By REAR-ADMIRAL W. S. REYNOLDS, Commandant U.S. Coast Guard.Anderson tendered his services to the surf man. The acceptance of the offer automatically placed Anderson, for the time, in charge of the station crew, a responsibility which, as the events of the morning proved, he bore with great credit to himself and the Service.

While Anderson and Kristofferson were on their way to the station they saw the masts and spars of a vessel looming up through the driving snow close inshore. She was even then drifting rapidly to her doom off the harbour piers.

Events moved swiftly. The steamer was now aground, broadside to the beach, and lying in a position that exposed her to the full violence of the storm. The waves were high and short, coming around both bow and stern.

This, with the backwash from the pier, made a nasty cross sea. The tempera- ture stood at 18 degrees above zero, and the water froze as it fell, coating everything it touched with ice. More- over, the furiously driving snow was like a curtain blown aside at intervals to dis- close to the onlookers a more or less ob- scured picture of the stricken vessel.

A shot from the Lyle Line-throwing Gun placed a line fairly over the bow- sprit of the steamer—the only part of her not constantly swept by the seas.

The ship's crew got hold of the line, hauled out the block with the whip line rove through it, and fastened the former to the post of the steering wheel in the pilot house—the only accessible object offering the stability necessary to withstand the strain soon to be put upon the line.

Thus far the work preliminary to that of taking the men off the vessel had moved along without a hitch ; but now, with the block in position aboard ship, the line leading ashore—a new one— hardened as it sagged in the water and became weighted with ice. When the surfmen tried to haul out the hawser which was to carry the breeches buoy in its passage to and from the ship the line snarled. As the vessel had already begun to break up, time was precious, and this interruption of operations was calculated to fill the hearts of the rescuing forces with dismay.

A boat, under either power or oars, could not have lived in the seas thatraced round the ends of the steamer.

As the whip line was already fast on the vessel, the two parts of it leading ashore were quickly brought together, hauled up as tightly as possible, and tied to a post, leaving the line suspended above the water. The Beebe-McLellan Self-bailing Surf-boat was next placed under the line, and its painter thrown over the whip line and brought back into the boat. The idea had occurred to Kristofierson that the surf-boat could be worked out to the steamer along the whip line, the painter holding her up into wind and sea. A launching was effected in this manner, Keeper Anderson and a volunteer fisherman (a former member of the Serviceaccompanying the regular boat's crew.

To still further ensure the safety of the party, Keeper Anderson threw a line over the whip from the stern. The boat was now held in leash, as it were, from both ends, the stern line giving it a measure of protection from the cross seas.

When the boatmen reached the steamer a heaving line was thrown on board, the plan being to haul the men, one at a time, into the boat as they leaped overboard on the end of the line.

But the violent pitching of the boat was found to interfere with the aim of the surfmen. It was seen that throwing and hauling in a line, with possible occasional misthrows, would take up too much valuable time. Therefore, the men were persuaded, not without repeated re-assurances, to come down to the boat, hand over hand, along the whip line.

Human endurance has its limits.

The exertion required to reach the vessel and hold the boat alongside soon began to tell on the surfmen. As they were all now near the point of exhaus- tion, they were compelled to put back to land with but four of the ship's crew on board.

By the time the boat reached shore three of her crew were in a state of collapse from fatigue, cold, and cramps, and it was necessary to carry them bodily to their quarters and administer restorative treatment. This did not delay operations, however. Three fresh men took their places in the boat.

On the second venture six men were safely landed. The third trip was equally successful, with five more lives to the credit of the rescuers. When the boat landed for the third time two more men dropped out disabled.

The rescue was still incomplete. Two men—the master and the engineer— were still on the wreck, and only four of the first boat's crew to leave snore— Keeper Anderson, Surfmen Kristofferson and Martin, and James MacDonald (a fisherman)—were still in condition to continue the work.

The danger of the undertaking, now nearing its end, had so impressed the onlookers that it was no longer possible to enlist a sufficient number of volunteers for the fourth and last venture. The boat was therefore compelled to put off under-manned.

In some respects this last trip to the wreck was the most difficult and danger- ous of all. The men still on the steamer were of middle age and less agile than the others of her crew. Besides, one of them—the engineer—was a man weighing more than 300 Ibs. Should they happen to lose their hold on the whip line while trying to reach the surf- boat they would in all likelihood be swept out of reach and drowned. To prevent such a mishap the heaving line was thrown to them. This they tied each around his body before essaying to go overboard.

The wisdom of this precaution was soon apparent, for each lost his grip on the whip line and fell into the water.

The heaving line was all that saved them.

But even so, the task of getting them out of the water, diverting the surfmen for the moment, as it did, from the ever- present peril of boarding seas, brought calamity upon some of the rescuers.

A wave, smashing down over the boat, washed three of them overboard. Fortu- nately, all succeeded in getting back on board. Keeper Anderson, directing the rescue was less fortunate than the others. He was swept overboard no less than three times before the work in hand was concluded and the boat on its way to the shore.

Thus, in the face of hardship and danger such as are rarely encountered by the corps, the rescue of the Runnel's crew of seventeen men was happily accomplished.

The services of the rescuers were appropriately recognised by the Depart- ment by the award of life-saving medals of honour.

Wreck of the Tug "Margaret." On the morning of 30th December, 1912, the seagoing tug Margaret, fighting her way against a 45-mile gale, en route from New York to Norfolk, Virginia, with three heavily-laden barges, struck a sub- merged wreck or other obstruction off the coast of New Jersey, and was so severely injured that she had to cast off her tow, and run for the shore to keep from sinking. She grounded in the breakers, some 300 yards off the beach, and was promptly discovered by the look- out of the Avalon Station, New Jersey, three or four miles to the north-east.

As a rescuing party from the station named would have had to put to sea in the teeth of the gale, news of the disaster was telephoned to the Tathams Station, several miles to the southward—from which place a boat going to the assist- ance of the tug would have the wind dead astern. After sending the message, the keeper of the Avalon Station set out with his crew down the beach on foot with the purpose of assisting the life- savers at Tathams, should assistance be necessary.

