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.

*****

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.

Public swimming--a brief history

By Kathleen L. Maher

As summer arrives and the kids begin vacation, many of us look forward to trips to the beach or pool. But public swimming hasn't always been the ritual we enjoy today. The history of public bathing has been controversial at times and dangerous at others.

Ancient Rome had public bath houses. Finland and Asia had saunas. Native Americans had sweat lodges. Japan had communal baths.  In Judaism and Islam a spiritual significance was attached to ritual cleansing, and communities often provided common pools in which to do so. Medieval Europe offered them--places where people could go to cleanse their bodies, exercise, and socialize--though the church frowned upon public bathing due to the vices often associated. Then in the Renaissance, the thought of Black Plague effectively ended communal baths as people began to believe their own dirt protected them from the disease.

The first public swimming pool in America opened in Massachusetts in 1887. As cities became overcrowded and enlightenment about sanitation and disease accompanied the progressive movement, public bath houses for the working class sprang up for the purpose of offering the unwashed masses a place to cleanse. Until municipal baths opened, rowdy young men would bathe openly in rivers and lakes, making a public spectacle for Victorian eyes, so the general thought was to provide privacy and promote decency and relegate them indoors.

 Bathers in Northern cities seemed to mingle according to race, but not gender or social status. Women bathed on alternate days from men in these public pools. For wealthy and upper middle class suburbanites, country clubs and private societies offered a more exclusive and recreational pool experience.

In the early 20th century, leisure time opened up for the laborer. As weekends and "holidays"--the non-religious version of holy days--were given, amusement parks and public beaches became popular. Coney Island and Jones Beach in New York became sensations. Sunbathing, sand and shore entered the public psyche.

Around the same time as people began to flock to the beach, public pools rose in popularity. Fairgrounds Park pool in St. Louis offered a sandy bottom and drew thousands of bathers every season. These pools gradually became co-ed, and as men and women bathed together a new wave of racism arose, white men prohibiting other races to mingle with white women. Fairgrounds Park pool erupted in a race riot when the first black swimmers were admitted.

But the Polio scare of the '30's and '40's would soon empty the pools and beaches. When FDR came down with the crippling disease after a weekend away at a lake house in New Brunswick, the public drew an instant association with swimming and the summer scourge.  Since Polio is resistant to soaps and chemicals of low pH, its spread became epidemic. But it was soon discovered that chlorine rendered the disease inactive. Old methods of pool sanitation involved frequently changing out the water and filters. Chlorine had been heavily produced during WWI, and its use in pools began in the 40's and became standard by the 1960's. Jonas Salk's vaccine brought swimmers back within a season or two as the beach beckoned and confidence rose again over fear.


Beach going is big business today. According to a study done in 2008 by James R. Houston, Ph.D., director of Research and Development, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "It's estimated that U.S. beaches contribute more than $320 billion annually to the national economy -- more than 25 times what national parks bring in." The movie Jaws in the 1970's played on two big fears associated with swimming: the financial implications of closing a beach during a popular holiday season, and the primal fear of what may lurk in the deep.

As summer sings it siren song and beckons you to the waters, think about how this simple pleasure has been both enjoyed and forbidden in the past, and thank the Lord for the freedom and safety to take the plunge.

For discussion: Tell us about your favorite swimming hole. Does your family go to the beach every summer, or do you own a lake cottage? Do you pack up the kids and head to the public pool? Do you have a favorite memory involving swimming? Share with us!