USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 50
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
Among the old-time wreckers whose names are honorably preserved in association with splendid feats of courage in saving human life from tempest and wreck were Thomas Bond, Edwin Dennis, John H. Brown, J. W. Schillenger, John Maxson, Selah Strong, John Allen, Samuel P. Curtis, John Chadwick, John J. Cook, A. Topping, J. L. Sandford, C. A. Ludlow, John Jones and John M. Brown. John M. Brown received the gold medal of the Life Saving Association "for his humane and Christian efforts in saving the crews and passengers" of the "Cornelius Grinnell," the "New York" and other vessels. From the ship first named were saved in mid- winter five hundred persons, and from the latter named three hundred and fifty people.
Another, James Green, was not only a noted life saver but he reared sons who became as conspicuously useful as was he himself. A\ half cen- tury ago he was a wreckmaster, and he was instrumental in saving many human lives, as well as much property. His son, Captain Charles H. Green, who resided on the paternal estate, witnessed many shipwrecks, and (long before the organization of the governmental life saving service) he
30
466
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
became impressed with the great necessity for organized effort, and he formed from among his neighbors a volunteer crew at Green's Pond, now Lake Takaneesee, which separates West End from Elberon. Space for- bids telling of all the scores of notable rescues made by Captain Green and nis men, but one is deserving of special mention, not only in recognition of the act itself, but because of the fact that it was acknowledged in the bestowal of the first gold medal of the Life Saving Benevolent Association of America on the New Jersey Coast, and that the name of his wife was coupled with his own in the inscription. It is believed that in the latter particular the award stands alone in the history of the organization.
The ship "Adonis" was cast ashore March 7th, 1859, off Long Branch, in front of the spot where the United States Life Saving Station now stands. In spite of the raging surf, after a desperate struggle, Captain Charles H. Green and a volunteer crew succeeded in landing all who were aboard, without the loss of a single life. The life savers were. encouraged in their mission by the presence of Mrs. Green, who took the shipwrecked men to her home and provided them with food, dry clothing and all that would aid in their restoration and add to their comfort. For this noble achievement the Life Saving Benevolent Association of America presented . to Captain and Mrs. Green a massive medal containing sixty dollars worth of fine gold. Upon the obverse it bore a most artistic alto-relievo repre- sentation of a ship engulfed in high rolling waves, and the name of the Association. Upon the reverse is beautifully inscribed the following: "Pre- sented to Charles H. Green and Annie H., his wife, as an acknowledgment of the rescue of the crew of the ship "Adonis," wrecked at Long Branch, March, 1859."
When the United States Life Saving Service was instituted, Captain Green was placed in charge of the Life Saving Station and crew, and he rendered splendid service in that capacity until his death, which occurred in 1871. His brother, Walter S. Green, was also an early volunteer life ' saver, and subsequently became captain of a life saving crew under the national establishment.
The efforts of the gallant men above named and of others engaged in similar humane missions were recognized by the Life Saving and Benev- olent Association, the American Shipwreck Association and the Board of Underwriters, which at various times provided crude equipment for the life-savers and otherwise aided them in their work. These bodies also lent their influence to secure the legislation necessary to the establishment of the Life Saving Service.
In May. 1851, under authority of the act of March 3, 1851, the Sec-
467
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
retary of the Treasury appointed a board of officers of high rank to investi- gate and make a detailed report as to the condition and needs of the Light- House Establishment, to guide legislation in extending and improving it. In the report of this board, under date of January 30, 1852, the matter of relief for the shipwrecked was discussed. It was advised that surf-boats and life-boats be furnished to certain light-house stations, and the means of readily providing crews for them in time of need be supplied. In accordance with the recommendation of the report the act of August 31, '1852, placed the light-house system in charge of the Light-House Board.
