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From: "craig o'donnell" <>
Subject: [LDR] Harpers Monthly, 1869 -4-, Life Saving Service
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 08:34:35 -0500


POLICEMEN OF THE SEA.

To this is attached a strong basket, or box, or hammock, or any
available article to be had on ship or shore ; it is swung with block
and tackle to the cable, and, human-freighted, it is dragged through
the storm to the shore. A second line is attached by which to draw
the improvised life car back again; and it continues its trips until
all are saved. The rescued persons are at once taken to the nearest
huts if a government station is not at hand, and are there attended
by the wives and daughters of the wreckers. Persons are frequently
carried to the wreckers' huts even when a government house is near
by, for two reasons : the government houses are very seldom in proper
condition to receive weak and exhausted persons ; and, in the second
place, the rescued persons who are carried to the wreckers' houses
may prove to be rich and generous -- or they may be robbed! There
have been many complaints that the humane actions of wreckers in thus
caring for rescued persons cloaked designs of robbery; but I am
disposed to think that the motives which prompt such conduct in nine
cases out of ten do honor to the wreckers.

All life being rescued the work of saving property at once begins. If
the sea is too heavy to admit of a sloop approaching the wreck the
lifeboat or improvised car lands a few of the crew on the vessel, and
every part of the cargo which will float and which will bear wetting
is thrown to the waves, and by them carried ashore. Here they are
gathered together for future appraisement by the owner's agent. They
are not broken open and rifled as most persons suppose, but placed
under strict guard. Occasionally a basket or two of wine suffers and
the wreckers have a "good time", or a bale of cotton goods or a case
of clothing is sometimes confiscated to immediate wants, but the risk
incurred of losing all salvage awards by such petty robberies tenders
them of infrequent occurrence.

When calmer weather permits the approach of the boats, the stripping
of the wreck, if it should not have gone to piece in the storm (the
former process is resorted to only when it is probable that the ship
will be totally destroyed) begins in grave earnest. The wreckers'
sloops swoop down upon it like carrion birds upon a carcass, and
gathering about it, take on board all the available cargo and such of
the rigging and appointments of the ship as are worth preserving.
When only the bare and empty carcass is left it is abandoned to the
winds and waves, and to time which rots it, if the other elements do
not scatter it far and near.

The foregoing account and description of wrecking applies to a system
as old as wrecks themselves, but one which is still in existence in
nearly all parts of the world. Of late years considerable has been
done in the way of organizing and systematizing the wrecking service
in certain localities by the establishment of large wrecking
companies. There are several such companies now existing at this time
in Boston, New York, Norfolk, and New Orleans. Each company has a
fleet of steamers of all sizes and all kinds, fitted up with immense
pumps for exhausting water from the hold of sunken ships, and a fire
apparatus for extinguishing flames. They have also the various
lifting powers -- from the old style casks and the blocking process
to the hydraulic press and the "gutta-percha pontoons."

The latter article is a unique invention. The "pontoons" are shaped
like a balloon, covered with netting, and attached by hose to
air-tanks. A number of them are sunk and, attached to a submerged
ship by the divers and being simultaneously inflated with air they
lift the ship to the surface. Other means have been found to be
cheaper than this, and the "pontoons" are now little used.

As a general rule these do not always afford immediate aid in saving
life, but the arrangements of the best companies are such that
assistance is dispatched in a few hours after a wreck occurs. And in
some instances life has been saved. In November last the large
packet-ship Isaac Webb was rapidly drifting ashore at Sandy Hook in a
heavy gale, and was in imminent danger of going to pieces in the
breakers. The wrecking-boat Philip, belonging to the Submarine
Wrecking and Towing Company of New York, was cruising in the vicinity
at the time, and, seeing her signal of distress ran alongside,
dangerous as the operation was, and attaching a cable drew her from
the reef into deep water, where she sank. "Had the Philip been half
an hour later," said the captain, "many lives must have been lost."
Such instances of prompt aid are necessarily rare, since the vessels
cannot always be near at hand ; but in the ordinary course of
business, so perfect are the arrangements of the New York company,
that only a few hours elapse before assistance is sent.

