Hampton Bays Lifesavers on Display At Library

The Hampton Bays Historical Society has taken over the display case at the Hampton Bays Library with a gallery dedicated to the Federal Life-Saving service, which protected the waters around Hampton Bays, starting in 1848.

The display, says Brenda Bertstein, head of the society, includes historical photographs, as well as information.

The following was written by the Hampton Bays Historical Society about the Federal Life-Saving Service.

The federal life-saving service officially begain on August 14, 1848. Lifesaving stations were built along the coast to house rescue workers who were trained to help with shipwrecks and maritime disasters.  The men who were stationed there were known as surfmen because they retrieved shipwreck victims using lifeboats that they launched and beached through the surf, often during fierce storms.  The system expanded to cover the coast from Maine to Florida, the Great Lakes, portions of the gulf and west coast.  Thirty of these were on the south shore of Long Island.  Typically the stations were located three miles apart.

In 1878, the system became a separate agency of the Treasury Department and was officially called the U.S. Lifesaving Service. Records show that the service aided 28,121 vessels and saved 178,841 lives between 1871 and 1915.  After 1915, the Lifesavers merged with the US Revenue Cutter Service and became the present day United States Coast Guard.  

The first Tiana Life Saving Station was built in 1871 at a position "two miles southwest of Shinnecock light." At the time, the only access was by boat - Dune Road did not exist.  Tiana was the first structure built on the dunes there.  It stood on the outer beach between Shinnecock and Quogue Stations.  The station was a “red house type,” which was a small plain structure and measured 18’ x 42’.  In 1887, “wings” were added to the station.  And in 1878, it was listed as "Tyana," but by 1882, the name is again shown as Tiana.  

By day, the men would watch the ocean with a spyglass from a cubicle atop the building.  It is said there were no chairs in the cubicle in order to keep the men alert. At night, the surfmen would patrol the beach, walking in opposite directions from the station and meeting surfmen from the neighboring stations at a halfway point.  The surfmen carried a medallion that they used to prove their identity, as well as Coston signals, which were similar to a flare and used to warn boats if they came too close to the shore.  Lifesaving Stations were only manned during the “active time” when shipwrecks were most likely to occur, November through April. By the 1900s, this was changed to year-round. 

The number of men manning a station was decided by the number of men needed to row the largest boat at the station, generally six to eight.  They had to be younger than 45 and physically fit.  They worked six days a week for a wage of $60 a month from. They had to purchase their own food and uniforms.  Often men wore what they owned rather than buying a uniform.  The original stations were manned by local men.  Carter, Lane, Sinclair, Penny, Caffrey, are all names that appear on the records. There was no bridge across the Shinnecock Bay until 1931, so the Life Savers would either take a boat across the bay from the main land or, walk to Southampton and return on Dune Road. 

Lifesaver George Caffrey, built a very small home on the beach about 500 feet west of the Shinnecock Station.  He, his wife Charlotte and their two sons, Fred and Charles, used this building as their winter home for about eight years.  Mrs. Caffrey tutored the boys and when the ice on the bay broke up they’d return to their home in Rampasture and the boys would return to school.  According to Charles, who was born there, the stations in Good Ground were closed in July and August.  During the rest of the year, there were two men on duty at all times and they changed watch every two hours.   

An 1886, a New York Times article told of the following fish report from David A. Vail, Keeper of the Tiana Lifesaving Station at Atlanticville: Alewives first appeared on February 26, porgies April 20, searobins April 22, Boston mackarel April 30, butterfish April 30.  He reported there had been no sightings of whales that spring.  

John Edwin Carter was appointed Keeper at Tiana in 1886.  His compensation was $700 per annum.  Keepers were required to keep a daily journal of weather conditions, wave heights, barometer readings as well as the number of ships sighted off shore.  On a Sunday in February, 1887, Keeper Carter entered the following information, “low surf, moderate west wind and clear weather.  Sighted 12 schooners and the same number of steamers.”  On most days, there were more schooners then steamers spotted.  According to his birth certificate, Keeper Carter’s son, Arthur Stanley was born at the Tiana Station in 1896.  At the time of his retirement in 1915 Capt. Carter received $141.75 per month in wages.

In 1912, the Tiana station was rebuilt to replace decaying and antiquated buildings, although both structures still survive today.  The station was rendered inactive on June 9, 1937.  It was reactivated for service during World War II and was manned by an African-American crew and commanded by an African-American Chief Petty Officer, Cecil R. Foster. Tiana was the second African-American station in the country.  The final position of the station is given as "on Tiana Beach, abreast of Shinnecock Bay, and three and one-quarter miles west-southwest of Shinnecock Light."  The current structure is the old “Lorain” type station. 

The station and grounds were abandoned in 1946 and soon became private property.  In 1993, during a fierce storm, the ocean undercut the building and the station was moved back, which required a building permit.  The tower was removed since it was too high for zoning requirements.

There is, of course, no longer a need for lifesaving stations every few miles.  Modern communications, power speedboats, and rescue aircraft have made the Coast Guard far more efficient and speedy in their mission, while navigational aids and modern ship design have rendered their services seldom needed.  They are augmented, when necessary, by the Coast Guard Auxiliary and commercial services, such as Sea Tow.

"You have to go out, but you do not have to come back." — Unofficial motto of the United States Life Savers.