On February 25, 1847, during the second session of the Twenty- eighth Congress, while the light-house bill was under consideration, Mr. Robert McClelland, of Michigan, chairman of the Committee on Com- merce, had moved an amendment "For furnishing the light-houses on the Atlantic coast with means of rendering assistance to shipwrecked mariners, $5,000 ; the same to be under the control and direction of the Secretary of the Treasury." The amendment was enacted into law March 3, 1847 (9 Stat., p. 176), in the exact terms in which it was introduced, and was the first appropriation made for rendering assistance to the shipwrecked from the shore.
In a report from the Superintendent of the Light-House Establishment, dated December 15, 1847, showing what had been done under the light- house act of March 3, 1847, it was stated that the $5,000 appropriation had not been used. The item remaining unexpended was carried forward as an unexpended balance available for the next fiscal year. The second appro- priation for life-saving purposes was that of $10,000 in the act of August 14, 1848, referred to hereinafter in connection with the labors of Hon. William A. Newell for the establishment of an efficient life-saving service.
For many years the immediate origin of the present Life Saving Service was a subject of controversy, owing to conflicting claims set up by the friends of various persons who had been connected more or less promi- nently with it at different times. But in the year 1900 the matter was set at rest through the medium of an exhaustive paper read before the Mon- mouth County Historical Association, at Matawan, New Jersey, by Hon. William A. Newell, of Allentown, New Jersey, some time a member of Congress, Governor of New Jersey, and Governor of Washington Terri- tory. This paper was prepared at the solicitation of the president of the society, and Mr. Newell gave it the utmost care, refraining from all state- ments and conclusions save such as were capable of verification by con- gressional records and other contemporaneous evidence. This paper has been freely drawn upon for this narrative.
August 13, 1839, Mr. Newell witnessed the wrecking of the Austrian
463
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
brig "Terasto" (which erroneously appears in history as the "Count Perasto"), near the Mansion House, on Long Beach, then in Monmouth county, but now in Ocean county. The captain of the vessel and thirteen of the crew were drowned. Their bodies came ashore, and were buried at public expense in the Baptist Church cemetery in Manahawkin, New Jer- sey, where their graves are yet discernable. The wreck occurred at mid- night, on a sandbar three hundred yards from the shore, and the crew had met their deaths in endeavoring to swim through the raging surf. Mr. Newell conceived the idea that the unfortunate men could have been saved by means of a rope with which to drag them to land, and with the thought occurred to him the necessity for a projectile to carry a line from the shore to a vessel. He at once instituted a series of experiments for the carrying of a light line by arrow, by rocket and by a shot from a shortened blunderbuss, and all with a degree of encouragement, which culminated in the successful use of a mortar or carronade discharging a ball with a line attached.
In 1846 Mr. Newell was elected to Congress from the second district of New Jersey, which then included the Atlantic coast region from Sandy Hook Bay to Little Egg Harbor. On January 3, 1848, he offered a reso- lution instructing the committee on commerce to enquire "whether any plan can be devised whereby dangerous navigation along the coast of New Jersey, between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Harbor, may be furnished with additional safeguards to life and property from shipwreck, and that they report by bill or otherwise."
In this resolution lay the germ of the United States Life Saving Service is now constituted-a system which to the present time has neither counterpart nor parallel upon any other shores in the world, save under the Danish government, in all other countries such service being inadequately provided by private organizations. The present American system, as Mr. Newell remarked with pardonable pride, in his historical address before referred to, "has become and will remain one of the chief features of our governmental system, with its three hundred rescue stations, manned by two thousand brave and skillful wreckers, and for which the government annually appropriates two millions of dollars."
