Hardtack, Alias Sea Biscuit, and a giveaway

Chew with Care

We know hardtack by other names—ship’s biscuit, pilot bread, or sea biscuit, for instance. Some of the poor sailors who had to eat it referred to it as worm castles and molar breakers. 

Hardtack is dry bread that keeps and is edible for a long, long time. Stored properly, it can last for years. Some say it’s good for fifty years or more. It’s 

Pieces of Civil War hardtack

 
baked hard, to remove all moisture. This keeps it from molding, and you can still get nourishment from it, if you’re careful in how you eat it.

Hardtack was developed many years ago, when people had no refrigeration, or even canning. To preserve foods, they had to be dried or salted.

Made of flour, water, and sometimes salt, the closest things we have regularly today are saltine crackers and matzo. However, hardtack was baked up to four times to make it drier to ensure it wouldn’t mold if kept dry, and this makes it much harder to bite and chew than our crackers. It’s also thicker.

Hardtack was used when people knew they would be without perishable foods for a long time—during sea voyages, long overland trips, or military campaigns, for example. Museums have pieces of hardtack on display that is asserted to be 150 to 200 years old.

Wrapper for Civil War hardtack

Inexpensive and lightweight, it was perhaps the first convenience food. But there are many accounts of soldiers from the Civil War and other times, as well as sailors, telling that their bread was full of weevils or grubs. This could happen easily before the hardtack was packed. It only takes a fly landing on it and laying eggs, which happened a lot in the old days. So if you plan to try this not-too-tasty treat, be sure you keep it dry and in a sealed container.

In ancient times, soldiers carried dry breads. The Egyptians had a brittle loaf made from millet. Roman soldiers carried wheat biscuits. King Richard I of England carried mixed grain biscuits when he went on the Third Crusade in 1189. They were reportedly made of barley, rye, and bean flour.

When the biscuits had been in storage a while, they weren’t always easy to bite into. They were thicker and harder than our modern crackers. Sailors and soldiers dunked them in coffee or whatever liquid they had at hand to soften them. Sometimes they would be cooked into a meal such as a stew or fried in a pan of grease.

Try it Yourself

You can make your own hardtack by combining six cups of flour and one cup of water. Mix it and knead it until it’s a consistent texture, then roll it out about a half inch thick. Cut in pieces about three inches square. Poke holes in the pieces and bake it at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, then turn it over and bake it another 30 minutes.

Hardtack cutter that pokes holes in the biscuits

Some people only bake it once, and it won’t be as hard if you do that, but baking it again is supposed to remove more moisture, thus giving it a longer shelf life. Some bakers who made hardtack for sailing ships reportedly baked it four times.

You can make the biscuits more palatable by adding salt. Some people also want to add oil or shortening, but this will make it go rancid after a while—maybe months instead of years. So don’t grease the pan or add fat unless you plan to eat it soon.

 

You can also make it taste better by adding sugar, cinnamon, or whatever you want, but beware: this will encourage mold and vermin, and it won’t last nearly as long as the plain variety.

Kept dry and sealed, your hardtack should last for years. Even if you’re not going to sea or the battlefield, you might want to try it for backpacking or other outings.

Fire up the oven and enjoy your historic meal! Just be careful not to break any teeth on it.

Susan’s book The Outlaw Takes a Bride was recently named a finalist in the 2016 Will Rogers Medallion Awards. If you’d like to enter the drawing for either

an audio disk of this book or a paperback copy, leave a comment below and be sure to include your contact information.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than sixty published novels. She’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. Her newest books include River Rest, Heart of a Cowboy, and Sleight of Hand. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Literary Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

Some photos from Creative Common licenses.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7409083@N03/5860762345">Civil War hardtack pieces and wrapper</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>

Mary Bryant, Courageous Convict and Mother

Women in Early Australia

Susan Page Davis here. I've recently done a lot of reading on the early days of Australia, and I came across the amazing tale of Mary Bryant.