On Nov. 4, 1868, the packet-ship Frontier went ashore at nine o'clock
AM, near Hempstead, Long Island. The telegraph announced the fact to
Captain Samuel Samuels, the President of the Submarine Company of New
York, at half past nine, and at ten o'clock the wrecking boat Rescue
was under way to her aid. The schooner Mary E. Williams went ashore
at Jones's Inlet, Long Island, and springing a leak, soon had seven
feet of water in her hold. The disaster occurred at two o' clock AM;
at twelve o'clock the same day the pumps of the wrecking boat Philip,
Captain Charles Hazzard, were at work on her and at four o'clock AM
on October 13, twenty-six hours after the disaster, the schooner was
being repaired at the dry dock in New York. The arrangements are
such, indeed, that the organized companies at a distance can act a
far as saving property is concerned, almost if not quite as soon as
the wreckers on the very scene of the disaster

The system of the various companies is not a little singular. The
Boston company has in general supervision of the coast of Nee
England; the beat so to speak of the Submarine Company of New York
extends from Montauk Point Long Island to the capes of Virginia.
Norfolk companies watch the coast to Hatteras; the old style wreckers
at Key West cruise in their sailing vessels along the west of the
Atlantic coast and the Gulf coast as far as Mobile; thence westward
the New Orleans companies claim and exercise jurisdiction.

Let us take one of these beats as an illustration; that for instance,
of the New York company along the Long Island, New Jersey, Delaware
and Maryland coasts. The company has boats stationed at New York,
Sandy Hook, Barnegat, and Atlantic City; and along the entire line of
coast, living within sight of each other, numerous agents who daily
patrol the coast on the lookout for wrecks. After every gale from the
east the boats cruise along the coast in search of vessels in
distress. Every morning the coast agents of the company, who are
generally old farmers or fishermen living along the coast, are out
with their glasses on their beat. If they discover any vessel ashore
or in distress they hastily ride to the nearest telegraph station --
a line runs the whole length of the coast - and send a dispatch
giving the information. This dispatch is addressed to the President
at the headquarters of the company, 62 South Street; but it is also
dropped at all the boat stations, so that the boats may be ready to
act on orders from Captain Samuels.

On the receipt of the dispatch the President sends by telegraph
orders to the nearest boat to proceed to the aid of the wrecked
vessel. The process pursued on the arrival at the wreck depends on
the condition of the vessel to be aided and is not materially
different from heretofore described. The superior arrangements and
facilities of the company's steam vessels enable them to act with
more promptitude and effect than the coast wreckers with their
sailing vessels.

The organization of companies on the plan of the New York Submarine
is rapidly producing a great change in our wrecking system; and will
doubtless lead to the invention not only of superior appliances but
superior boats. The business of these companies is already extending
so rapidly as to lead to the hope that in a few years hence the whole
United States' coast will be patrolled by the steam wrecking boats of
organized and responsible companies as regularly as by the sloops and
schooners of the old style wreckers.

It is a principle of maritime law that no claim for salvage can be
established unless proof is adduced of the abandonment of the wreck
by its crew, or that the captain or master in command has asked by
signal or other wise for assistance. Often when vessels have been run
ashore or are stranded on a shifting sand or sunk in shoal water, a
master may decline assistance from the salvors or may make a special
bargain with them to aid in getting him off. Sometimes the wreckers,
on the other hand, persuade a captain unacquainted with the coast to
abandon his stranded vessel and then taking advantage of their
knowledge of the sands and the tides they manage to get her off and
claim salvage. Of course these parleys are held only in regard to
vessels to which there is no immediate danger, or where life is not
in peril.

..
--
Craig O'Donnell
Sinepuxent Ancestors & Boats
<http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~fassitt/>;
The Proa FAQ <http://boat-links.com/proafaq.html>;
The Cheap Pages <http://www2.friend.ly.net/~dadadata/>;
Sailing Canoes, Polytarp Sails, Bamboo, Chinese Junks,
American Proas, the Bolger Boat Honor Roll,
Plywood Boats, Bamboo Rafts, &c.
_________________________________

-- Professor of Boatology -- Junkomologist
-- Macintosh kinda guy
Friend of Wanda the Wonder Cat, 1991-1997.
_________________________________
---
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