During the daylight on clear days the watch is kept from a lookout on the station, or by observation from points where the entire beach and sea limits of the station’s district can be clearly seen. Foggy days, and during thick weather, and every night, fair or foul, the watch is by the patrol of every foot of the water front of each district. The stations are located about five miles apart, and the district patrol beats of each are thus about two and one-half miles on either side of the station. The boundaries of each district are marked by a little hut in some protected spot on the beach called “The half-way house,” except at the Wood End Station. The night patrol is divided into four watches, one from sunset to 8 o’clock (the dog watch), one from 8 to 12, one from 12 to 4, and one from 4 to sunrise. Two surfmen are designated for each watch.
When the time for their patrol arrives, the surfmen set out from the station, in opposite directions, keeping well down on the beach as near the surf as possible until they reach the half-way house. Here they get warmed, and the surfmen from the adjoining station are met and checks exchanged. If a patrolman fails to meet the patrolman from the adjoining station at the half-way house, he, after waiting for a reasonable time, continues his journey until he either meets the patrolman or reaches the other station and ascertains the cause of failure. He thus patrols the neglected shore and is at hand to assist in case of disaster detaining the other patrolman. At the stations where the patrolmen carry watchmen’s time-clocks the key is secured to a post at the end of the beat, and the patrolman is required to reach it, wind the clock, and must bring back the dial in his clock properly recorded.
HALF-WAY HOUSE, WHERE SURFMEN FROM ADJOINING STATIONS MEET AND EXCHANGE CHECKS.
These houses are connected with the stations by telephone, and often from here the keepers are notified of disaster, and the crew summoned to a wreck.
The means employed at the life-saving stations for rescuing persons from wrecked vessels is everywhere essentially the same, either a life-boat is sent out through the surf or the breeches-buoy, or life-car used. The rescues by boat are the most thrilling and hazardous. The method of establishing communication with stranded vessels is over a century old, successful experiments with this method having been made as early as 1791 by Lieutenant Bell of the Royal Artillery. He demonstrated the practicability of the method by means of a mortar, which carried a heavy shot four hundred yards from a vessel to the shore. Lieutenant Bell also observed that a line might be carried from the shore over a stranded vessel by the means of his mortar, but the credit for the actual execution of this method of establishing communication is given to Capt. G. W. Manby, according to a report of a committee of the House of Commons, dated March 10, 1810. A London coach-maker first conceived the idea of a life-boat. The present type is the product of a century’s devoted study and experiment.
Practice drills in the use of the breeches-buoy and surf-boats are carried on constantly at each station, until so proficient are the crews that practice rescues are often made in less than three minutes. The practice is carried on under conditions as near active work in a disaster as are possible, and a description of a drill will give the best idea of actual work at a wreck.
For the practice with the beach apparatus, the breeches-buoy, each station has a drill ground prepared by erecting a spar, called a wreck pole, to represent the mast of a stranded vessel seventy-five yards distant. This is over the water, if possible, from the place where the men operate, which represents the shore.
Each man knows in detail every act he is to perform in the exercise from constant practice, and as prescribed in the Service Manual. At the word of command they drag the apparatus to the drill ground, where they effect a mimic rescue by rigging the gear and taking a man ashore from the wreck pole in the breeches-buoy. If one month after the opening of the active season a crew cannot accomplish the rescue within five minutes, it is considered that they have been remiss in drilling.
No such celerity, however, is expected of the life savers in effecting rescues from shipwrecks, when storm, surf, currents, and motion of the stranded crafts conspire to obstruct. The hastening of the work of mimic rescue, however, gives the life-savers the utmost familiarity with the apparatus and prepares them for working speedily and successfully in utter darkness and under the most trying weather conditions.
The boat practice consists in launching and landing through the surf, capsizing and righting the boat, and practice in handling the oars. Drill signaling is interrogating each surfman as to the meaning of the various flags, the use of the code book, and actual conversation carried on by means of sets of miniature signals provided for each station.