Mary went to Australia as a convict in 1788, when things were deplorable there for women.
Even in 1830, there were 7 men for every women in Victoria, Australia. Both free settlers and female convicts were sent to Port Phillip, where the city of Melbourne grew up. The labor shortage was so severe that many single women sailed out with families, to work as domestic servants. The life was hard, and servants who lost their jobs or became pregnant found themselves on the street.

Engraving of the view of Botany Bay at Gov. Phillip's arrival in 1789. Public domain.

For female convicts, a sentence of transportation, or being shipped to England’s colonies in Australia, often meant unwilling prostitution. The conditions were so unbearable that some women chose execution over transportation.

Mary (Broad) Bryant was one of the first young woman sent to Australia for her crimes. She became renowned for her dramatic escape from the colony. She was born in 1765 in Cornwall, England, to a fishing family also known for sheep stealing.

Mary went to the town of Plymouth to look for work, got in with the wrong people, and began a career of theft. At the age of 21, she and two other women were caught. Her crimes were highway robbery and assault, and she was convicted of stealing a silk bonnet, jewelry, and a small amount of money. She was sentenced to death. This sentence was commuted to transportation for seven years.
She spent some time with other prisoners in the hulk of an old ship at Plymouth. In May, 1787, she was placed on the ship Charlotte, which was part of what is known as the First Fleet. They sailed for Botany Bay.

The First Fleet consisted of 11 ships traveling from Great Britain to Australia to found a penal colony, which became the first European settlement in Australia. Since the American Revolution was underway, they could no longer send convicts there. The fleet included two Royal Navy ships, three ships of stores, and six convict transports, including the Charlotte.

Engraving illustrating the arrival of the first convicts, 1789, public domain.

More than 1,000 convicts, marines, and seamen were aboard the fleet. The Charlotte carried 100 male convicts and 24 females. The voyage to Australia’s Botany Bay took 252 days, and they arrived in January, 1788.

The women aboard were at the mercy of the sailors and other men. Mary was probably already pregnant when she boarded, and she gave birth to a little girl in Cape Town, a stop on the way to Australia. Historians speculate that the father may have been an English prison guard.
The land at Botany Bay was found unsuitable for the colony, and there was no fresh water supply, so the governor moved the location of the settlement north to Port Jackson, also known today as Sydney Harbor.

Early map of Port Jackson

A month after arriving, Mary was married to fellow prisoner William Bryant, age 31, also from Cornwall. William was a fisherman convicted of resisting revenue officers—he was probably caught smuggling. He was sentenced to seven years’ transport to America, but his destination was changed to Australia, and he ended up on the Charlotte with Mary Broad. William and Mary Bryant were among the first couples married in the new colony.

Life in the prison colony

The couple lived in a hut with the baby girl, named Charlotte after the ship. William was in charge of the fishing boats and planted a garden. About a year later, he was caught selling some of his catch illegally, and received 100 lashes.

A food shortage made the colonists desperate. William was no long in charge of the fishing boats. Life was very hard for them. Mary had another child in April, 1790, a boy they named Emanuel. People were starving in Port Jackson. They decided to try to escape the colony in order to save their children’s lives.

When a Dutch ship arrived, sources say William obtained a compass, charts, a quadrant, two muskets, ammunition, and some food from the Dutch captain.

In March, 1791, William and Mary and seven other convicts made their escape. They had waited until a night with no moon, when no ships that could pursue them were in the harbor. With the two children, eleven people boarded the governor’s cutter, which had masts, sails, and six oars.

Their voyage of 69 days has become known as one of the most daring feats of sailing ever. It has been compared to Captain William Bligh’s voyage two years earlier in an open boat after the mutiny on the Bounty. The party is credited with making several discoveries, including some of the previously uncharted islands along the Great Barrier Reef.

They reached the island of Timor after a journey of more than 3,254 miles (more than 5,000 km). Timor was under Dutch control at the time. The escapees claimed they were survivors of a shipwreck. It was later discovered that they were escaped British convicts, and they were sent back to England for trial.

During the trip back, William Bryant and both of Mary’s children died of fever. Little Charlotte’s death came just five weeks before they landed in England. Mary’s purpose for undertaking the dangerous escape was defeated, and she was now alone. She and four of the male prisoners survived, arriving in England June 18, 1792. James Boswell championed their case and appealed for clemency.