Mr. Newell's resolution was ignored by the committee, notwithstand- ing the fact that several of its members were from maritime States, and should reasonably have been expected to appreciate the value of his sug- gestion and to lend their sympathy and assistance to him in an effort at once philanthropic and economic. Yet he persisted, making personal ap- peals to men of great distinction in both houses of congress, among them being John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun,
469
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
Stephen A. Douglas, Thomas H. Benton and Thaddeus Stevens, but with- out avail, his views being regarded as chimerical, and as tending to useless and extravagant expense. He endeavored to attach his resolution as an amendment to various appropriation bills in the house, but without suc- cess. Toward the close of the second session, however (August 9, 1848), the senate light-house bill came before the house, and he offered an amend- ment thereto "for providing surf-boats, rockets, carronades and other neces- sary apparatus for the better preservation of life and property from ship- wreck along the coast of New Jersey, between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Harbor, $10,000 to be expended under the supervision of such officer as may be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury for that purpose." Mr. Newell made a brief appeal for his amendment, and it was adopted by unanimous vote. His plans were soon so magnificently vindicated that at the second session of the same congress an additional appropriation was made for the Life Saving Service, and stations were established from Little Egg Harbor to Cape May, and also upon the Atlantic shore of Long Island, and in 1850 the service was still farther extended southward to Florida. From that day to the present the service has had a permanent existence, and, except in the formative days, it has been amply provided for out of the public treasury.
The life-saving apparatus provided for in the first appropriation bill was placed at eight convenient locations along the coast. Meantime Joseph Francis, a resident of Toms River, a noted boat builder whose shops were in Brooklyn, on Long Island, had perfected his corrugated metal life-boat and a life-car, which proved most valuable adjuncts to the Newell apparatus. as was almost immediately apparent. The Francis apparatus had been approved by such philanthropic and other organizations as the Life Saving and Benevolent Association, the American Shipwreck Society and the Board of Underwriters, and was, on the occasion hereafter mentioned, first put into experimental use under government authority.
January 12, 1850, the Scottish brig "Ayrshire," having aboard two hundred and one English and Irish immigrants, bilged and lost her masts on Absecon Beach. There was a terrible foaming surf and a blinding snow storm at the time. For the first time the Newell apparatus was used, and with entire success. The wreck was unreachable by boat owing to the high sea, and the life-saving apparatus was put to use by a volunteer crew of sturdy fishermen who impressed a yoke of oxen to transport it to the spot. A ball fired from the mortar took a line aboard, and to it was bent a hawser which was made fast to a mast stump on the vessel. The closed Francis life-car was carried by its rings on the hawser, and in three minutes the first car-load was safely drawn ashore through the roaring surf.
470
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
This was repeated as rapidly as the car could be operated and the surf would permit, but so serious were the difficulties that the work of rescue extended over portions of two days, one hundred and twenty people being landed on the first day, and the remaining number on tlie second day. But one of the passengers perished, and he was a man who, not being allowed to enter the already crowded car with his children, mounted its top and was washed away in passing through the waves. Dr. Robert Laird witnessed the heroic res- cue and was deputized to present the gold medal of the Life Saving Asso- ciation to John Maxson, who shot over the vessel the first line for the saving of human lives at sea. By curious fortune, many years afterward, the ball fired at the "Ayrshire" was found in a fragment of her wreckage, and is now preserved in the National Museum in Washington, where is also to be seen the Francis life-car which proved so serviccable on the same thrilling occasion, and which, when it was retired from service in 1878, had been the means of saving one thousand four hundred and ninety-three lives.
The original equipment of the life-saving stations comprised galvanized surf-boats with separate air chambers, rockets, rocket line and hawsers, housed in a substantial frame building. The use of the mortar followed almost immediately. and that of the breeches buoy a few years later, and with these two additions the paraphernalia is now substantially what it was at the founding of the service.
In the germinal condition of the Life Saving Service, which had its being in face of almost insuperable opposition, no provision could be made for an effective organization, and the equipment was left uncared for by any responsible custodian. As a consequence, nearly all movable property was converted to private uses, and that which remained was suffered to go to decay from want of attention. Dreadful shipwrecks occurred in view of stations which existed only in name, and which were powerless to render assistance. In this emergency, in December, 1854, congress passed a bill authorizing the appointment of superintendents for New Jersey and Long Island, and keepers for the various stations. In 1861 President Lincoln ap- pointed Mr. Newell as superintendent for the New Jersey District, and dur- ing his four years term of service he made quarterly visits of inspection to all stations. In 1864 he was again elected to congress, and gave his zealous attention to the improvement of the service, and laid the foundation for subsequent favorable legislation. To this time, the life-savers had per- formed their arduous and dangerous duties without compensation or reward. In 1868, Hon. Charles Haight, member of congress from the Monmouth district, ably aided by Senator John P. Stockton, in the senate, endeavored to re-establish the life-saving service upon a more perfect system, but failed A similar effort made by Mr. Haight in 1871 was also ineffectual. Hon.
