The Daily Messenger. (Claremore, Indian Terr.), Vol. 2, No. 251, Ed. 1 Monday, September 16, 1901 Page: 2 of 4
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GOV. NEWELL5 GPEAT WQPK
THE. """ ^ ^
LIFE
SAVING
SERVICE.
Former Governor and Congressman
Newell of New Jersey, whose death at
the age of 84 years was announced
last, week, will be long remembered as
tho founder of the national life saving
service, the plan of which has been
adopted by almost all civilized na-
tions. By securing a trial appropria-
tion of $10,000 for an experiment sta-
tion during his service in Congress Dr.
Newell gave the first Impetus to the
wonderful service which now includes
almost all the seacoast of the United
States as well as the shores of the
great lakes.
What the life saving service means
In this country may be gathered by
the fact that within the last thirty
years the members of the life saving
crews have been summonea to 11,170
notable marine disasters. Involving a
total property value of $170,000,000. Of
this great amount property to the
value of $132,000,000 was saved by the
efforts of the government life savers.
In these 11,170 disasters no less than
86,000 people were involved, of whom
908 lost their lives, 100 of them being
lost in a single wreck in which a'ves-
I
i/Ji
V
discharges the torch as a signal to tho
sailorsthat their plight has been noted
and that assistance will be brought as
cuickly as possible. If the wreck Is I
located close to shore, within a few
hundred yards, the Lyle gun is
brought into use. This is a peaceful
weapon by means of which a light
line can be shot out to the wreck, a
strong cable being afterwards rigged
up betwen shore and ship. On this
cable, which is supported at the shore
end by a high triangular framework,
the breeches buoy or the life car is
run to and fro until all the people in
BURNING A SIGNAL LIGHT.
gel went down ho far out at sea that
the service was practically prevented
from being of much assistance.
That the vast importance of the ser-
vice is recognized by Congress is
shown by the increase from the initial
appropriation of $10,000 which Dr.
Newell secured to that of $1,500,000,
which was approximately the cost of
the service during 1900. Beginning
with a single station on the New Jer-
sey coast, there are now no less than
266 stations located along the Atlantic,
Pacific, and gulf coasts and the shores
of the great lakes. Of this number
twenty-eight stations are located on
Lake Michigan. As a rule, particular-
ly on the more dangerous coasts, the
stations are located live miles apart,
the shore between being regularly
patrolled at all hours of the day and
ntgfit by coast patrolmen. The patrol-
man from each station travels two and
a half miles, at which point he meets
the man from the next station, with
whom he exchanges brass tally checks.
At night each patrolman carries a so-
called Coaton light, a torch from
which a bright colored flame can be
ejected to a considerable height The
Instant he discovers a shipwreck hs
STEERING A LIFEBOAT,
danger are safely landed. In the life
car a number of people may be car-
ried at the same time, while tho
breeches buoy can support but a single
passenger.
Wherever it is possible to do so the
surf boat is also launched as soon as
it can be dragged to the nearest point
on the beach. These boats are now
so built that if overturned by the
breakers they will right and empty
themselves, it being absolutely impos-
sible to sink them. As a rule ships
are wrecked on a lee shore, so that
the surf boat is almost always obliged
to put out In the teeth of a strong
wind and is more likely than not to
be capsized. When launched the surf
boat is propelled by six oarsmen and
steered by the captain, who stands up
in the stern and handles a long sweep.
Recently small launches propelled by
gasoline engines have been tried at
some of the life saving stations with
good success.
Under the rules of the life saving
bureau its members and employes are
not allowed to accept money or other
gratuities from those whom they may
rescue. The idea is, of course, that
the saving of human life should not be
put on a monetary basis, and that the
6urfmen should do their work as a
matter of duty and without hope of
further reward. But the government
has established a method of recogniz-
ing deeds of especial heroism which
has proved highly successful and bene-
ficial to the service. Congress has pro-
vided beautiful gold and silver medals
1
SHOOTING THE LIFE LINE TO A
WRECKED SHIP.
to be awarded to men and women who
display unusual courage and daring In
saving lifs at sea, whether they are
members of the life saving service or
not To win one of these medals Is
the highest honor which a surfman
can hope to win, and its possessor is
envied of all hi.j fellows. The gold
medal for life saving means to the
member of the service what the Vic-
toria Cross means to the British sol-
dier, or the iron Cross to the German.
It marks him as the bravest among
brave men.
Among the recipients of the prized
medals have been at least two boys
who were only 10 years old at the time
they distinguished themselves and one
little girl of 10 who at the risk of her
own life rowed a boat out into the
breakers and rescued two adults from
drowning.
Besides the rescuing of passengers
and crews from shipwrecked vessels
and the saving of the ships them-
selves, the coast pafrolmen do a great
work in the way of warning ships
which have unconsciously or other-
wise got into positions of great
danger. In the year 1899. for instance,
it appears tnat 184 vessels which had
got into dangerous waters were
warned of their peril at night by the
burning of danger signals by the coast
guards, while ten ships received sim-
ilar warning in the daytime by the
signals oi the international code. In
most of these instances it is probable
that shipwrecks would have occurred
it the warning had not been given, bo
that the service may justly claim that
it does a great work as a preventive
agent.