The beach apparatus, the breeches-buoy, is used to effect the rescue of shipwrecked seafarers when vessels have stranded near the shore and the conditions make it inexpedient to use the surf-boats. At such times the apparatus is hauled to the scene in the beach cart; horses, kept at all the stations for the purpose, assisting the life savers in the work.
Frequently the storms which sweep the beaches are so violent that the horses refuse to pull the cart, and the life savers are then obliged to cover the head of the animals before they can be induced to face the fury of the elements. The life savers when on such journeys are usually driven to the back of the beaches by the tides, and the task of dragging the apparatus over the sand dunes is extremely difficult and hazardous.
The “cut throughs” in the beaches, places where during storms the seas rush through to the lowlands, further contribute to the dangers that confront the life savers as they rush along with the apparatus.
These “cut throughs” are also the dreaded menace of the surfmen on patrol, during stormy weather and high tides, the seas, as they sweep through them, often entrapping the life savers, throwing them down, burying them in the rushing waters, and jeopardizing their lives.
As soon as the life savers reach the scene of disaster, the Lyle gun is quickly taken from the cart, loaded, sighted, and fired, the captain, who sights and fires the gun, taking good care that he has sent the shot flying through the storm well to the windward of the wrecked vessel, so that if the shot should fail to go across the vessel, yet beyond it, the line will be carried to the wreck by the force of the gale.
The work of burying the sand anchor, getting the crotch, whip line, hawser, and breeches-buoy ready is speedily accomplished. Torches are kept burning by the life savers to tell those on the wrecked vessel that assistance is at hand and the life savers are at work, and even if the imperiled crew do not hear the report of the gun, which has fired a shot to the vessel, they at once begin a search for the shot-line which is invariably found somewhere in the rigging.
The captain, with the shore end of the shot-line in his hand, waits for a signal from the ship that the line has passed over the vessel, and that the crew have found it and are ready to proceed with the work of rescue. A tail-block with a whip, an endless line rove through it, is made fast to the shot-line, and the wrecked seafarers haul it aboard their vessel as speedily as possible. Attached to the tail-block is a tally board with the following directions in English and French printed on it:—
“Make the tail of the block fast to lower mast well up. If the masts are gone, then to the best place you can find. Cast off shot-line, see that rope in the block runs free, and show signal to shore.”
The foregoing instructions having been complied with, the result will be as shown in Figure 1.
As soon as the life savers get a signal from the vessel that the tail-block has been made fast, they “tie” bend on a three-inch hawser to the whip, the endless line, and by it haul the hawser off to the vessel. Occasionally circumstances permit wrecked crews to assist in this part of the work, but usually the life savers are compelled to do it alone. To the end of the hawser, which has been bent on to the whip, the endless line, is also attached a tally board with the following directions in English and French:—
“Make the hawser fast about two feet above the tail-block; see all clear, and that the rope in the block runs free; show signal to the shore.”
These instructions being obeyed, the result will be shown as in Figure 2.
Particular care must be taken that there are no turns of the whip, the endless line, around the hawser; to prevent this the end of the hawser is taken up between the parts of the whip, the endless line, before making it fast. When the hawser is made fast to the wrecked vessel, the whip, the endless line, is cast off from the hawser, and the life savers, having been signaled to this effect, make the shore end of the hawser fast to the strap of the sand anchor. The crotch is then placed under the hawser and raised, and the latter drawn as taut as possible, thus making a slender bridge of rope between the vessel and shore. The traveler block, from which is suspended the breeches-buoy, is then put on the hawser, the whip, the endless line, made fast to breeches-buoy, and thus hauled to and from the vessel, as shown in Figure 3, which represent the apparatus rigged with the breeches-buoy hauled out to the vessel.
The life savers always carry a good supply of shot and lines with them, and if the first shot fails to carry the line to the vessel, which seldom occurs, owing to the skill of those who have charge of this important branch of the work, a second one is promptly fired. The work of hauling the breeches-buoy to and from a wrecked vessel is an arduous task. The whip, the endless line, after passing through the seas, becomes coated with ice and sand, which cuts the mittens and lacerates the hands of the surfmen in a fearful manner at times.