On receiving information of the stranding, the Tathams crew, under the command of Keeper Harry McGinley, hauled their power surf-boat down to the beach ready for launching. Under the lashing of the gale the waters inshore had became a cauldron of raging seas. To launch ofi an unprotected beach at such a time is a task of great difficulty and danger, for in order to escape disaster the boat must be held squarely head to the seas. A swerve to either side, however slight, and a breaking wave may swing the craft around broadside to and roll her back on the beach, possibly to the loss of some of her crew.

As the boat glided from her carriage and struck the water, the engine was set going to give her steerage way, but so fierce were the onslaughts of the surf that the power of her two propellers had to be augmented by the muscle of seven oars- men before she was able to get her nose beyond the first line of breakers. As it was, she filled before reaching the less turbulent area outside the inshore breakers. Fortunately the boat was a self- bailer and practically non-submersibleWind and sea were rapidly increasing, but once beyond the surf the rescuers had both in their favour and were soon in the locality of the tug. They found her lying bow to the shore, with only the upper part of her pilot-house and three or four feet of her bow exposed.

Her afterhouse had disappeared, and her boats had washed clear of their tackle.

What still remained above water was being heavily bombarded by the seas, as though old Neptune were bent on battering down the last refuge of the vessel's hapless crew before any human agency could intervene to save them.

After a hasty survey of the situation, Keeper McGinley decided to run inunder the starboard bow, that being the least exposed place alongside the wreck.

A few quick-spoken instructions were accordingly given as to the duty of each man when the moment should arrive for the actual work of rescue to begin.

The boat was held in check as much as possible, awaiting the approach of a favouring sea. When one came along, the full power of the engine was turned on, and boat and gathering waves sped swiftly toward the vessel. Fifty yards from the goal, however, the sea fell away.

At this critical moment, with the speed of the craft slackened, two towering seas raced down upon the boat from over the bow. The propellers were reversed to give the craft sternway and enable her to meet the oncoming waves with as little shock as possible, but she failed to take the first one at the right moment, and it broke over the heads of the occupants, hiding men and boat entirely from the view of the crew of the tug, who were anxiously watching the contest.

Like a duck coming up from a dive, the boat freed herself of the deluge of water, only to take a second plunge under when the following sea struck her, but she again came buoyantly up, and with every man of her half-drowned crew in his place.

While the life-savers were battling thus with the seas, wind and tide carried them fully 250 yards away from the wreck. Efforts to regain the ground lost were continued with renewed vigour, the surfmen now taking to their oars and adding their strength to gasoline power.

For more than half an hour the unequal fight went on, the boat gaining, then losing, then gaining again, the oarsmen frequently having to stop rowing and hold on to their seats to keep from being washed overboard.

At last the boat, having shipped many seas and repeatedly filled, got within 25 yards of the tug—almost near enough to permit a line to be thrown into the hands of her crew.

Keeper McGinley, who held the steer- ing oar, states in his report to the depart- ment that the surf around the wreck was the worst he had ever encountered in twenty-nine years spent on the beach.

The master of the tug adds his testimony also to that of the keeper regarding the condition of the sea, with the statement that on two occasions, as he watched the efforts of the life-savers to get alongside, their boat was flung so high above the surface of the water that he could see daylight underneath her entire length.

Weather conditions were unfortunately growing worse, the gale having now attained almost the velocity of a hurri- cane and the seas become miniature mountains. Moreover, the wave-buf- feted surf-boat, on getting in near the wreck, found herself in the toils of an irresistible current, against which the power of men and machinery combined availed nothing.

The life-saving crew had, indeed, reached the end of their resources, as was soon to be demonstrated. As they struggled futilely to make headway, their boat was caught up, without warn- ing, on the crest of a suddenly risen comber and, in a twinkling, flung aloft and turned over.

Following the capsize, five of the crew, including the keeper, succeeded in re- gaining the boat, which now floated bottom up. Three came to the surface so far away from the craft that they could not reach it at all. After struggling vainly against the current for a while two of them gave up the contest and swam for the shore.

The four oarsmen who, with the keeper, dad managed to get back to the 'boat were able to support themselves along- side by holding on to the bilge strips, while the keeper maintained himself at the stern, clinging to the propeller blades. Several attempts were made to right the boat, but its weight and bulk refused to answer the united tugging of the four oarsmen.

As the five helpless men clung to the craft, with tons of swirling green water burying them at intervals of a few seconds, they did not forget to shout words of encouragement to their appa- rently less fortunate comrades, fighting their way to a place beside them. More- over, the men alongside tie boat were not unmindful of each other. After each sea had smashed down on their heads and passed on, the first question asked one of the other was: "Is every one safe ? " Two of those who were clinging to the boat, Surfmeii John Mathis and Adel- bert Bobbins, had been boyhood friends.

Mathis was married. When it seemed that all must inevitably perish, Bobbins, with as fine a spirit of resignation and self-sacrifice as was ever exhibited, re- marked: " If one of us has to die, I would rather it would be me instead of John. He has a wife and children." Shortly after the keeper regained the boat he endeavoured to push the steer- ing oar, which was still secured at the stern, within reach of one of ihe three men the tide had carried away some distance. While his attention was engaged by the oar a sea, taking him off his guard, tore him away from the wheel and swept him away also. Mud- ing himself unable to get back to the boat, and feeling the chill of the water beginning to benumb his senses, he, too, struck out for land. The others who were still by the boat soon followed his example.

By a miracle all hands reached shallow water, from which they were hauled by their comrades from Avalon, assisted by residents of the neighbourhood. They were so chilled and exhausted when taken from the surf that they had to be carried bodily to a rousing fire awaiting them in an abandoned barn near by.

By 2 P.M. the wind had moderated perceptibly and shifted to the westward, cutting down the surf considerably. In anticipation of the improved weather conditions, Keeper Frank Nichols, of the Avalon Station, had already dispatched his crew for his surf-boat. The boat arrived at 3.30 P.M.

