Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1879 — The Life-Saving Service. [ARTICLE]

The Life-Saving Service.

WinumOi, November 28. The General Superintendent of the Life-Saring Service has made his Annual report to the Secretary of the Treasury: At tfcedoM of the fiscal year the establishment embraced 172 stations, of which 18$ were on the Atlantic, 80 on the lakes and 6 on tbe Pacific. Within the limits of the operations of the service there'were 219 disasters to veasels The number of persons on board these vessels waa 2,107, of whom 8,048 were aaved aafl 88 were feet. There were succored at the stations 871 shipwrecked persons, 1,074 days* relief being afforded them in the aggregate. The number of persons brought ashore from wrecked vessels by the life-saving appliances at the stations was 412. In addition, the life-saving crews assisted in heaving off when stranded, got out at dangerous positions and piloted to places of safety, 89 vessels, sometimes working in conjunction with other wrecking agencies, but, in most oases, by themselves and the ships’ companies alone. In many of these tostanoee, without their akl the vessels and crews would have been lost. The estimated value of the whole number of vessels involved was <1,925,276, and of their cargoes $965,810, making a total value of property imperiled $2 887,886, Of this amount $1,445 068 were saved and sl,442,ri)0 lost. The number of disasters involving the total loss of vessels was 61. The number of disasters to vessels, being 217, is greater than that of any previous year, the highest former number having been 17L The report closes with a telling exhibit of the efficacy of life-saving stations, a special instanoe given having reference to the lakes. It is shown that on these waters the loss of life in 1878, when there were no life-saving star tlons, waa one out of every fifty-four persons on board vessels suffering disaster, or one out of every five casualties. In 1877 eleven star tlons were in operation a portion of the year, to which sixteen were added to the latter part. As a result only one out of every sixty persons imperiled was lost, or one out of everv six casualties. Ia 1878 the number of stations was further inoreased, and the loss of Mfe was reduced to one out or ever j 102 persons imperiled, or one out of every eleven casualties. All this time the stations were crippled by the Insufficiency of arrangements for the proper maintenance of crews, this being remedied by the act of June 18,1878, In 1879 the loss of life sunk to one out of every 216 persons imperiled, or one out of every twenty-one casualties. It is further shown that, since the commencement of the present fiscal year up to the date of the report, including an unusually calamitous autumn in that region, sixty-one disasters have occurred within the field bf life-saving operations on the lakes, there being on board the vessels involved 468 persons, or whom only one was lost, this being a woman, the cook of the vessel,- who was asleep below, and whom the Captain singularly omitted to notify of her danger. »