The captain and one of the life savers rush into the surf and take the rescued persons out of the breeches-buoy as soon as it reaches the beach, while the other members of the crew stand ready to again send the breeches-buoy off to the wreck as soon as one rescue has been accomplished. In this way one after another of shipwrecked crews are brought ashore.
Women and children and helpless persons are landed first from wrecked vessels. Children when brought ashore in this way are held in the arms of some elder person or securely lashed to the breeches-buoy. The instructions to mariners are to remain by the wreck until assistance arrives, unless the vessel shows signs of immediately breaking up. If not discovered immediately by the patrol, the crews of wrecked vessels are instructed to burn rockets, flare up, or other lights, and if the weather is foggy to fire guns.
Under no circumstances should the crew of wrecked vessels attempt to land through the surf in their own boats, until the last hope of assistance from shore has vanished. Often when comparatively smooth at sea, a dangerous surf is running alongshore, which is not perceptible three or four hundred yards offshore, and the surf when viewed from a vessel never appears so dangerous as it is. Many lives have been unnecessarily lost by crews of stranded vessels being thus deceived and attempting to land in the ship’s boats.
After a crew has been rescued the work of recovering the apparatus is quickly accomplished, and every part of it except the shot is invariably recovered, and often even the shot is also saved. This is done by a hawser cutter, which is pulled off to the wreck on the hawser the same as the breeches-buoy, cutting the hawser off close to where it is attached to the wrecked vessel. The life savers then haul the apparatus through the sea to the shore.
The first gun used for throwing a line to stranded ships was of cast iron, and weighed two hundred and eighty-eight pounds, and threw a shot weighing twenty-four pounds, with an extreme range of four hundred and twenty-one yards. This soon gave place to an improved gun, which was of cast iron, with steel lining, mounted on a wooden carriage. This gun weighed two hundred and sixty-six pounds, and carried a twenty-four pound shot four hundred and seventy-three yards. The Lyle gun, which is now used by the life savers of Cape Cod, is a bronze smooth bore gun, weighing but one hundred and eighty-five pounds, and fires a cylindrical line, carrying shot, weighing about eighteen pounds, some six hundred and ninety-five yards. This projectile has a shank protruding from the muzzle of the gun to an eye in which the line is tied—a device which prevents, to a degree, the line from being burned off by the ignited gases in firing. As further protection against this happening, the life savers wet that part of the line liable to become burned. When the gun is fired the weight and inertia of the line cause the projectile to reverse. The shot-line is made of unbleached linen thread very closely and smoothly braided, is waterproof, and has great elasticity, which tends to insure it against breaking. The lines in use vary in thickness according to circumstances. They are of three sizes, designated as number 4, 7, and 9, being respectively 4/32, 7/32, or 9/32 of an inch in diameter. Any charge of powder can be used up to the maximum six ounces.
The Lyle gunshot line is carried in a faking box, so called, a wooden box with handles for convenience for carrying. The line is coiled on wooden pins, layer above layer. When brought into use the pins are withdrawn, and the line lies disposed in layers ready to pay out freely and fly to the wreck without entanglement. While six hundred and ninety-five yards is the greatest range to be obtained by a Lyle gun, about two hundred yards is considered the working limit. The line sags so, at more than two hundred yards, and the currents are usually so swift, that the crew of a stranded vessel could not haul the whip aboard their craft at a much greater distance, and in addition any one being pulled ashore in the breeches-buoy further than that would most likely perish from the cold and buffeting of the seas before they could be rescued.