While preparations for leaving shore were under way a new difficulty arose— that of picking a crew. Eight men were needed, but each man in the two crews insisted on being given a place in the boat. The Avalon crew were fresh and impatient for the work ahead, but the men from Tathams protested vocifer- ously against any arrangement that would leave them to play the role of spectators. Finally it was agreed that the privilege of facing death in the breakers should be accorded the two keepers and three surfmen from each station. The disappointment of being left behind was so keenly felt by one of the surfmen that he broke down and wept. This man, be it known, had passed through the harrowing events of the earlier venture and was in no condi- tion to go to sea again.

The surf-boat, successfully launched, made fair headway towards the wreck, but the strength of the oarsmen alone— the boat being without power—was not sufficient to offset the combined force of wind and current. Consequently, the rescuers were swept helplessly past the wreck. There was nothing to do but beat back to windward again for another attempt. This they did, going far enough to give them a 300-yard run to the vessel.

They found the tug apparently intact, with the seas breaking over the pilot- house, whose windows still framed the haggard faces of ten despairing men. As the wreck afforded practically no lee, the danger of running alongside may well be conceived. The tug was in momen- tary danger, moreover, of breaking up, so there was no time to wait for a lull in the gale or for a chance to manoeuvre for an advantageous position. The run-in alongside had to be made with the utmost expedition, and the boat, once the crew sent it forward, held true.

As the boat shot in under the tug's bow, a line thrown toward the pilot- house was eagerly seized by the sailors and made fast. The next instant almost saw a second disastrous termination of the life-savers' efforts. When the line tautened the boat swung around to the current and was struck broadside by a succession of seas, which, besides filling her, snatched five oars out of the hands of the surfmen and carried them away.

Fortunately the two keepers, whose united strength was employed at the steering oar, managed to work the craft quickly around to her former position. While she was held thus, the shipwrecked men—ten in number—left their precarious refuge and tumbled on board.

Just as the last man was taken off a giant comber lifted the boat high in the air and sent her smashing against the side of the tug, staving in three of her planks. It was no place, however, in which to take stock of casualties. The surfmen, therefore, backed away for the shore with as much speed as could be made with the boat's three remaining oars.

Superb surfmanship won the day, and the battered and disabled boat, weighted down nearly to the gunwales by its load of eighteen men, reached the beach without further accident.

It was learned from the shipwrecked crew that one of their number, the fire- man, had perished after the tug had stranded. Rendered temporarily insane by fear, he had jumped into a boat and started to lower it. A sea came along while he was working at the fall and up- ended the craft, pitching him headlong into the water.

Keeper McGinley's description of the Margaret's polyglot crew, and of the manner in which the feelings of some of them found vent after the surf-boat reached shore, gives a brightening touch to his sombre recital of the thrilling events that preceded and attended the rescue. He says : " It was a motley crew. Only four of them were Americans. There were the captain, two negroes, one Irishman, one Scotsman, two Scandinavians, two Turks, and one from North Carolina.

Talk about the confusion of tongues ! I can imagine why the Tower was not finished. Most of them were hatless and shoeless, and clad only in trousers and undershirt. All were overjoyed when we landed. The cook, a huge negro, dropped to his knees on the sand and with arms upraised, offered thanks to the Lord for his deliverance. The little mess boy, also coloured, was no less demonstrative and sincere than, the cook in his manifestations of gratitude.

His actions took a livelier turn, however.

He did a barefoot shuffle on the ice-cold beach." The two station keepers (McGinley and Nichols) were the recipients of letters from the Secretary of the Trea- sury, highly praising the conduct of all who participated in the day's hazardous work. The services of the two crews were further recognized by the Depart- ment by the award of gold medals, each man who shared the perils of one or both trips to the wreck being so honoured.

THE United States Coast Guard was created by the Act of Congress, approved by the President, 28th January, 1915, by combining therein the Revenue- Cutter Service and the Life-Saving1 Service, both of which Services were, at the time, distinct organizations under the Treasury Department.

The Revenue-Cutter Service was originally established in the second session of the First Congress of the United States, upon the recommenda- tion of the first Secretary of the Treasury, as the result of the necessity for the services of a governmental coast patrol for the enforcement of the customs laws of the country, and of an organized force for the protection of the sea-coast. Coincident with the growth of the country additional mari- time duties were entrusted to the Ser- vice, from time to time, to meet the increasing demands of commerce approaching our shores, and to serve other maritime interests having refer- ence to governmental activities. The Service became essentially an emergent service off our shores, specializing in. nearly all governmental maritime duties.

The Life-Saving Service grew out of a series of enactments of Congress dating back to 1848, which had in view the preservation of life and property from shipwreck upon the coast. In 1871 a definite life-saving system was inaugu- rated, and administered in conjunction with the Revenue-Cutter Service, until 18th June, 1878, when, as a consequence of the development and growth of the work and of its importance to commerce and humanity, Congress established the Life-Saving Service as a separate and distinct organization.

In the processes of time it developed that the duties of the two Services so far as related to the conservation of life and marine property—the Life-Saving Service working from the shore and upon adjacent waters, and the Revenue- Cutter Service upon the sea/ and close co-operation at shipwreck existing be- tween the two—were so nearly allied that it would be in the interest of public efficiency if the two were combined into one organization, to be known as the Coast Guard. This union was effected, as before stated, by the Act of Congress of 28th January, 1915. The Act pro- vided that all the duties performed by the two Services, respectively, should continue to be performed by the Coast Guard, and transferred to the latter all offices, positions, officers and men.

of the two Services. The Act also provided, among other things, that the Coast Guard " shall constitute a part of the military forces of the United States, and shall operate under the Treasury Department in time of peace and operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy, in time of war or when the President shall so direct. . . ." Thus, while the primary object of the Service— the preservation of life and property from, the perils of the sea—is secured and maintained, the Service is able, by reason of the authority conferred by the Coast Guard Act, to extend its sphere of usefulness in the direction of both civil and military lines in the maritime and coastwise activities of the Government.

