A Signal Success PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XLIX. SUNSET COX ON THE LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. It is an exceedingly sweet thought to me that the work to which I have given my life has been not only a means of support, but a benefaction to my fellowcreatures; and I feel this especially in the use to which the Coston Signals have been put in the United States Life-Saving Service, --one of the noblest institutions our country can boast, and the elevation of which was due largely to the efforts of the Hon. S. S. Cox, who made before the House of Eepresentatives, June 4, 1878, a powerful and eloquent speech, from which I cannot resist the temptation to quote the following extracts: "It is not my purpose to go into the history of the organization and development of this Life-Saving Service. It is of comparatively recent origin. It dates only from 1848, since which time up to 1872 four thousand lives have been saved. It was limited for twenty years to the New Jersey and Long Island coast; it had small appropriations, a few shanties, no discipline, and very indifferent apparatus. In 1872 a new era was inaugurated. Discipline was evoked out of chaos, by the employment of regular crews and a patrol system. The line, which is attached to a ball and shot from a rocket or mortar and thrown over the disabled vessel, then came into more frequent use. Since then the car, fastened upon the rope extending from the vessel to the shore, has been the vehicle of safety to thousands of lives. The first use of this car resulted in the saving of over two hundred lives on the Jersey const. "Since 1872, as will be seen in detail hereafter, nearly five thousand lives have been saved, and not less than seven millions of property. During the year ending June 30,1877, one hundred and thirty-seven vessels were...