The crotch is made of two pieces of wood, three by two inches thick, and ten feet long, securely bolted together, and crossed near the top so as to form a sort of X. The sand anchor is two pieces of hard wood, six feet long, eight inches wide and two inches thick, crossed at their centers, bolted together, and furnished at the center with a stout iron ring. It is laid obliquely in a trench behind the crotch. An iron hook, from which runs a strap of rope, having at its other end an iron ring called bull’s-eye, is fastened into the ring of the sand anchor. This strap connects with a double pulley-block at the end of the hawser behind the crotch, by which the hawser is drawn and kept taut. The trench is solidly filled in, and the imbedded sand anchor, held by the lateral strain against the side of the trench, sustains the slender bridge of rope constituted by the hawser between the stranded vessel and the shore.
The large majority of vessels now stranded on the shores of the Cape being coasters, with crews from six to ten men, the breeches-buoy is invariably used in preference to the life-car. It weighs but twenty-one pounds. It consists of a common life-preserver of cork, seven and one-half feet in circumference, to which short canvas breeches are attached. Four rope lanyards, fastened to the circle of this cork, meet above an iron ring, which is attached to a block, called a traveler. The hawser passes through this block, and the suspended breeches-buoy is drawn between ship and shore by a whip, an endless line. At each trip it receives but one person, who gets into it with their legs down through the canvas breeches legs, holding to the lanyards, sustained in a sitting position by the canvas saddle, or seat of the breeches, with his legs dangling below. When there is imminent danger of the vessel breaking up and great haste is required, two persons get into the breeches-buoy at once, and to further expedite the work of rescue, the hawser is dispensed with, part of the hauling line being used for the breeches-buoy to travel on to and from the wreck.
There are many kinds of life-boats, and various devices for effecting communication by line with stranded vessels. The type of boats in use on Cape Cod are the Monomoy and Race Point models. All these boats are distinctly known as surf-boats. They are constructed of cedar with white oak frames, and are from twenty-two to twenty-four feet in length. The surf-boats have air chambers at the ends, and are fitted with cork fenders along the outer side to protect them against collisions with hulls or wreckage, and to further aid in keeping them afloat, and righting lines by which they can be righted if capsized in the surf. They weigh from seven hundred to one thousand pounds. In the hands of the skilled surfmen of Cape Cod they are capable of marvelous action, and few sights are more impressive than the surf-boat plowing its way through the breakers, at times riding on top of the surge, at others held in suspension before the roaring tumultuous wall of water, or darting forth as the comber breaks and crumbles, obedient to the oars of the impassive life savers. All these boats are so light that they can be readily transported along the sandy shores of the Cape under normal weather conditions, and launched in very shallow water.
HEAVING STICK.
A small line is attached to this, and the life savers find it a very valuable means of getting a line to a vessel or piece of wreckage. It can be used advantageously at about fifty yards.
The type of boat that is best suited for one locality, however, may be ill adapted for another, and a boat that would be serviceable at one time might be worse than useless at another. On the coast of Cape Cod the boat service at wrecks is generally not very far off from shore, and the chief and greatest danger lurks in the lines of surf which must be crossed, and in the breakers on the outlying shoals.
The self-righting and bailing boat is more unwieldy, not so quickly responsive to the tactics of the steersman, and not so well adapted to the general work on Cape Cod. Where long excursions are apt to be undertaken, and the service is especially hazardous, the men feel safer in a self-righting and bailing boat, one of which has been introduced at the new Monomoy Point Station.
When the surf-boat is used to effect rescue it is taken along the beach to a point as near the wreck as possible, unloaded from the cart, and at a favorable time run into the raging waters. The keeper is the last man to get aboard the surf-boat, climbing in over the stern as she is run into the sea. The life savers who remain ashore to assist in getting the boat off run waist deep into the sea, helping to guide the boat, and to prevent her, if possible, from being capsized in the surf. The keeper steers with a long oar, and with the aid of his trained surfmen, intent upon his every look and command, guides the buoyant craft through the surf with masterly skill. He is usually able to avoid a direct encounter with the heaviest breakers, but if he is obliged to let them strike him, he meets them directly “head on.”