The duties of the Coast Guard, in general, may be summarized as follows : Rendering assistance to vessels in distress and saving life and property.

Destruction or removal of wrecks, derelicts, and other floating dangers to navigation.

Extending medical aid to American vessels engaged in deep-sea fisheries.

Protection of the customs revenue.

Operating as a part of the Navy in time of war or when the President shall so direct.

Enforcement of law and regulations governing anchorage of vessels in navig- able waters.

Enforcement of law relating to quarantine and neutrality.

Suppression of mutinies on merchant vessels.

Enforcement of navigation and other laws governing merchant vessels and motor-boats.

Enforcement of law to provide for safety of life on navigable waters during regattas and marine parades.

Protection of game and the seal and other fisheries in Alaska, etc.

Enforcement of sponge-fishing law.

International ice patrol in the vicinity of the Grand Banks off Newfoundland.

In addition to the foregoing principal duties, the Coast Guard performs,incidentally, numerous other humani- tarian offices of a miscellaneous charac- ter, inuring to the public good and benefit. Among these may be men- tioned : Warns off shore by the Service patrolmen vessels standing into danger ; renders various services to shipping and boating ; furnishes food, fuel and water to vessels in distress, medical and surgical aid to the sick and injured, and succour to the shipwrecked; guards ' the lives of persons in peril of drowning by falling into the water from piers and wharves in the harbours; resuscitates annually a number of persons, who, but for the intervention of the Coast Guard personnel, would lose their lives from drowning; returns lost and wandering children to their parents; co-operateswith the local authorities in the main- tenance of public order; apprehends violators of the law; prevents theft and invasion by those maliciously inclined; recovers lost and stolen property, and returns it to the owners ; saves property from danger and destruc- tion ; protects wrecked property ; acts as pilots to vessels in cases of emergency ; provides transportation and assistance to other branches of the public service and co-operates with them in the enforcement of the Federal laws entrusted to their jurisdiction.

These, incidental services are ofincalculable benefit to those who inhabit the shores, and to those whose move- ments carry them along the coast, and cogently illustrate, further, the extent to which the Coast Guard enters into our national life.

In addition to the prime duties of the Coast Guard in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea and South- eastern Alaska, in enforcing the Con- vention of 7th July, 1911, between the United States, Great Britain, Russia and Japan, proclaimed 14th December, 1911, and the Act of the United States Congress approved 24th August, 1912, for the protection of the fur seal and the sea otter, and the laws and regula- tions for the protection of game, the fisheries and fur-bearing animals ofAlaska, mention of which is made in the foregoing summary, the cutters of the Service annually patrolling those waters perform such work as furnishing transportation to Government officials and the local authorities, school teachers, destitutes, natives, and other persons, transporting the mails, delivering food and other supplies to the isolated settle- ments, succouring persons in need, assisting vessels in distress, providing medicines and medical treatment for the natives, enforcing and administering the laws, etc. For many years the Coast Guard has ministered to the needs of the natives and others in these isolated and sparsely settled regions, has dispensed justice, has adjudicated their differences and difficulties, has afforded them protection against untoward and harmful situations, has stood between them and dire necessity, has thrown itself into battle for them against the ravages of disease threaten- ing decimation, until it has been accepted as a fact among the inhabitants that the Service partakes of the qualities of guardianship over their physical destinies. The annual visitation of the cutters is a welcome episode in the lives of these far-away people.

The regular off-shore patrols by cutters of the Service in the prosecution of their normal duties are intensified during the stormy season of the year, from 1st December to 31st March, when naviga- tion is especially hazardous, by increased activity and watchfulness, and by special cruising, on the part of the vessels, so that shipping may be safe- guarded to the greatest possible extent.

The President annually designates cer- tain Coast Guard vessels to perform this duty.

The Coast Guard annually conducts the international service of ice observa- tion and ice patrol along the trans- Atlantic steamship lanes in the vicinity of the Grand Banks, which was begun by the United States in 1914, at the request of Great Britain, acting on behalf of the various Powers interested, under the conditions set forth in the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which was signed at London, 20th January, 1914, by the representatives of those Powers.

A system of military discipline, training and drill, is maintained through- out the Service, not to interfere with any of the emergent civil duties, better to fit the personnel for operating as a part of the Navy, when occasion may require.

The personnel of the Coast Guard consists of commissioned officers, warrants, petty officers, and other enlisted men. The chief officer of the Service is the Commandant, who has the rank of rear-admiral in the Coast Guard, and whose headquarters are at Washington. The administration of the Service is directed from the head- quarters of the Commandant, and he is assisted by a staff of officers and a corps of civilian officials. The Commandant is appointed by the President and con- firmed by the Senate, as is also the Engineer-in-Chief, who has the rank of Captain of Engineers. The Com- mandant, in time of peace, performs his duties under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury having imme- diate supervision. The other commis- sioned personnel is composed of captains, commanders, lieutenant commanders, lieutenants, lieutenants (junior grade), ensigns (both line and engineer corps for all these grades), constructors and district superintendents, the last-named being in immediate charge, respectively, of the thirteen shore districts comprising the Coast Guard stations (formerly life-saving stations). The commissioned personnel of the line and engineer corps is obtained from the cadets graduating from the Coast Guard Academy, which is maintained at New London, Connec- ticut, for the education and training of cadets. The district superintendents are obtained by promotion, after examination, from the warrant personnel of Coast Guard stations. The warrant personnel of the shore stations is ob- tained, after examination, and appoint- ment by the Secretary of the Treasury, from the enlisted personnel of the stations, and the warrant personnel of the floating part of the Service is obtained, after examination, and appointment by the Secretary of the Treasury, from the enlisted personnel of the vessels. The enlisted personnel of the entire Service is obtained in much the same manner as in all military jgervices, the period of enlistment ranging from one to three years, at the option of the candidate.

