1 / 12

Station St. Joseph

Station St. Joseph. A Brief History. Early Days. When St. Joseph and Benton Harbor were being settled in the 1830’s, Lake Michigan was a very place. Shipwrecks were common.

marlow
Download Presentation

Station St. Joseph

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Station St. Joseph A Brief History

  2. Early Days When St. Joseph and Benton Harbor were being settled in the 1830’s, Lake Michigan was a very place. Shipwrecks were common. It was not until the 1850’s that the US government began to build lighthouses and provide equipment for volunteer lifesaving crews.

  3. Volunteer Lifeboat Station 1855-1870 In 1852, the Newell Act provided funds to place lifesaving equipment in maritime communities. In 1855, St. Joseph was one of the first cities to receive an issue of this type. The crew’s boathouse is thought to have located at the foot of State Street until the LSS moved to the station’s present location in 1876. Little is known about these early volunteers, but it is thought to have been commanded by Joseph Napier, member of a notable St. Joseph family.

  4. Life Car Training on the St. Joseph River The Francis Boat or Life Car was the first lifesaving equipment issued to the St. Joseph crew. It was a metal-plated boat intended to ferry passengers from a stricken vessel inside a protected capsule and moved back and forth on a heavy line stretched between ship and shore. The photo from the collection of the Morton House Museum shows the St. Joseph crew exercising with the Lifecar in 1908.

  5. The Lifesaving Service Volunteer efforts to provide lifesaving services were only partly successful. In 1870, the US government formed the United States Lifesaving Service-a government agency to provide rescue services on the waters of the American Coasts. St. Joseph was selected for a lifesaving station in 1875. It bin late 1876 and has been in continuous service ever since.

  6. Station Crew and Families c1890 The Lifesaving crew was made up of men from the St. Joseph-Benton Harbor area. They were paid $10 a month and were laid off during the winter. The crew of the Lifesaving Station gathers for a group photo during the summer. Keeper William Lyman Stevens is the bearded man in the back row center. His wife is in the dark dress next to him. Note the summer uniforms on the two “surfmen” at the right. Photo courtesy Berrien County Historical Association

  7. Training Routine 1890’s Like today’s Coast Guard, Lifesaving Service crews depended on rigorous training to prepare for emergencies. Crew drills were a familiar sight on the river. Here the crew exercises with its surf boat and performs the famous capsize drill. Note the onlookers on the rail bridge. This drill was a popular public event whenever it was performed. Photo courtesy St. Joseph Heritage Museum and Cultural Center

  8. St. Joseph Lifesaving Station c.1885 This is the station as it appeared around 1885 after the construction of the new crew quarters building. Improvements to piers and breakwaters would move the water back from the buildings in subsequent years. Photo courtesy St. Joseph Heritage Museum and Cultural Center

  9. All in a night’s work: SS City of Duluth The St. Joseph harbor is notorious for its sand bars. Here are two views of the steamer City of Duluth, wrecked 200 yards off the North Pier in January, 1898. The St. Joseph Lifesaving crew rescued 46 people in the dead of night. No one was injured. The inset shows the Duluth in better days. Photo courtesy St. Joseph Heritage Museum and Cultural Center

  10. A New Service and a New Station The Lifesaving Service was merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard in 1915 and during the 1920’s, the station was renovated with crew quarters and boat storage. The new boathouse had no floor. Boats were kept in the water during the summer or raised on lifts in the winter. Photo courtesy St. Joseph Herald Palladium

  11. New Boats, New Boathouse As the number and type of boats used by the station crew changed, the station was updated to accommodate them. A new boathouse was constructed in 1933 to allow indoor storage during the winter. This view, taken in 1952, shows two different types of craft.

  12. 132 years later One of the oldest active stations on the Great Lakes, the St. Joseph Station remains in service 132 years after its opening in 1876.

More Related