Usually the punishment for escaping from transportation was death, but this time the prisoners were allowed to serve out the remainder of their original sentences. Mary’s sentence expired about a year later, and she was released from Newgate prison May 2, 1793. Mary returned to her family in Cornwall. James Boswell sent her a small stipend until his death two years later.

Courtesy State Library of New South Wales, from the James Boswell collection relating to convict Mary Bryant.

 

Mary’s story has been fictionalized in several books and plays, and a British/Australian television movie entitled The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant. On display in the Mitchell Library in New South Wales are two Botany Bay leaves that came from a packet Mary sent to Boswell in thanks. These were leaves from the bunch she used as tea during the voyage.





To enter a drawing for a copy of Susan Page Davis’s new book The Outlaw Takes a Bride, leave a comment below, including your contact information.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than fifty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She and her son James S. Davis are writing a historical novel set in Australia and at sea. Susan is a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

Before the Coast Guard: An Introduction to the United States Life-Saving Service

Note: This post was originally published in 2013.

At one time in United States history, the US Live-Saving Service was a government agency designed to rescue people (both sailors and passengers) from wrecked vessels. This agency was started in 1848 and lasted until 1915, when it was merged with another agency to form our current US Coast Guard.

While talking about an antiquated government agency might sound old and boring, it's really not. I mean, think of all those cool water rescues on TV that the Coast Guard preforms. They look something like this:

Now imagine those same rescues taking place 150 years ago. No radios. No helicopters. No high-powered speed boats. Just a crew of seven men in either a surfboat or lifeboat, sent to save a whole vessel full of people. It rather looked something like this:

And this:

And this:

No, the men in these old photographs and paintings were not suicidal, or crazy, or inebriated. They were United States Life-Savers and they were actually paid to go out into rough wild seas, sea so dangerous ships were wrecking and people were drowning. Of course, with a team of United States Life-Savers at work, considerably fewer people were drowning on wrecked vessels.

Life-Savers trained every day to go out into stormy seas. They swam. They practiced rowing and sailing. They even practiced capsizing their boat in the water and then righting it again so that they would be prepared were that situation ever to occur during a rescue.

They also had special equipment. The larger of the two boats used by the Life-Saving Service (called a lifeboat), was self-righting and self-bailing. So if the boat capsized or took on water, it would uncapsize and bail itself out. The suits life-savers wore were rubber and rather similar to modern day wet-suits in that they provided mobility and allowed exposure to cold water without endangering the wearer. And for close-to-shore rescues, life-savers even had equipment that allowed them to pull people from wrecked vessels without the life-savers ever leaving the beach.

I'll have more information for you about the Life-Saving Service next month, but I wanted to introduce everyone to this little-known, yet very important agency of the past. Have a blessed day, and thanks for stopping by the Christian Fiction Historical Society!

*****

A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter, and she is looking forward to the release of her next book, in January 2014. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.

Taxes--And How People Have Been Avoiding Them for Centuries

Naomi Rawlings here today. And I'm happy because tax season is finally over. (At least, I certainly hope it's over for you.)

It's probably no surprise that people have been paying taxes for millennia. After all, the Bible records Christ as taking a coin and telling people to give to Caesar that which is Caesar's.

Would it surprise you to learn that for as long as taxes have been around, people have found ways to avoid them? Today I'm going to zero in on a very specific part of British history and how its subjects avoided taxes.

Smuggling.

Since England is surrounded by water, it was able to keep track of its imported and exported goods that were taxed better than most countries. But there were also lots of places along the English coast where sailing vessels could harbor and unload their goods away from the watchful eye of the king's revenue agents.

What was smuggled?

Anything that was taxed–which was pretty close to every purchasable good imaginable. Tea and brandy were two of the biggest items, but the list also includes salt, leather, soap, chocolate, fabric, and cigars. Some historians estimate that 75% of the tea in England during the 18th and 19th centuries was smuggled.

Furthermore, during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, French imports were banned from England. And France made things craved by the British upper class, like silk from Lyons and lace from cities such as Alencon and Arras and Dieppe and Le Puy.