Although sometimes hurled back upon the beach and broken in desperate and unavailing attempts at a launch against a resistless sea, this boat, which might easily be upset, has rarely been capsized in going through the surf. While there is always great peril in launching these boats in times of shipwreck, the greatest danger lies in landing through the surf. The gigantic walls of water speeding to the shore cannot then be met head on as when the boat is passing out, and when one of these tumultuous combers break over the stern of the boat, which, fortunately, has rarely occurred on Cape Cod, the lives of those aboard the craft are placed in great peril.
In landing the life savers jump into the surf as the boat is about to touch the beach, and with the assistance of those of the crew who remained ashore to select a good landing place, the craft is quickly run up on the beach far out of the reach of the dangerous undertow.
This work is also attended with great danger, the surfmen sometimes receiving injuries by being struck by the boat, which incapacitates them from further duty in the service. The keepers and crews place their faith in the surf-boats which they use, and they are ever ready to face any sea in which a boat will live.
When a distressed vessel is reached, the orders of the keeper, the captain of the crew of life savers, who always steers and commands, must be implicitly obeyed.
There must be no headlong rushing or crowding, and the captain of the ship must remain on board to preserve order until every other person has left. Women, children, and helpless persons are taken into the boat first. Goods or baggage will not be taken into the boat under any circumstances until all persons are landed. If any be passed in against the keeper’s remonstrance he throws it overboard.
It often happens, however, that some of the crew, and even captains of wrecked vessels, attempt to get their baggage into the surf-boats. At a wreck which Captain Cole and his crew went to in the night a few years ago the captain of the craft insisted that the life savers should wait until he could get his baggage ready to take ashore. Captain Cole, in a voice that could be heard above the roar and din of the storm, commanded the bow oarsmen, who was holding the painter that kept the surf-boat alongside the wreck, to cut the painter. The captain of the stranded craft no sooner heard this command than he jumped into the boat, leaving his effects behind, and was safely taken ashore.
Persons rescued from shipwreck are taken to the nearest life-saving station, the weak, sick, and the disabled are treated with remedies from the medicine chest, supplied under the direction of the Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital Service. Those who have escaped from shipwreck and are wet, hungry, and cold are provided with dry clothing, warmed, fed, lodged, and cared for until they are able to leave.
RESTORING THE APPARENTLY DROWNED TO LIFE.
The method adopted for restoring the apparently drowned is formulated into rules which each member of the crew commits to memory. In drill he is required to repeat these and afterwards illustrate them by manipulations upon one of his comrades. The medicine chest is also opened, and he is examined as to the use of its contents.
The dry clothing is taken from the supply constantly kept on hand at the different stations by the Women’s National Relief Association, an organization established to afford relief to sufferers from disasters of every kind. The libraries at the stations are from the donations of the Seamen’s Friend Society and sundry benevolent persons. The food is prepared by the keepers or the station mess, who are reimbursed by the recipients if they have the means, or by the government.
The life-saving service is attached to the treasury department. The sea and lake coasts of the United States have an extent of more than ten thousand miles, and are divided into thirteen life-saving districts, each under the immediate supervision of a district superintendent. The chief officer of the service is the general superintendent, who has general charge of it and of all administrative matters connected with it. An inspector from the Revenue Marine Service visits each station monthly during the “active season,” which is ten months, from August 1 to June 1, and examines and practices the crews in their duties. On his first visit, after the opening of the stations each year, if any are found not up to the standard, they are promptly dropped from the service. The district superintendents are promoted from the corps of keepers, and must be residents of the respective districts for which they are chosen, and are rigidly examined as to their professional familiarity with the line of coast embraced within the district and the use of life-boats and all other life-saving apparatus.
The keeper of each station has direct control of all its affairs, and as his position is one of the most important of the service, the selection is made with the greatest care.
The indispensable qualifications are that he shall be a man of good character and habits, not less than twenty-one and not over forty-five years of age, with sufficient education to be able to transact the business connected with the station, be able bodied, physically sound, and a master of boatcraft and surfing.