47 I
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
S. S. Cox, then a member of congress from New York, subsequently became interested and made a splendid appeal, and the same year succeeded in pro- curing the needed legislation. Under the provisions of the act, the service was attached to the revenue cutter division of the Treasury Department, of which S. I. Kimball was chief, and out of the $200,000 appropriated for life- saving purposes new stations were built and old ones were repaired and en- larged, for the housing of the crew, with their boats and apparatus. A code of signals was also adopted, and minute regulations for the management of boats and life saving apparatus were formulated and published.
The first and most important movement after Mr. Kimball took charge was a resolute effort to make the service non-partisan-to find the most efficient men and make it known that appointments and tenure would depend upon professional fitness, and not upon party application or political favor. After ten years of struggle, during which period Congress was repeatedly urged, he also secured the enactment of a law placing the establishment upon a non-partisan basis, May 4, 1882, (antedating all other civil service reform legislation in this direction), providing that the appointment of district superintendents, inspectors, and keepers and crews of life-saving stations should be made solely with reference to their fitness, and without reference to their political or party affiliations.
Another of the earliest steps taken to promote efficiency was the establishment of the patrol system. Under this arrangement the beaches within the scope of the stations are patrolled every night, from sunset to dawn, and also during the daytime in thick weather. By this means, wrecks or vessels in distress are discovered within a brief time, and aid is promptly furnished.
In 1878 the Life Saving Service was organized by act of Congress into a separate bureau, distinct from the Revenue Cutter Service, and since that time has been so conducted.
The law provides that the stations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts shall be opened and manned for active service from the Ist day of September in each year until the Ist day of the succeeding May. The time during which the stations are manned is designated the "active season."
The number of men composing the crew of a station is determined by the number of oars required to pull the largest boat belonging to it. There are some five-oared boats in the Atlantic stations, but at all of them there is at least one of six oars. Six men, therefore, make up the regular crews of these stations, but a seventh man is added on the Ist of December, so that during the most rigorous portion of the season a man may be left ashore to assist in the launching and beaching of the boat and to see that the station is properly prepared for the comfortable reception of his comrades and the
472
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
rescued people they bring with them on their return from a wreck; also to aid in doing the extra work that severe weather necessitates.
At the opening of the active season the men assemble at their respective stations and establish themselves for a residence of eight months. They arrange for their housekeeping, usually by forming a mess, taking turns by weeks in catering and cooking, although at some of the stations they engage board of the keeper at a rate approved by the General Superintendent. These preliminaries being settled, the keeper organizes his crew by arrang- ing and numbering them in their ascertained order of merit. These num- bers are changed by promotion as vacancies occur, or by such re-arrange- ment from time to time as proficiency in drill and performance of duty may dictate. Whenever the keeper is absent, Surfman No. I assumes command and exercises his functions.
The rank of his men being fixed, the keeper assigns to each his quar- ters and prepares station bills for the day watch. night patrol, boat and apparatus drill, care of the premises, etc. For every week day a regular routine of duties is appointed. For Monday, it is drill and practice with, the beach-apparatus and overhauling and examining the boats and all ap- paratus and gear; for Tuesday, practice with the boats; for Wednesday, practice with the international code of signals; for Thursday, practice with the beach apparatus; for Friday, practice in the method adopted for restoring the apparently drowned ; and for Saturday, cleaning house.
For practice with the beach apparatus there is provided near each station a suitable drill ground, prepared by erecting a spar, called a wreck- pole, to represent the mast of a stranded vessel, seventy-five yards dis- tant (over the water if possible) from the place where the men operate, which represents the shore.