And of course brandy.

If there’s one constant in smuggling throughout the annals of history, it’s this: smugglers always deal with spirits.

Where were the goods smuggled?

Though the whole of the English coast was subject to smuggling, smuggling occurred in greatest concentration along the English Channel. A quick little jaunt to France and back allowed for smuggling en masse in this region. The County of Kent, which lies nearest France and at it’s easternmost point is separated only by a few miles of water, was a smuggling hotbed. In the 1780s, the English government burned all the sailing vessels in the town of Deal, claiming there wasn’t a single sea-worthy vessel in the harbor that didn’t engage in smuggling.

How did the smugglers operate?

Answering this question gets rather interesting. The British government did try to prevent smuggling, but keep in mind that the crown needed sailing vessels and sea-worthy men to do this. And while fighting wars with America and France, the crown didn’t exactly have the personnel and vessels to shut down smuggling operations. In fact, it’s often said that the sailors on the kings cutters were people unfit for naval service. There are all kinds of stories of revenue men sleeping on duty and being hired despite old age and missing limbs and a host of other ailments that would make fighting off quick, able-bodied smugglers rather impossible.

In some towns along the coast, such as Hastings and Dover and the smaller towns in between, the smugglers

almost acted like a modern day gang. The smugglers looked out for one another and engaged in illegal activities with each other. Even if the law abiding citizens of the town knew of the smugglers, they’d never turn the smugglers in for fear that their houses would be burned and their families killed.

And yes, sadly, such things did happen. (For more information dealing specifically with smuggling in the Cornish region of England, visit this earlier post by Author Laurie Alice Eakes.

So are you surprised about how the people of England used to avoid taxes? Do you think smuggling would have been so rampant if taxes on imports such as tea and tobacco were lower and taxes on exports like wool were lower as well?

*****

I bring up British smuggling today because it factors into my most recent book, The Soldier's Secrets. The heroine in this novel, Brigitte Dubios, finds herself tangled in a rather messy British-French smuggling ring. Extricating herself and her children from the smugglers is going to be dangerous and interesting. If only Brigitte can keep everyone safe and manage not to lose her heart in the process . . .

You can read a book description and excerpt at www.NaomiRawlings.com/naomis-books/the-soldiers-secrets.

Florida's 500th Anniversary and El Galeon

Are you aware that this year, 2013, marks the 500th anniversary since Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida? The state of Florida is doing some special things to commemorate the occasion, and while vacationing in St. Augustine last month, my family and I got to see one piece of the celebration. I wanted to share a bit about it with you.



El Galeon, © Jennifer Uhlarik

When we arrived in St. Augustine for our few days away, it didn’t take us long to notice a huge wooden ship docked beside the Bridge of Lions. We quickly learned that the ship was a life-size, all-wooden replica of a Spanish Galleon, like those Ponce de Leon and his contemporaries would’ve sailed. El Galeon, as it was called, was making the rounds of several Florida ports—Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Cape Canaveral, and St. Augustine—docking for several weeks at each in order for visitors to take self-guided tours of the impressive vessel. El Galeon had such a great turnout the first weekend in St. Augustine that they opted to stay from several months in order to accommodate the visitors.

Looking toward the stern, ©Jennifer Uhlarik

The life-size replica measures 170 feet in length, and weighs 495 tons. Forty crew members manned the ship and sailed it on the same general path that Ponce de Leon took to Florida 500 years ago. (You can see an interactive map of their route here). I have never been much of a sea-faring person, so stepping onto such a ship was awe-inspiring. It was also pretty mind-boggling when I began to realize that, while large, a ship this size didn’t provide a lot of personal space for that many people. And when you stop to consider that back in the days of New World exploration, many times an explorer would set out with several ships, only to lose some along the way. When that happened, the crew of the abandoned ship would get absorbed into the crews of the other ships. So by the end of their voyages, these ships often carried two or three times the number of people than they started with. Just imagine the trouble getting to use the bathroom must have been. LOL

Bathroom. Was this authentic to the time period?
©Jennifer Uhlarik

On a side note, one of the interesting things we were told while vacationing was that many of the explorers’ ships were lost not to storms or running around, but rather to a particular type of clam, the shipworm or toredo worms, that lives in saltwater and eats wood. These worm-like clams would begin to bore into the wooden vessels, and over time, the ships would spring leaks. When the crew couldn’t stop the incoming water, they would inform the captain that the ship couldn’t be saved, so they would flag down their sister ships, abandon their own, and watch it sink as they sailed away. After stepping foot on such a magnificent ship as El Galeon, I can only imagine the heartbreak such a sight would cause.