No difficulty is found in filling vacancies that occur among the keepers, as they must be promoted from the ranks of the surfmen, and the merits of all the surfmen, having been ascertained by inspection, drill, and active service, are on record. The keepers are required to reside at their stations all the year round, and are entrusted with the care, custody, and government of the station and property. They are captains of their crews, exercise absolute control in matters of discipline, lead the men, and share their perils on all occasions of rescue, always taking the steering oar when the boats are used, and directing all operations with the other apparatus.
The keeper and six men constitute the regular crew at each of the stations on Cape Cod, except at the Monomoy Station, where the regular crew is seven men. An additional man called “the winter man” is added to all stations on December 1 of each year, so that during the most rigorous part of the season one man, at least, may be left ashore to assist in launching and beaching of the surf-boat, and to have charge of the station and perform the extra work that winter weather necessitates.
The life-saving crews are selected from able-bodied and experienced surfmen after the rigid examination required by the department.
SURFMAN GAGE, ORLEANS STATION,
Dressed for cold night, with time clock, beach lantern, and coston signal.
The surfmen, in addition to being obliged to pass a rigid physical examination before they can enter the service, must also pass a similar examination yearly before the opening of the active season. No matter how long they may have been in the service, the hardships they have suffered, the perils they have faced, or the great deeds of heroism they have performed, if they are found not to be physically sound they are dropped from the service, ruined in health, without the slightest compensation for the years of faithful service.
The profession of a surfman is entirely different from that of a sailor, being only acquired by coast fishermen and wreckers after years of experience in passing in and out through the surf. The method of selecting the life-saving crews has resulted in securing the most skilful and fearless surfmen, whose gallant deeds of heroism have made them famous throughout the land. Upon original entry into the service a surfman must be a citizen of the United States, not over forty-five years of age.
He is examined as to his expertness in the management of boats and the use of other life-saving apparatus, and matters of that character. He signs articles by which he agrees to reside at the station continuously during the active season, to perform such duties as may be required of him by the regulations and by his superior officers, and also to hold himself in readiness for service during the inactive season if called upon. For this he receives sixty-five dollars per month. For each occasion he is called upon, during the two months’ inactive season, he receives three dollars.
The district superintendents, inspectors, keepers, and crews, the law says, are to be selected “solely with reference to their fitness and without reference to their political or party affiliations.”
Every time a wreck occurs the keepers are required to make out and forward to the department a wreck report, containing answers to a great number of pertinent questions.
If a life is lost the law requires that a thorough investigation be instituted with a view of ascertaining the circumstances, and whether the fatality was due to any neglect or misconduct on the part of the service. Any misconduct or incompetency at other times is likewise subject to rigid investigation. The results of the investigations into the circumstances of loss of life are fully set out in the annual reports of the service, which the general superintendent is required to make.
Life savers, disabled in the line of duty, are retained upon the payrolls during the continuance of their disability, not to exceed one year, though in certain cases the period may be extended upon recommendation for a greater period, but not more than two years. In case of their death from service or from disease contracted in the line of duty, their widows and children under sixteen years of age are entitled to be paid during a period of two years the same amount that the husband or father would have received.
In addition to saving the lives of the imperiled, an important part of the duty of the life savers is that of saving property. The amount of property saved annually by these guardians of the coast largely exceeds the cost of maintenance of the service. The keepers are authorized and required by law to take charge of and protect all such property until claimed by those legally entitled to receive it, or until otherwise directed by the department as to its disposition. The keepers have the powers of the inspectors of customs and faithfully guard the interests of the government in all dutiable wrecked property.
