The Evolution of Lifesaving on Nantucket

Early Volunteer Rescue Efforts

Prior to the advent of organized life-saving, sailors involved in a wreck were likely to perish. Even if fortunate enough to make it to shore, the limited shelter offered by the dunes did not significantly improve the sailor's chances of survival. Faced with the large number of shipwrecks and tragic loss of life, the people living in maritime communities like Nantucket actively supported efforts to save the lives of shipwreck victims. The Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum commemorates the activities of groups like the Massachusetts Humane Society, United States Life-Saving Service, and United States Coast Guard which formed over time and dedicated themselves to rescuing the lives of shipwreck victims.

The Humane Society Initiates Innovations

Formally established in 1786, The Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (commonly known as the Massachusetts Humane Society) was concerned about the needless deaths resulting from shipwrecks and drownings and wanted to find ways to save lives. From the outset, it focused on recognizing selfless lifesaving rescues and preventing such tragedies. It established an awards system with a financial stipend for those who risked their lives to rescue others and presented its first award in 1786. By sponsoring public lectures and publishing research studies, it encouraged innovative lifesaving techniques and resuscitation measures. Its resources financed a number of firsts in the country: lifesaving huts and rescue boats along the coast, swimming instruction for Boston public school students, and instructional posters on resuscitation methods.

By 1830, the Massachusetts Humane Society had begun placing equipment, along the shore, for volunteer life-savers to use in the event of shipwreck. These men hauled the cart and its load of equipment either by hand or with a horse to a point on shore near the shipwreck. Beach carts like the one on exhibit at the Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum carried the equipment needed to perform a rescue using a breeches buoy, a crude rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one location to another in situations of danger. The breeches buoy was usually deployed from shore to ship using a small cannon, and allowed single person evacuations.

The United States Life-Saving Service is Born

By 1848 the success of the Massachusetts Humane Society inspired the federal government to foster volunteer based life-saving efforts outside of Massachusetts. However, unlike Massachusetts' efforts, these federal attempts at life-saving were hindered by both the failure to maintain the equipment and lack of willing volunteers. Public pressure to revamp the life-saving system and increase its reliability led to the creation of the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS), a professional corps of life-savers in 1871. The USLSS built life-saving stations along the East, West, and Gulf Coasts as well as the Great Lakes. These stations were manned by surfmen, under the command of a Keeper, who trained with life-saving equipment, maintained a daytime lookout, and patrolled the beaches nightly and during storms in order to respond to vessels in distress.

Mergers Create Today’s United States Coast Guard

The USLSS merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915; together, they became part of the United States Coast Guard under an act of Congress. The US Coast Guard is one of the oldest organizations of the federal government and, until the Navy Department was established in 1798, served as the nation's only armed force afloat. After the merger, the nation then had a single maritime service dedicated to saving life at sea and enforcing the nation's maritime laws. The Coast Guard began to maintain the country's aids to maritime navigation, including operating the nation's lighthouses, when President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the transfer of the Lighthouse Service to the Coast Guard in 1939. 

In times of peace, the Coast Guard operates as part of the Department of Homeland Security, serving as the nation's front-line agency for enforcing our laws at sea, protecting our coastline and ports, and saving life.  In times of war, or on direction of the President, the Coast Guard serves under the Navy Department.

The Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum honors US Coast Guard efforts on Nantucket with its new exhibit, Brant Point 24/7: Nantucket’s Coast Guard.