On the seacoast the danger of
wrecks is greatest *rom Sept. 1 to
March 1. while on the great lakes of
course, navigation is closed during the
winter.
There is probably nowhere in the
world In a similar space a record of
so many examples of splendid cour-
age as that contained in the annual
the edge of the water. A little strip
of sand lay at the foot of the cliff,
and across it the icy whitecaps swept
with tremendous force. Three times
the boat was filled with water In the
effort to launch it. After it had been
driven beyond the breakers a heavy
wave almost filled It to the gunwhales.
and the crew had a desperate struggle
before they got near enough to pass a
line to the crew, which was almost
ovrcome by the awful cold. Big
waves were dashing high over the
steamer, and wherever the water
struck It froze almost instantly. Three
trips were made before all of the crew
were taken to places of safety, and
when this work was over the mem-
bers of the crew were quite as badly
off as the men they had rescued.
The short and simple annals of the
service are full of similar instances
in which the surfmen have displayed
their heroism.
lumtiaU
A Olioat Story.
A sea captain at the Continental
Hotel recently told a ghost story for
which he said, Herman Merivate stood
sponsor. "A ship," the captain be-
gan, "was crossing the Atlantic from
Liverpool. Half way over a sailor
came to the chief officer and said he
had just seen a strange man sitting
in the cabin, writing. It seemed im-
possible for a strange man to be
aboard, and the officer told the sailor
to look again and see if he had not
been mistaken. When the sailor re-
turned he had a slip of paper in his
hand. 'The man is not there now, but
this paper lay on the table where he
uad been sitting.* he said. On the
sheet were the words 'Steer due south.'
This thing was so mysterious that the
ship's course was actually changed,
and she did steer due south for six or
seven hours. She came then on a
wreck and succeeded in rescuing the
men upon it. One of these men the
sailor of the rescuing ship recognized
as the stranger whom he had seen be-
fore. This stranger some hours earlier
had told his captain that he often went
into cataleptic trances, and that he
had just come out of one in which he
asked the aid of a ship that was sail-
ing somewhere to the north. It seems
an improbable story, this, but it is
very well authenticated, all the same."
—Philadelphia Record.
COMING ASHORE IN A BBREECHES
BUOY.
report issued each year by the life sav-
ing department. In a series of little
paragraphs in small and unattractive
type is printed the list of what is
modestly called "Services of Crews."
In almost every case the story is that
of heroic perseverence in the face of
great difficulties and of lives cheerfully
risked that other lives may be saved.
Tht* World'* HlglieMt Obaervalorv.
The highest observatory in the world
is in Peru, on the Chachani mountain,
neal" Arequipa. The mountain peak ts
19,800 feet in height, but the observa-
tory is situated on a plateau covered
by the eternal snow of the Andes range
at a height of 15,500 feet. This is about
1.200 feet higher than the French ob-
servatory on Mont Blanc at the Rocher
des Bosses, at a height of 14.320 feet,
while Pike's Peak observatory is at a
height of 14,i00 feet. There are three
other observatories in Europe situated
at high altitudes, namely, the observa
tory on the Sonnbllck—10.135 feet—in
the Salzburg Alps; the observatory on
the Pic du Midi in the Pyrenees. 9,378
feet in height; and the Santis observa-
As an example of these stories may
be told that of the rescue of the crew i tory on the highest mountain of the
of the steamer Calumet by the Evans- | Appenzeil Alps, which is at 8,200 feet,
ton life saving crew, for which the j The highest observatory in the United
crew members were awarded the gold ! Kingdom is that on the top of Ben
medals of the department. When dis
covered the Calumet was stranded off
Fort Sheridan, twelve miles north of
Evanston. It was a Thanksgiving day
morning and the thermometer marked
10 degrees below zero when the crew,
who were also students at Northwest-
ern University, started for the scene.
Nevis, in Scotland, at a height of 4.407
feet above the level of the sea.
.Inatlr* Hartan'a Kxpla nation.
Justice Harlan's father was a slave-
holder, and most of the affiliations of
the family at the outbreak of the war
of secession were with the South, says
To add to the difficulties, the air was : ^he washington correspondence of the
full of sleet and snow. When Fort j New York Evening Post. A member
Sheridan was reached the steamer , 0f the younger generation was once
could be seen about 1,000 yards from
shore, with the whitecaps breaking
over It.
The only way to reach the water
line was by means of a steep and rocky
ravine which opened out Into the lake,
and down which It was necessary to
carry the surf boat. Soldiers from the
fort were turned out to assist, and by
hard work in the bitter cold a series
of steps were cut In the steep banks.
down which the boat wse carried to ' against another.
talking with the justice about this
phase of his history, and asked how
it happened that he "fought for the
North." "I never did fight for the
North," replied the old man, sternly.
"I fought for the Union. I fought for
my country." This is typical of the
feeling of Kentucky loyalists of the
civil war era; they resent the notion
that It was « sectional struggle in
which they fought for one section oi
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The Daily Messenger. (Claremore, Indian Terr.), Vol. 2, No. 251, Ed. 1 Monday, September 16, 1901, newspaper, September 16, 1901; Claremore, Indian Territory. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc177875/m1/2/: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.