Doubtless the United States Life-Saving Service system appears to be an expensive and elaborate one, but it must be remembered that, putting aside entirely the consideration of the value of human life, which is beyond computation, it saves many times its cost in property alone, and that it fulfils the functions usually allotted to several different agencies. It rescues the shipwrecked by both the principal methods which humane ingenuity has devised for that purpose, and which, in some countries, are practiced separately by two distinct organizations; it furnishes them the subsequent succor which elsewhere would be afforded by shipwrecked mariners’ societies; it guards the lives of persons in peril or of drowning by falling into the water from piers and wharves in the harbors of populous cities, an office usually performed by humane societies; it nightly patrols the dangerous coast for the early discovery of wrecks and the hastening of relief, thus increasing the chances of rescue, and shortening by hours intense physical suffering and the terrible agony of suspense; it places over peculiarly dangerous points upon the rivers and lakes a sentry prepared to send instant relief to those who incautiously or recklessly incur the hazard of capsizing in boats; it conducts to places of safety those imperiled in their homes by the torrents of flood, and conveys food to those imprisoned in their homes by inundation and threatened by famine; it annually saves, unaided, hundreds of stranded vessels, with their cargoes, from total or partial destruction, and assists in saving scores of others; it protects wrecked property after landing from the ravage of the elements and the rapine of plunderers; it extricates vessels unwarily caught in perilous positions; it averts numerous disasters by its flashing signals of warning to vessels standing in danger; it assists the custom service in collecting the revenues of the government; it pickets the coast with a guard, which prevents smuggling, and, in time of war, surprise by hostile forces, which makes the service unlike all other organizations established for similar purposes.
The distinction of having founded and created the United States Life-Saving Service having been the subject of much discussion in recent years, General Superintendent Kimball, in his report to the Secretary of the Treasury as to the claims of W. A. Newell, as the originator of the system of the Life-Saving Service of the United States, in conclusion states as follows:—
“The fact is, the credit of originating and developing the United States Life-Saving Service cannot truthfully be awarded to any single individual.
“In Congress and out of Congress many men have contributed, some in a great and some in a less degree to the success of its fortunes. To even write down the names of the legislators in both houses of Congress, who have been its advocates and champions, and to refer ever so briefly to their valuable assistance, would occupy much space and require considerable research, but there occurred to me at once as conspicuous among the host of its promoters, Senators Hannibal H. Hamlin, O. D. Conger, W. E. Kenna, W. J. Sewell, and William P. Frye, and Representatives S. S. Cox, Charles B. Roberts, John Lynch, James W. Cobert, and Jesse J. Yeates. Presidents of the United States and various Secretaries of the Treasury have promoted its welfare. Many officers of the life-saving service also, as well as officers detailed to it from the Revenue Cutter Service, have, from time to time, suggested and assisted to carry into effect important improvements.
“The life-saving service was not designed and laid out at one stroke, in a single comprehensive plan, as an architect designs a building, or a military genius, perhaps, devised a scheme of army organization, but its system and development have been accomplished step by step, day teaching unto day the necessity and wisdom of each successive measure of progress.”
CAPT. BENJAMIN C. SPARROW.
Capt. Benjamin C. Sparrow, superintendent of the second life-saving district, was born in Orleans, Oct. 9, 1839. He is a lineal descendant of Richard Sparrow, who came over in the ship Ann, landing at Plymouth. When a boy he always accompanied his father, a well-known life saver and wrecker, to the shipwrecks that occurred along the coast, and at an early age became familiar with the scenes of disaster from which the shores of Cape Cod have become noted.
In those early days, long before the establishment of United States life-saving stations on Cape Cod, volunteer crews responded to the calls for assistance when there was a wreck along the coast. There were others who engaged in the work of saving lives and of wrecking, or assisting distressed vessels, and they were known as “beach combers.”
Captain Sparrow was a “beach comber” for many years, and relates thrilling and interesting incidents that occurred during his experience. After finishing his education in the public schools of his native town, he taught in the public schools in the adjoining town of Eastham.
He entered Phillips Academy to prepare himself for the legal profession, and was a student there at the outbreak of the Civil War. The war had hardly begun, however, before he left college, and enlisted in the regular army, in the engineer battalion attached to the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac, serving in this capacity until 1864. During his term of service he endured much hardship, being a prisoner at Belle Isle in the summer of 1862.