If in one month after the opening of the active season a crew can not accomplish the rescue within five minutes, it is considered that they have been remiss in drilling, or that there are some stupid men among them. They are cautioned that if upon the next visit of the inspector a marked im- provement is not shown, some decisive action will be taken to secure it. This usually produces the desired effect. In many of the districts a spirited rivalry exists between the stations for excellence in this drill.
How well this purpose is fulfilled has been repeatedly illustrated on occasions of rescue, but never better than in the memorable storm of Feb- ruary 3, 1880, which wrought general ruin and devastation upon the coast of New Jersey and strewed her shores with wrecks. In the very height of that terrible tempest, at the dead of night, the crews of three separate stations rescued without mishap the people on four different vessels by means of the apparatus, set up and worked in almost utter darkness, the
-
473
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
lanterns of the surfmen being so thickly coated with sleet that they emitted only glimmers of light so feeble that the lines and implements could not be seen. These and the other rescues achieved in that storm excited such public admiration that the State Legislature unanimously passed resolu- tions commending the skill and bravery of the station crew.
A code of signals, understood by all seafaring men, 'is used at every life-saving station, flags being the medium of communication in day- time, and torches or rockets at night. . Among the most important phrases signalled at night are: "You are seen; assistance will be given as soon as possible," indicated by a red light or rocket ; "Do not attempt to land in your own boats; it is impossible," indicated by a blue light; and "This is best place to land," indicated by two torches. There are also numerous signals conveying instructions for use of boats, hawsers and other life- saving appliances.
The life-saving station equipment includes the surf-boat, often called the life-boat, specially designed for the service; a life-car, carrying six to eight persons; a breeches buoy, which conveys one person, and a piece of live-saving ordnance with its appurtenances. The first gun used was of cast iron, weighing 288 pounds, throwing a spherical ball to a distance of 420 yards. This was succeeded by the Parrott gun, weighing 266 pounds, and having a range of 470 yards. In 1878 this gave place to a bronze gun constructed by Lieutenant D. A. Lyle, of the United States Ordnance Department. The Lyle gun weighs 185 pounds, and has a range of 695 yards, or nearly a half-mile, and surpasses in mobility and effect all other life-saving ordnance.
On arriving within range of a wreck, the gun is fired, discharging a projectile to which is attached a light line, by means of which the crew of the vessel haul inboard a strong hawser. The hawser supports by means of rings the life-car, or the breeches buoy, as necessity may demand. The life-car is a covered boat, made of corrugated galvanized iron, furn- ished with rings at each end, into which hauling lines are bent, whereby the car is hauled back and forth on the water between the wreck and the shore without the use of any apparatus. It is supplied, however, with bails, one near each end, by which it can be suspended from a hawser and passed along upon it like the breeches buoy, if found necessary, as is some- times the case where the shore is abrupt. The cover of the boat is con- vex, and is provided with a hatch, which fastens either inside or outside, through which entrance and exit are effected. Near each end it is per- forated with a group of small holes, like the holes in a grater, punched outward, to supply air for breathing, without admitting much if any water. It is capable of containing six or seven persons, and is very useful in land-
474
HISTORY OF THE NEW JERSEY COAST.
ing sick people and valuables, as they are protected from getting wet. On the first occasion of its use it saved two hundred and one persons.
The New Jersey coast was known as the Fourth life Saving District until 1890, when it was designated as the Fifth. It is under the charge of a district superintendent who is disbursing officer and paymaster for the district, and is also ex officio inspector of customs. He conducts the gen- eral business of the district, looks after the needs of the stations, makes requisition on the General Superintendent for station supplies, repairs, etc., and upon receipt of authority sees that these are furnished. He visits the stations at least once a quarter, and on these occasions pays off the crews and makes such other disbursements as are authorized. As in- spector of customs he looks after the interests of the Government in refer- ence to dutiable property wrecked within his jurisdiction, and sees that the keepers of stations perform their duties in respect thereto. His com- pensation ranges from $1,000 to $1,800 per annum, and is designed to be proportionate to the extent of his duties and to the degree of fiscal re- sponsibility incumbent upon him.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.