The authorized commissioned per- sonnel of the Service is 270. At the close of the fiscal year, ended 30th June, / 1922, there were 389 warrant officers, and 3,548 petty officers and other enlisted men. The number of petty officers and other enlisted men, however, does not represent the full complement, as there were a number of vacancies unfilled.

Ranks and titles of officers are thesame as those of corresponding officers of the United States Navy. The grades of warrant officers, chief petty officers, petty officers and other enlisted men, are the same as those of the Navy, in so far as the duties of the Coast Guard may require. The Coast Guard has the rating of surfman, which the Navy does not have, because of the surf and broken water work necessary to be performed at and in the vicinity of Coast Guard stations on shore.

The floating equipment of the Services at the close of the fiscal year ended 30th June, 1922, consisted of 103 vessels, Vessels are attached to appropriated geographical divisions, of which there are seven covering the sea and lake ooasts of the United States, or act asindependent units as the exigencies of the Service may require.

The sea and lake coasts of the United States are divided into thirteen Coast Guard districts, as hereinbefore stated.

In these districts there are 277 shore stations, located with especial reference to navigational dangers. Each district is in immediate charge of a District Superintendent, as previously stated, and each station is in immediate charge of a warrant officer. A crew of from seven to ten men, generally, is assigned to each station, according to local conditions and needs.The Coast Guard of the United States undertakes the rescue of the shipwrecked by all the principal methods yet devised for that purpose ; bv line communica- tion, and by life-boats and surf-boats, from the shore, and by cutters at sea.

It furnishes the shipwrecked subsequent succour, and assists in arranging for their transportation to such destinations as they are required to go.

Stores of clothing for the destitute survivors of marine casualties and-other situations of distress or misfortune have been generously placed at the shore stations, without cost to the Govern- ment, for the past forty-two years, by the Blue Anchor Society, Aid for the Shipwrecked, Women's National Association.The Coast Guard, in its entirety, is under direct governmental jurisdiction and supervision, and is supported wholly by appropriations made by the Congress of the United States.

The life-saving equipment of the shore stations consists of the so-called beach apparatus (comprising, chiefly, line-throwing guns, projectiles, shot lines, hawsers, whip lines, breeches- buoys, tally boards, life cars, heaving sticks and lines, pyrotechnic signals, signal flags and other gear, life-boats, surf-boats and other types of boats, life preservers, etc. For effecting line communication with stranded vessels, and between cutters and disabled vessels at sea in heavy weather, the Coast Guard chiefly employs the Lyle Gun, named after Colonel D. A. Lyle, of the Ordnance Department of the United States Army, who devised it. It is to be found in every station. The Hunt Gun, devised by Mr. Edmund S. Hunt, of Massachusetts, and the Cunningham Rocket, invented by Mr. Patrick Cun- ningham, of the same State, have been furnished to a few stations where the outlying bars are so far off shore that vessels may possibly strand beyond the range of the Lyle Gun. This has been done not in the belief that the beach apparatus can be effectually used at any distance beyond this range, but with the hope that a line, if thrown from the shore to a wreck, might be used to effect the passage of a boat or a life- car, or that some other means for rescue might be improvised. The Lyle Gun is of bronze, with a smooth 2|-inch bore ; weighs, with its carriage,-185 Ibs., and carries a shot weighing 17 Ibs.

This projectile is a solid elongated cylinder 14J inches in length, into the base of which is screwed an eyebolt for receiving the shot line, the bolt projecting sufficiently beyond the muzzle of the gun to protect the line from being burned off in firing. When the gun is fired the weight and inertia of the line cause the projectile to reverse. The shot lines used are of three sizes, designated by the numbers 4, 7 and 9, being, respectively, 7 , and -& inch in diameter, and 700, 666 and 610 yards long. Any charge of powder can be used up to the maximum of 6 ozs. A range of 695 yards has been obtained with the No. 4 line under favourable circumstances. The range of the larger line is, of course, proportionately diminished. The No. 4 line is used only where the vessel is thought to lie beyond the range of the larger lines, for the reason that it is not strong enough to sustain the hauling of the whip line on board—an intermediate line has to be supplied, requiring the expenditure of time and strength—and because it is not so easily hauled upon by the ship- wrecked sailors as the larger one. The Hunt Gun is also of bronze, of about the same size and weight as the Lyle Gun, and not very different from it, except that it has a bore an inch larger and is attached to its carriage bed at the cascable instead of resting on trunnions. The peculiarity of the Hunt system is not in the gun, but in the projectile, which could be fired just as well from the Lyle Gun if the latter were of sufficient calibre. This pro- jectile consists of a cylindrical tube of tin, into one end of which is soldered a solid hemispherical piece of lead, which, when the projectile is placed in the gun, rests upon the cartridge, and upon dis- charge reverses its position like the Lyle shot and goes foremost. The shot line, being fastened into a staple in the centre of the inside surface of this piece of lead, is coiled in the tube until the cavity is nearly filled, being kept in place by a coating of paraffin, which is sufficiently adhesive for the purpose, but does not materially retard its paying out as the projectile flies. The tube has a capacity for 320 yards of No.. 4 line. In the outer end is placed a diaphragm of paste-board with a circular hole in its centre f inch in diameter, through which a portion of the other end of the line hangs out. When the missile is placed in the gun 4 or 5 inches protrude beyond the muzzle. Upon this portion four trapeziform wings are soldered at regular intervals to control the flight. Before firing, the protruding end of the incased line is tied to another line coiled in a can, or otherwise so arranged as to permit it to be taken out without entanglement. When the discharge takes place the line in the can, by its inertia and weight, causesthe line in the projectile to pay out, and when the latter is exhausted furnishes the supply for the remainder of the flight.

The Cunningham Rocket System may be said to be an application of the Hunt projectile to a rocket. It consists of a powerful rocket, at the rear end of which is a female screw that receives the pointed end of a sheet-iron tube, 5 feet 9J inches in length, and of equal diameter with the rocket. This tube is packed with 800 yards of No. 4shot line, which is connected with a shore line in the same manner as in the Hunt system, and is paid out in flight as from the Hunt projectile.