Tall ship! ©Jennifer Uhlarik

While El Galeon has departed from St. Augustine as of July 23, my understanding is that the crew will be sailing up the eastern seaboard for the next 3-5 years on tour. If you missed the ship in Florida, you might still have an opportunity to see it in another eastern port. And we also were told that El Galeon had petitioned to make St. Augustine its home port while not out touring. At the time we were there, the petition was being considered, but no decision had been made. Hopefully those in power will allow it, as it seems only fitting to me that such a ship should make historic St. Augustine home. You can find more impressive photos here.

Ship's bell. ©Jennifer Uhlarik

Now it’s your turn. Have you ever been onboard a boat or ship (including small boats or cruise ships)? What was your experience like?




Interesting view of Anastasia Island from El Galeon.
©Jennifer Uhlarik

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won the 2012 CWOW Phoenix Rattler, 2012 ACFW First Impressions, and 2013 FCWC contests, all in the historical category. She is also the winner of the 2013 Central Florida ACFW chapter's "Prompt Response" contest. In addition to writing, she has been a schoolteacher of English, literature, and history, as well as a marketing director. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.

The 1913 Life-Saving Rescue of the L.C. Waldo

Hi Everyone,

It's great to be back with you all today. For the past several months, I've been telling you about the United

States Life-Saving Service, which ran from 1848 until 1915 for the purpose of rescuing sailors and passengers stranded on wrecked vessels. Modern technology and conveniences like radios and helicopters and speed boats that are used by the current Coast Guard were not available in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so the Life-Savers relied on special equipment, rigorous training, and manual labor to preform their duties.

Today I want to tell you about the real life rescue of the L.C. Waldo, which occurred only a hundred miles from where I live.

In November of 1913, the Great Lakes Region experienced the strongest storm (or series of storms) ever on record. This "Freshwater Hurricane" blew winds of about 70 mph coupled with temperatures of about 24 degrees Fahrenheit across Lake Superior. The L.C. Waldo was a 450 foot freighter loaded with ore and bound for Lake Erie when the storm hit.

The Waldo faced  winds and seas so harsh that the pilot house and was torn away and the steering damaged. The master of the Waldo attempted to steer the mammoth steamer to shelter by slipping into the large bay behind Lake Superior's Keweenaw Peninsula. But in attempting to reach L'anse Bay, the vessel ran aground on Gull Rock, a little patch of rock and reef two miles off the coast of Michigan. The Waldo then broke in two, and the crew took shelter in the forward part of the steamer, where the freezing waves and spray soon formed a wall of ice that sealed them inside. The 22 men crew, two women, and dog aboard then endured almost four days being stuck inside the hull of the steamer without food as they waited for rescue.

The Eagle Harbor Life-Saving Station, 30 miles away, learned of the wreck the next day. Their larger boat (the lifeboat) was under repair, so the crew set out in the smaller surfboat. They made it only 8 miles before the ice buildup on the boat forced them to turn around. Rumor says that some of these men were actually frozen to the ropes on the boat when they returned and had to be cut out by townsfolk. For the next day, the Eagle Harbor Lifesavers worked furiously to repair the lifeboat so that they could head back out to rescue the crew of the Waldo.

The Portage Life-Saving Station, located 60 miles from the Waldo, didn't learn of the the steamer's wreck until the following day. With their lifeboat in tact, the Portage Keeper left for Gull Rock, opting to take the longer route through L'anse Bay, which afforded more protection from the elements by going around the back side of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The keeper also arranged for a tugboat to meet them at the mouth of the Portage Waterway and pull the lifeboat the rest of the way to the wreck.

