Pages of History: Soldiers of the Surf

The Jason, off Pamet River

The completion of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914 and advances in engine technology would contribute to improvements in safety upon the seas, but the heroic efforts of the men in the U.S. Life-Saving Service had become both widely known and popular. Fiction writers spun tales of surfmen, the USLSS published annual reports that glorified their deeds, and authors wrote true-life accounts of their work, such as J.W. Dalton’s 1901 book, “The Lifesavers of Cape Cod,” for which he visited every station on the Cape and devoted at least one paragraph to each surfman and keeper, including Seth Ellis, the sole survivor of the Monomoy Disaster. Milton Bradley even created a board game based upon the work of these courageous men. Women also took part in the USLSS; the Blue Anchor Society, a division within the Women’s National Relief Association, provided the stations with trunks of clothing for the rescued sailors, and Martha Coston, who invented the flares the men used to signal ships, was instrumental to the program’s success.

Today, the United States Coast Guard carries out the life-saving missions that were once the bailiwick of the USLSS, but the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association works to preserve the organization’s stories and memories. The Old Harbor Station, now located in Provincetown, has been restored as a museum, and Dick Ryder narrates a breeches buoy drill there every Thursday night throughout the summer. He says, “Our group in Provincetown has been doing this according to the book for over 40 years. There are only three places in the country that still practice the drill—one in North Carolina, one in Delaware, and our station here on Cape Cod.” Dick Boonisar, who served as the Heritage Association’s first president, owns a station in Plymouth, which he has painstakingly restored. “It’s set up with all the original equipment,” he says. “It’s taken me 40 years to collect everything. But if there’s ever a schooner up on Duxbury Beach, I can send out a line and take ‘em off.”

These brass medallions, from Peaked Hill Bars (left) and Orleans Station (right), are patrol check that would’ve been exchanged between surfmen as proof of a completed patrol.

Passersby flock to check out the scene of a shipwreck.

Line-throwing guns at Nauset Station

Edwin P. Worthen, keeper of Highland Station in Truro

Surfman burning a Coston flare, used to warn ships they were too close to shore or to signal help was on the way. Martha Coston of Philadelphia developed this flare signal, which was adopted by the U.S. Navy as well as the USLSS. The composition of the Coston flare is the same as highway flares used today.

Surfman in a cork lifebelt. Photo courtesy of USLSS Heritage Association

A breeches buoy, which would be carried out to a ship by pulleys, enabling sailors to step into the life ring and canvas sling to be rescued. Photo courtesy of USLSS Heritage Association

Halfway house, between the Cahoon Hollow and Pamet River stations, where surfmen would exchange patrol checks