The tube also takes the place of the stick in other rockets. The shore line can be of any size. The range of the rocket with a No. 4 line is from 700 to 1,000 yards, which is dimi- nished with other lines according to their sizes.

For a vehicle in which to transport people from a wreck to shore, after line communication has been established, the breeches buoy is generally used. The life-car is sometimes taken, however, especially where many persons are tobe landed, and where the distance is too great to use the breeches buoy.

The car is a covered boat, made of corrugated galvanized iron, furnished 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 sometimes the case where the shore is abrupt. The cover of the boat is convex, and is provided with a hatch, which fastens either inside or outside, through which entrance and exit are effected. Near each end it is perforated with a group of small holes, like the holes in a grater, punched outward, to supply aid for breathing, without admit- ting much, if any, water. It is capable of containing six or seven persons, and is very useful in landing sick people and valuables, as they are protected from getting wet. On the first occasion of its use it saved 201 persons.

To ensure that the crews of wrecked vessels will understand what to do whenstation crews are making rescues by means of the beach apparatus gear, two tally boards or tablets are used. One of these is spliced permanently into the tail of the whip block, just above the splice, and the other is spliced or bent on the top end of the hawser. Each tally board contains inscriptions, in English on one side and in French on the other, telling explicitly what is to be done after they are received.

At Coast Guard stations a fixed beat or patrol is laid out in each direction along the shore, varying, according to the conformation of the coast with respect to inlets, headlands, etc., from one-half to two, three, or four miles in length.

The station crew is divided into regular watches of two men each, and during the hours from sunset to sunrise patrol these beats, keeping a sharp look- out seaward at all times. The usual schedule is: First watch, sunset to 8 P.M. ; second watch, 8 P.M. to mid- night ; third watch, midnight to 4 A.M. ; fourth watch, 4 A.M. to sunrise.

At sunset the first man starts out on patrol in the same direction from all stations in a district, so far as practic- able. While the patrolman is out, his watch-mate takes the station watch, which is kept in the tower, or on the beach abreast the station, as conditions may require. If the station is connected with the Service telephone line, the station watch makes it his business to be within hearing distance of the bell at regular intervals. In addition to keeping watch seaward, he is on the look-out for signals and telephone calls from the patrolman. Upon the return of the first patrol, he takes the station watch, and the other man patrols in the opposite direction. At the proper j time the man on station watch calls out the next two men, who must be | dressed and ready for duty before the first two turn in.

This routine is varied to meet local conditions. In harbours and seaports fixed look-outs are usually maintained instead of a beach patrol.

Positive evidence of the integrity of the patrol and watch is required. Where stations are sufficiently close to one another to permit the entire distance between them to be patrolled, a halfway point is established. At this point each patrolman must deposit a brass check bearing the name of the station and his number in the crew. This is taken up on the next visit by the patrolman from the adjacent station, who in turn leaves his check. The first patrolman at night returns all checks of the previous night.

Where the patrols do not connect, the patrolman carries a watchman's clock or time detector in which there is a dial that can be marked only by means of a key which registers on the dial the exact time of marking. This key is secured in a safe embedded in a post at the limit of the patrol, and the patrol- man must reach that point in order to obtain the key with which to register his arrival.

In some cases telephones are located in halfway houses or at the end of the patrols; in such cases the patrolmen report to their stations by telephone.

In other cases the patrolman is provided with a small hand telephone set with which he can communicate with the station.

Each patrolman carries a number of red Coston signals with which to warn a vessel standing too close inshore, or to notify a vessel in distress that he has gone to summon assistance.

The beach patrol was devised and inaugurated by the former Life-Saving Service in the early 'seventies.

The coastal communication system of the Coast Guard comprises more than 2,200 miles of telephone circuits, includ- ing about 440 miles of submarine tele- phone cable. All Coast Guard stations are furnished with telephone service, and, in addition, the most important light stations on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts are provided with telephone service by the Coast Guard. Telephone service is also furnished to a number of Navy radio and radio-compass stations by the Coast Guard. Wherever it is practicable to do so the stations are connected with one another, thus afford- ing direct communication. This obtains in the great majority of cases. By means of this system the stations are enabled instantly to transmit information of marine casualties to the maritime centres of the country, and to summonthe aid of the cutters and other agencies.

This utilitarian adjunct of the Coast Guard, starting on our coast nearly half a century ago, gradually growing to its present state of perfection andefficiency, has been made of incalculable benefit to the Service, to marine com- merce, to those interested in shipping, to the country as a protective agency in time of war, and to the public residing on the outlying, desolate beaches skirting the seaboard.

The development of the most efficientclasses and types of vessels and boats for service in the Coast Guard is an absorbing and important problem, as it is, doubtless, in all kindred services.

The'general'characteristics of the cutters are determined from a study of the Service conditions under which they must be designed to operate. Aside from normal Service conditions, con- sideration must be given to the question of national defence, and in this relation a study of Navy requirements is involved, so that the requisite design and featuresmay be accomplished. Inasmuch as the size of an efficient cruising cutter is limited, a combination of desirable qualities in proper proportions becomes a desideratum. Seaworthiness, length, draft, displacement, speed, steaming radius and accommodations, all must receive attention, and Coast Guard essentials of ample boat equipment, strong anchor gear, towing gear and wrecking equipment, as well as Navy requirements for battery, ammunition, fire control, and special devices must be provided for. What is said pertains particularly to the requirements for cruising cutters, but the design of the small craft for inshore patrol and harbour duty, also, must have careful attention. The Coast Guard endeavours, in developing designs, to simplify and standardise the vessels in order to reduce first cost and to minimise the expense of upkeep, repair and operation.

The standardisation of small boats for vessels and for stations has been accomplished, and the principal classes of such boats are known as follows : Motor life-boats, motor self-bailing surf- boats, motor launches, motor dinghies, self-bailing surf-boats, surf-boats, whale boats and dinghies. The simplification of the boat equipment has tended to a saving in first costs and in cost of repair, without any loss of efficiency.

