LIFE-CAR AND OLD-TIME MORTAR.

mote its efficiency. Many heartrending disasters had recently occurred; but in May, 1854, the ship Powhatan, carrying between 300 and 400 persons, was lost on the Jersey coast, and, although she lay only about 200 feet off shore, everyone aboard perished. This appalling calamity so aroused the country that Congress

FIRST UNITED STATES LIFE-SAVING STATION.

of $200. Crews were left to be picked up as best they might whenever the awful necessity should arise. In this fashion things continued until 1869, when Mr. Haight, Representative from New Jersey, tried to secure a provision of law allowing the employment of permanent surfmen. He was defeated; but fortunately, through the vigorous and skilful efforts. of Hon. S. S. Cox, a substitute was adopted, authorizing crews at alternate stations. That was something, and it "broke the ice" for the passage of subsequent legislation.

Even with these improvements, the Service still remained deplorably inadequate. It lacked thorough organization and zealous guardianship. The Revenue Cutter Service, of which the Life-Saving establishment was only an adjunct, was itself sadly in need of reformation; and to that end, in February, 1871, Mr. Sumner I. Kimball was appointed Chief. Politics had honeycombed the whole fabric; and, with regard to the Life-Saving branch, there was an especially sorry state of affairs. An inspection along the coast showed the stations too remote from one another; the houses often filthy, some in ruins; the outfits frequently lacking such prime requisites as powder, rockets, and shot-lines; the apparatus

when the wreck of the Metropolis occurred on the coast of North Carolina, involving the loss of 85 lives, and, soon thereafter, the wreck on the same coast of the U. S. war vessel Huron, in which 98 men perished. These overwhelming shocks at first provoked wrathful censure of the Life-Saving Service; but, as to the Huron, it was speedily disclosed that she was lost while the Life-Saving stations were closed according to law. With regard to the Metropolis, it appeared that Congress had failed to place stations in that vicinity, as had been urged by the Chief of the Service. The outcome of the whole matter was that the Life-Sav

where only a keeper is employed. The Keepers (Captains) of the stations having crews receive $900 per annum; and the members of the crews (surfmen), $65 per month. Keepers must not be less than 21 years old when enlisted, surfmen not less than 18, and neither class more than 45. Keepers are promoted from the surfmen, and superintendents from the keepers. Outsiders are eligible only to the grade of surfmen, and the prospect prospect of promotion therefore furnishes strong incentive to faithful conduct. The crews are drilled every day except Saturdays, in some of their duties. among which are resuscitation of the ap

was I in 1,744, while the number from the English lifeboats was about 1 in 850. Where the water is sufficiently deep to effect a launch, lifeboats are used. They are self-bailing and self-righting, from 26 to 34 feet in length, capable of carrying sail, and will support a very large num

signed for the Life-Saving Service by Colonel Lyle of the Army, is a pretty, little bronze cannon weighing less than 200 pounds, very accurate, and capable of carrying more than a third of a mile. By means of the shot-line, the shipwrecked haul out what is called the

ber of people. The way a lifeboat bails itself is by means of relieving tubes running down from the deck through the bottom of the boat. When a sea dashes on board, the deck being higher than the outside water, that taken on board runs down the relieving tubes by force of gravity, and the boat is thus constantly kept free. Some of our surfboats are also self-bailers and self-righters. The self-bailing quality is probably the best feature a boat can have; without it she is liable to be swamped at any moment, and is always handicapped.

The breeches buoy apparatus, when in operation, is simply a rope suspension bridge between the ship and the shore. The Lyle gun first throws over the wreck a projectile, with a small but very strong cord attached. This gun-the only piece of ordnance that shoots to save-de

"whip line," and by that the hawser. These have tally boards with printed instructions for their use; and when the hawser is made fast on the ship, the

STEAMER "PERE MARQUETTE," STRANDED NEAR ENTRANCE
TO HARBOR OF LUDINGTON, MICH.
Breeches Buoy in Operation.

shore end is anchored, and set up over a tripod. The breeches buoy is slung to the hawser by a traveler block, and at

persons. Thousands have been safely landed in this ingenious way when no other was possible.

The Life-Car

The life-car is a little iron boat, covered over, and capable of containing five or six persons. It may be run on the

A VERY HEAVY SURF, Wreckage from Schooner "Augustus Hunt" Coming Ashore at Quogue, Long Island, Jan. 22, 1904.

hawser, or drawn on the surface of the

It is entered by a small hatch, which may be fastened from the inside or from without; and it is extremely useful when women and children are among the shipwrecked.

loss of life; but the patrol system has eliminated this horror, wrecks being now discovered within a few minutes after their occurrence, sometimes on the very instant. The patrolman quickly burns his signal-a message of hope to the shipwrecked, and of alarm to the station -and the crew turns out promptly, while the ever-ready telephone summons assistance if need be from neighboring stations. Patrol duty is always arduous, and, in the bad winter weather, is extremely severe and dangerous. The arrangement of the watches is necessarily such that no man ever has a whole night in bed. Quite a large number of patrolmen have perished on the stormy pathway, and a great many have suffered serious injuries; but the inestimable utility of the patrol system has been demonstrated over and over again.

One night in February, 1880, three life-saving crews rescued the crews of four wrecks on the New Jersey coast, without the slightest mishap, while everything and everybody was coated with ice and the weather was pitch dark. In September, 1889, three crews near Cape Henlopen, Delaware, rescued every person (194) from 22 stranded vessels,