Even the official reports written by Kimball read like adventure novels . The Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service are chronicles of human courage, and terrible tragedy. Those tales were no more spectacular than the accounts by eyewitnesses. W.G. Nash, of Logansport, Indiana, recounted a rescue he watched on the coast of Maine in October 1880: The English brig Kate Upham was driven into Western Bay, between Pond Point and the Crumples, during a fearful storm, and struck on a ledge near Fishermans Island. She had lost her rudder, her boats, and was otherwise injured. The brave crew of the life-saving station, with more courage than it required to face a battery [of guns), launched their surf-boat, and went to the rescue. Standing on Beals Island, looking through my glass, I had a good view of the surroundings. It seemed impossible for a boat to live in such a sea. Tempest tossed was no longer an imaginary picture. On every hand the sea was breaking, and the life-boat, with her noble crew, seemed but the sport of the angry waves; one moment hidden in the trough of the sea, the next borne rapidly on a vast comber toward the ill-fated brig. While I could but admire the spirit that prompted the daring men to risk their lives in the noble service, it seemed a suicidal attempt; for the chances were looking greatly against them. By almost superhuman efforts they reached the brig and saved the crew-eleven men. At times the odds set too heavily against the lifesavers and many died in attempting rescues. One of the most tragic incidents was the loss of the keeper, Capt. David Atkins and two crewmen, Elisha Taylor and Stephen Mayo of the Peaked Hill Bar station on Cape Cod. In the early hours of Nov. 30, 1880, the station boat was launched to assist the grounded sloop C.E. Trumbull. The crew reached the sloop and removed four crewmen, but the pilot and the skipper insisted on retrieving their baggage. The surfboat brought the first group ashore and returned for the others. While waiting in the rough surf for the two men, the surfboat was snagged by the sloops boom and capsized. F our of the surfmen swam to shore, but Atkins and the others drowned in the icy waters. Probably the most famous of the life-savers was Joshua James. He first joined the crew of a Massachusetts Humane Society boat at 15 and earned his first bronze medal for heroism at 23. During his 75 years, he saved more than 600 lives. He directed the rescue of five boats off Nantasket Beach during the famous Blizzard of 1888. His crew worked without food or rest for 24 hours to rescue 29 people trapped on boats grounded by the storm. For these rescues, James received gold medals from the Humane Society and the federal government. James finally joined the Life-Saving Service in 1889, at age 62 -- 17 years beyond the services age limit. But he had no difficulty passing the physical examination required of the younger men, and he passed again at age 74. Because of his outstanding service to the Humane Society, James was appointed first keeper of Point Allerton Life-Saving Station, Hull, Massachusetts. His crews earned many awards for their daring rescues. The rigors of rowing a surfboat through pounding surf and the practice needed to quickly assemble the breeches buoy rigging demanded regular training. James drilled his crews even in poor weather, as he did March 19, 1902. Two days earlier most of the crew of the Monomoy Point LifeSaving Station died while attempting to rescue the crew of a stranded barge. James clearly understood the dangers of his trade and the need for training. James steered the boat through the surf for more than an hour. He ordered the boat ashore and leapt onto the beach. Glancing at the sea, he told his men: The tide is ebbing. Then Joshua James fell dead on the beach. James last words were prophetic. With the new century, the days of the sailing ships were ending. Equipped with engines and better navigation, fewer ships ran aground. Soon the motor lifeboat replaced the open skiff as the Coast Guard ushered in a new era of life-saving. In a biography of Joshua James, Sumner Kimball described the men of the Life-Saving Service: They are hardly known to their countrymen living inland; but to the inhabitants of the coast, especially that portion interested in our sea and lake commerce, and to those who follow the sea, they are well known indeed! To the latter, when the tropical hurricane or the chilling blast of the Arctic winter storm is driving their helpless craft into danger and possible destruction, or when the impenetrable fog envelopes them for days at a time, rendering chart and reckoning worthless, the assurance that a practically continuous line of keen-eyed and sleepless sentinels march and countermarch along the surf-beaten beaches or stand guard with warning signals in hand upon the jutting cliffs and headlands reaching far out into the sea for unwary victims, lends a comfortable sense of security. That this confidence is not misplaced is attested by the statistics, which show that of more than a hundred thousand lives imperiled upon vessels wrecked or in distress within the scope of the operations of the station crews ... less than one percent has been lost, and that a considerable portion of even this small percentage is made up of those whom no human agency could save... |
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