The following will describe briefly the self-bailing, self-righting motor life- boat, the self-bailing motor surf-boat, the self-bailing surf-boat, and the open surf-boats.

Motor Life-boat.—Length, 36 feet over all; beam, 9 feet 6 inches over guards ; draft, approximately, 3 feet 6 inches; self-bailing and self-righting; carvel built; hull divided into watertight bulkheads; turtle back-end compart- ments ; engine house amidships ; semi- tunnel for propeller; protecting skeg for propeller and rudder; propelling machinery—one four-cylinder four-cycle Wisconsin motor of about 44 h.p. at 1,000 revolutions per minute ; gasoline tanks, total capacity about 150 gallons equipped with electric lights; speed about nine miles an hour; jib, main and mizzen sails fitted ; hull of wood.

Self-bailing Motor Surf-boat.—Length, 26 feet over all; beam, 8 feet over cork fenders; draft, 2 feet approximately, under way ; clinker built; hull sub- divided by watertight bulkheads ; deck side and end compartments ; engine box amidships ; semi-tunnel for propeller; protecting skeg for propeller; out- board detachable rudder; propelling machinery—one four-cylinder, four- cycle Kermath motor of about 20 h.p.

at 1,000 revolutions per minute ; gaso- line tanks, total capacity of approxi- mately 22 gallons; speed about eight and a half miles per hour; fitted for rowing ; no sails ; hull of wood.

Self-bailing Surf-boat. — Length, 25 feet 6 inches over all; beam, 8 feet over cork fenders ; clinker built; hull subdivided by watertight bulkheads; deck side and end compartments; out- board rudder ; no propelling machinery ; fitted for rowing ; fitted with sails and centreboard ; hull of wood.

Open Surf-boats.—Length, from 24 feet 6 inches to 26 feet over all; beam, about 7 feet; not self-bailing ; clinker built; end compartments fitted ; out- board rudder ; all equipped for rowing ; some fitted with sails and centreboards ; hulls of wood.

The operations of the Coast Guard from 1st July, 1914, to 30th June, 1922, that are susceptible of numerical or monetary appraisement, are exhibited in the following tabular summary : Lives saved or persons rescued 15,199 100,589 5,128 120,618 from peril ....

Persons on board vessels assisted Persons in distress cared for Vessels boarded and papers examined ....

Regattas and marine parades 126 12,756 10,185 156 $233,446,162 $2,667,885 43,508 patrolled in accordance with law .....

Instances of lives saved and vessels assisted Instances of miscellaneous assist- ance .....

Derelicts and other obstructions to navigation removed or destroyed ....

Value of vessels assisted (includ- ing cargoes)....

Value of derelicts recovered and delivered to owners Persons examined for certificates as life-boat men .

The duties of the Coast Guard call for unceasing vigilance and energetic prosecution at all times; its scope is broad and comprehensive, and its responsibilities are complex and serious.

The annals of the Service furnish almost an unending story of achievements— many, it is believed, as brilliant as human effort can make them—at wreck and rescue work. It is difficult, ii indeed it is not impossible, to select from among the hundreds of instances of such service particular cases wherein the very acme of excellence has been attained. So many instances have reached that point, it would seem, or have approximated that point, that to differentiate among them would require the finest sort of discrimination. Effort will be made, however, to relate, belowseveral cases of representative service at shipwreck performed by the cutters and the stations of the Service.

Wreck of the Steamer "RE. Runnels." The closing days of the season of navigation upon the Great Lakes furnish the Coast Guard units operating upon those waters a period of arduous service, for it is during this period that most of the " big" wrecks occur. In late October and during the month of November violent gales, accompanied by snow and sleet—the advance guard of a northern winter—sweep unheralded over this region, lashing the waters of these inland seas to a fury such as is not often experienced in ocean naviga- tion. The prudent shipowner puts his property in winter quarters alongside a dock or at a safe harbour anchorage in time to escape the tempestuous weather of late autumn. But there are always some owners or masters who are willing to take the hazard of " one more trip " —the last in many cases, since a con- siderable number of the vessels that court misfortune in this way never again reach port.

Ordinarily, vessels caught thus by storm out in open water meet disaster while seeking a haven. Unable to find the harbour entrance they are trying to reach in the darkness or blinding mist or snow, they strike upon pier or breakwater, or upon an unfriendlybeach near by. Frequently, the spot in which they come to grief is so exposed or so surrounded by natural obstructions, such as reefs and rocky formation of coast, as to make rescue or salvage work difficult, if not impossible.

A shipwreck which occurred in mid- November of 1919, at Grand Marais, Michigan, coast of Lake Superior, is a good illustration of the foregoing.

The 889-ton American steamer H. E.

Runnels left Buffalo on 5th November for Lake Linden, Michigan, a voyage of upward of 1,000 miles. With 100 miles or so of her trip still before her she ran into a north-west gale off Grand Marais, and turned into the harbour at that place for shelter. The gale abating somewhat, she resumed her voyage early on the morning of the 14th. When sherounded Point Au Sable, eight miles distant from Grand Marais, she en- countered a sixty-mile wind, accom- panied by a heavy fall of snow. She' promptly turned round and headed back! for the harbour she had recently left.

The Runnels had made her last port.

In the murk of the driving snow she missed the harbour entrance. While she was working out into the lake for a second attempt her steering gear gave way and she was driven helplessly on the shore, striking 150 feet from the outer end of one of the piers.

The hour was about 7 A.M., scarcely daylight in that latitude. The crew of the Grand Marais Coast Guard station, situated a quarter of a mile southward of the scene of the stranding, had been earlier aware of the vessel's movements, she having been reported outside the pierheads by the station watch at 5.30 o'clock. This was presumably at the time she was making her first attempt to get in.

A vessel in the position in which the Runnels was first observed, and with a storm raging, presaged disaster. The station crew, therefore, lost no time in getting boats and apparatus ready for the work which experience told them was almost certainly ahead.