At the close of the war he returned to his home in East Orleans, where he has since resided. On Dec. 25, 1866, he married Miss Eunice S. Felton, of Shutesbury, Mass.
He has been connected with the United States Life-Saving Service for thirty years, or since the time of its reorganization, his appointment as district superintendent being a part of the plan adopted by the government to stamp out the evils which existed in the service at the time.
Captain Sparrow in the thirty years in which he has been superintendent of the second district has been actively engaged in the arduous duties of his calling, and to his efforts is due the success in securing the discipline and efficiency in this hazardous service in the district under his charge.
His home is connected by telephone with all the stations along the shores of the Cape, and the moment a wreck is reported to him he is away to the scene.
Ofttimes he has been obliged to travel many miles on foot in the teeth of a raging gale and driving storm to reach the scene of a disaster, yet he has attended nearly every wreck that has taken place along the shores of Cape Cod during the past thirty years.
The veteran captain has often shared the hardships and braved the perils with the life savers in their work along the beaches, and the hardships of thirty years have left their deep imprint upon him. The night that the schooner Calvin B. Orcutt was wrecked on Chatham bars, Captain Sparrow suffered such hardship going to the scene that his eyesight has since been seriously impaired.
The life-saving department recognized Captain Sparrow’s ability from the first by appointing him on the board of experts to examine new appliances and methods proposed for use by the department.
This position he has filled with great credit to himself and to the betterment of the department to the present.
Captain Sparrow has always taken an active interest in the affairs of his town, and his fellow-citizens have honored him from time to time with public offices within their gift. To the life savers of Cape Cod Captain Sparrow has ever been a staunch friend.
HIGHLAND STATION.
This station derives its name from the Highlands of Cape Cod which are in the immediate vicinity, and is one of the original nine stations built on Cape Cod in 1872. It is seven-eighths of a mile west of Cape Cod Highland Light, and about one and one-half miles from the North Truro village.
Its approximate position as obtained from the latest coast survey charts is latitude north 42° 02′ 55″, longitude west 70° 04′ 20″. Shoals run parallel with the shores at this station, and many appalling disasters have occurred there since the station has been established. The surfmen exchange checks with the surfmen from the High Head Station on the west patrol, which is about one and three-quarter miles, and with the surfmen from the Pamet River Station on the east patrol, which is about two and one-half miles. On the east patrol the surfmen are unable at times to follow the beach, the tides forcing them to grope their way along the tops of the cliffs, which, in many places, rise one hundred feet above the level of the sea. So steep are the cliffs at points along the east patrol, that the surfmen have ropes extending from the top to the bottom by which they are able to reach the top when driven from the beach by the tides. In attempting to climb one of these steep cliffs on a stormy night a few years ago, Henry Baldwin, a substitute at this station, had the bank break under him, and falling to the beach below, a distance of nearly fifty feet, fractured his hip and received multiple injuries. When the unfortunate surfman did not return to the station at the appointed time, a surfman was sent out to search for him. No trace of him could be found, however, and at four o’clock in the morning Captain Worthen called all hands, and after a search of a few hours, the injured surfman was found on the beach attempting to crawl to the station. This shows one of the perils which confront the surfmen attached to this station. John Francis, a surfman, who, after eighteen years of service at this station, was forced to resign from it on account of injury to his eyesight, had a narrow escape from death while a member of this station crew. Francis was attempting to make his way along the beach to a point where he could climb to the top of the cliffs. The sea was running high, and the great undertow catching Francis, threw him down and carried him far out from the shore. He struggled desperately, and by the merest chance succeeded in making his way out of the surf, when thrown upon the shore by a mountainous wave. He was more dead than alive when he reached the station. Surfman William Paine, of this station, had a fearful experience during a blinding snowstorm. Paine got lost, his eyes becoming frostbitten so that he could not open them. He walked about all night in a little grove of pine woods to keep from freezing, and was found the following day by his comrades.