Both the Portage Lifesavers and the Eagle Harbor Lifesavers arrived at the Waldo in the early morning on November 11, reaching the wrecked steamer within minutes of each other. The lifesavers used axes to cut away at the built up ice sealing that sealed the crew inside the hull and saved everyone aboard, even the dog.

For their bravery, the lifesavers from both stations were awarded Gold Lifesaving Medals for their heroism.

So there you have it, a real life story of true lifesavers, and hopefully a good example of why the United States Life-Saving Service was so important.

If you missed some of the previous posts on the United States Life-Saving Service and are interested in reading more, here's a list:

• Introduction
• Stations
• Beach Rescues
• Water Rescues

*****

Naomi Rawlings is mom to two young boys, a wife to her wonderful husband, an author for Love Inspired Historical, and an avid reader. She and her family live in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where they get over 200 inches of snow per winter and share their ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer, and bald eagles. Because of her romance novel addiction (and the alarmingly high number of books she devours per week) she started a website for inspirational romance lovers like herself:  www.inspirationalromanceratings.com. Naomi is looking forward to the release of her next book, The Wyoming Heir, in January 2014. For more information about Naomi or her books, please visit her website at www.naomirawlings.com.

The United States Life-Saving Service: Water Rescues

Hi Everyone,

I'm glad to be back with you today, talking some more about the United States Life-Saving Service. For a brief review before we delve back in, the United States Life-Saving Service ran from 1848 until 1915 for the purpose of rescuing sailors and passengers stranded on wrecked vessels. If you've missed posts the past three months, I have discussed:

• An Introduction
• Stations
• Beach Rescues

Today we're talking about one of perhaps the most fascinating aspects of the United States Life-Saving Service: Water Rescues.

Remember that the daring men who sacrificed both their time and safety to dart into storm-ravaged waves and save others were not as well equipped as the modern day Coast Guard with its helicopters and radios. But they did have some specially designed items that helped them brave dangerous storms.

The USLSS used two different boats to perform water rescues. When a ship foundered at sea, too far away to be reached with the aid of a Lyle Gun and Beach Apparatus, either a surfboat or lifeboat would be taken out to the spot of the wrecked ship during dangerous storms.  

The Surfboat:
The surfboat was the smallest of the two boats used. It extended 26 feet in length with a shallow

bottom designed to skim effortlessly over the tops of angry waves. The life-savers used oars to propel it. These boats would have been used for wrecks within rowing distance and were sometimes pulled on a cart over stormy beaches to a shipwreck sight.

Though 26 feet may seem small when you consider this boat would pull alongside a vessel up to eight times larger, the surfboat's size and light weight allowed it to be easily steered and maneuvered  A larger boat couldn't get close enough to a wrecked ship to rescue stranded sailors and passengers without forcing them to swim (a death sentence for most women). These small surfboats, however, could pull alongside a foundering ship with ease, as illustrated below.

The earlier versions of surfboats would be similar to any normal rowboat or dingy, but as the United States Life-Saving Service grew in importance, new developments were made until these boats were actually self-bailing and self-righting. (Meaning they would drain water on their own and flip back over if capsized).

The Lifeboat:

The lifeboat was the larger of the two vessels used by life-savers and could be fitted with sails, allowing the men to make rescues for as far as 50 miles. The design originated in England, and most life-savers were skeptical of the boat at first, saying it was too big and heavy to be of any use in a storm. 

However, the lifeboat soon proved itself valuable. It would zip out of the harbor in seas so violent that steam-powered vessels and tugs couldn't leave shelter. It was also self-righting and self-bailing from the very beginning, allowing the men manning it to focus solely on sailing through rough seas and rescuing stranded men and women, rather than spending time and effort to bail water or fretting it might capsize. 

Can you imagine heading out into stormy seas in a little 26 foot boat propelled by nothing but your oar and the oars of the other six men in the boat? I certainly can't. (Probably a good thing I'm not a life-saver living 120 years ago, right?) But many brave men did, and they saved countless lives because of their daring. 