The Runnels was seen to back out into the lake after her first unsuccessful effort to make the entrance, and it was supposed that she intended to heave to and await daylight before having another " try " at the narrow passage between the piers. This view was strengthened by the fact that she did not blow her whistle nor display any signals indicating that she was in difficulty.

When the station crew first saw the steamer the wind was blowing with almost hurricane force, and a tremendous sea was running. Acting upon the belief that she would make no further attempt to get inside until daylight, Surfman A. E. Kristofierson, in charge of the station in the absence of the keeper, went aboard Coast Guard cutter No. 438 (formerly a sub.-chaser), temporarily in harbour for shelter, and requested the assistance of that vessel in getting the station apparatus to the beach should the expected happen and the steamer «ome ashore.Surfman Kristofferson's visit to the cutter had an unexpected bearing upon the events that were shortly to take place. It resulted in bringing to the ranks of the life-saving forces a volunteer of long experience in wreck work, John 0. Anderson, keeper of the Old Chicago Coast Guard Station. Keeper Anderson, away from his station on leave at the time, was on board the cutter as a guest of her commanding officer, Captain G. R. O'Connor.

On learning from Kristofierson that his superior officer was not within call, Anderson tendered his services to the surf man. The acceptance of the offer automatically placed Anderson, for the time, in charge of the station crew, a responsibility which, as the events of the morning proved, he bore with great credit to himself and the Service.

While Anderson and Kristofferson were on their way to the station they saw the masts and spars of a vessel looming up through the driving snow close inshore. She was even then drifting rapidly to her doom off the harbour piers.

Events moved swiftly. The steamer was now aground, broadside to the beach, and lying in a position that exposed her to the full violence of the storm. The waves were high and short, coming around both bow and stern.

This, with the backwash from the pier, made a nasty cross sea. The temperature stood at 18 degrees above zero, and the water froze as it fell, coating everything it touched with ice. Moreover, the furiously driving snow was like curtain blown aside at intervals to disclose to the onlookers a more or less obscured picture of the stricken vessel.

A shot from the Lyle Line-throwing Gun placed a line fairly over the bowsprit of the steamer—the only part of her not constantly swept by the seas.

The ship's crew got hold of the line, hauled out the block with the whip line rove through it, and fastened the former to the post of the steering wheel in the pilot house—the only accessible object offering the stability necessary to withstand the strain soon to be put upon the line.

Thus far the work preliminary to that of taking the men off the vessel had moved along without a hitch ; but now,Surfman Kristofferson's visit to the cutter had an unexpected bearing upon the events that were shortly to take place. It resulted in bringing to the ranks of the life-saving forces a volunteer of long experience in wreck work, John 0. Anderson, keeper of the Old Chicago Coast Guard Station. Keeper Anderson, away from his station on leave at the time, was on board the cutter as a guest of her commanding officer, Captain G. R. O'Connor.

On learning from Kristofierson that his superior officer was not within call, Anderson tendered his services to the surf man. The acceptance of the offer automatically placed Anderson, for the time, in charge of the station crew, a responsibility which, as the events of the morning proved, he bore with great credit to himself and the Service.

While Anderson and Kristofferson were on their way to the station they saw the masts and spars of a vessel looming up through the driving snow close inshore. She was even then drifting rapidly to her doom off the harbour piers.

Events moved swiftly. The steamer was now aground, broadside to the beach, and lying in a position that exposed her to the full violence of the storm. The waves were high and short, coming around both bow and stern.

This, with the backwash from the pier, made a nasty cross sea. The temperature stood at 18 degrees above zero, and the water froze as it fell, coating everything it touched with ice. Moreover, the furiously driving snow was like curtain blown aside at intervals to disclose to the onlookers a more or less obscured picture of the stricken vessel.

A shot from the Lyle Line-throwing Gun placed a line fairly over the bowsprit of the steamer—the only part of her not constantly swept by the seas.

The ship's crew got hold of the line, hauled out the block with the whip line rove through it, and fastened the former to the post of the steering wheel in the pilot house—the only accessible object offering the stability necessary to withstand the strain soon to be put upon the line.

Thus far the work preliminary to that of taking the men off the vessel had moved along without a hitch ; but now,Surfman Kristofferson's visit to the cutter had an unexpected bearing upon the events that were shortly to take place. It resulted in bringing to the ranks of the life-saving forces a volunteer of long experience in wreck work, John 0. Anderson, keeper of the Old Chicago Coast Guard Station. Keeper Anderson, away from his station on leave at the time, was on board the cutter as a guest of her commanding officer, Captain G. R. O'Connor.

On learning from Kristofierson that his superior officer was not within call, Anderson tendered his services to the surf man. The acceptance of the offer automatically placed Anderson, for the time, in charge of the station crew, a responsibility which, as the events of the morning proved, he bore with great credit to himself and the Service.

While Anderson and Kristofferson were on their way to the station they saw the masts and spars of a vessel looming up through the driving snow close inshore. She was even then drifting rapidly to her doom off the harbour piers.

Events moved swiftly. The steamer was now aground, broadside to the beach, and lying in a position that exposed her to the full violence of the storm. The waves were high and short, coming around both bow and stern.

This, with the backwash from the pier, made a nasty cross sea. The temperature stood at 18 degrees above zero, and the water froze as it fell, coating everything it touched with ice. Moreover, the furiously driving snow was like a curtain blown aside at intervals to disclose to the onlookers a more or less obscured picture of the stricken vessel.

A shot from the Lyle Line-throwing Gun placed a line fairly over the bowsprit of the steamer—the only part of her not constantly swept by the seas.

The ship's crew got hold of the line, hauled out the block with the whip line rove through it, and fastened the former to the post of the steering wheel in the pilot house—the only accessible object offering the stability necessary to withstand the strain soon to be put upon the line.

Thus far the work preliminary to that of taking the men off the vessel had moved along without a hitch ; but now,.