This post wraps up most of my knowledge about the historic United States Life-Saving Service, but next month, on August 21, I have a very dramatic, real life rescue to share with you. It took place only a few hours from where I live and involves a blizzard so bad and with such thick ice that the life-savers had to be cut out of their surfboat after their first failed rescue attempt. 

Have no fear, though. Everything turns out well in the end. 

*****

A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter, and she is looking forward to the release of her next book, The Wyoming Heir, in January 2014. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.

The United States Life-Saving Service: Beach Rescues

by Naomi Rawlings

Hi Everyone,

I'm glad to be back with you today, talking some more about the United States Life-Saving Service. For a brief review before we delve back in, the United States Life-Saving Service ran from 1848 until 1915 for the purpose of rescuing sailors and passengers stranded on wrecked vessels. If you've missed posts the past two months, I have discussed:

• An introduction to the United States Life-Saving Service
• Information about the life-saving stations and how they were funded

Today we're talking about one of my absolute favorite parts of the Unite States Life-Saving Service: The Beach Rescues.

Now remember, the daring men who sacrificed both their time and safety to dart into storm-ravaged waves and save others were not as well equipped as the modern day Coast Guard with its helicopters and radios. But the did have some specially designed items that helped them brave dangerous storms.

The Beach Apparatus: The beach apparatus refers to the cart and equipment life-savers would use for a shore to ship rescue. In instances where a wreck occurred close to shore, the life-savers would not use a lifeboat or surfboat to rescue stranded sailors and passengers. Instead they would pull a cart that carried their rescue equipment along desolate, storm swept beaches to the sight of the wreck. Keep in mind that most life-saving stations didn't have horses, so the cart was pulled by the surfmen, and in very wet, dangerous conditions.

Sketch of beach apparatus being pulled during a storm

Beech apparatus being used for routine weekly drills

The Lyle Gun: Once the life-savers reached the site of the wreck, they needed a way to get a lifeline to the sinking ship. Fortunately they didn't have to personally go into the waves for this. Instead they used a Lyle gun (think of a small cannon no longer than a man's forearm), which could shoot a rope nearly 700 feet to the floundering ship. Once the sailors on the ship secured the rope, a pulley system was set up, which allowed the life-savers to transport people well above the waves and to the safety of the beach.

Lyle gun

Lyle gun being fired from shore

The Breeches Buoy: The most common item used to transport sailors over the stormy sea was the breeches buoy. I'm sure you've seen similar the buoyant life rings still in use today. Breeches buoys were life rings with shortpants to hold a person's legs and ropes that connected the buoy to the lifeline and allowed a person to be pulled to shore.

British painting of rescue using breeches buoy

Sketch of man in breeches buoy

Breeches buoy being sent from shore to ship

The Life Car: The other piece of equipment used for beach rescues was called a life car. This little car wasn't nearly as common as the breeches buoy, and it looked something like a mini submersible capsule or possibly even a submarine. The top of it sealed so that the passengers were kept away from the water, and it was designed to carry 4-5 people at once. However, some stories exist of eleven people cramming themselves into the tiny life car.

Sketch of life car

Okay, I think I've about exhausted our topic for today, but goodness, can you imagine clinging to a breeches buoy as you're pulled over a churning sea? Its not an experience I hope to ever have myself. But I'm glad these brave life-savers were able to rescue others. Equally amazing to me is the Lyle gun. I've seen one of these personally (along with a life car, breeches buoy, and beach cart) and that little Lyle gun is SMALL. Not any bigger than the length of my forearm. It's amazing something so small can be so powerful.

All right. I'll be back again in July to talk about the water rescues the life-savers would preform. And then in August I hope tell you about a really astounding water rescue that took place not to far from where I live.

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A mother of two young boys, Naomi Rawlings spends her days picking up, cleaning, playing and, of course, writing. Her husband pastors a small church in Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula, where her family shares its ten wooded acres with black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer and bald eagles. Naomi and her family live only three miles from Lake Superior, where the scenery is beautiful and they average 200 inches of snow per winter, and she is looking forward to the release of her next book, The Wyoming Heir, in January 2014. For more information about Naomi, please visit her website at www.NaomiRawlings.com.