INSTRUCTIONS TO MARINERS IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK, AS PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED STATES COAST GUARD

GENERAL INFORMATION

Coast Guard (life saving) stations and houses of refuge are located upon the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Lake coasts.

The stations are manned throughout the year by crews of experienced surfmen.

All life-saving stations are fully supplied with boats, wreck guns, beach apparatus, restoratives, and clothing provided by the Blue Anchor Society, Women's National Association for the shipwrecked requiring it, etc.

Houses of refuge are supplied with boats and restoratives, but not manned by full crews; an officer in charge, and at places, one or two additional men reside in each, who are required to make extended excursions along the coast after every storm, with a view of ascertaining if any shipwreck has occurred and finding and succoring any persons that may have been cast ashore.

Houses of refuge are located exclusively upon the east coast of Florida, where the requirements of relief are different from those of other portions of the seaboard.

The life-saving stations are provided with the International Code of Signals, and other means of visual signaling, and vessels can, by opening communication, be reported; or obtain the latitude or longitude of the station, where determined; or information as to the weather probabilities in most cases; or, where facilities for the transmission of messages by telephone or telegraph are available, requests for a tug or Coast Guard cutter will be received and promptly forwarded.

All services are performed by the life-saving crews without other compensation than their pay from the Government.

Destitute seafarers are provided with food and lodging at the nearest station by the Government as long as necessarily detained by the circumstances of shipwreck, and, if needed, with clothing provided by the Blue Anchor Society.

The station crews patrol the beach from 2 to 4 miles each side of their stations between sunset and sunrise, and if the weather is foggy the patrol is continued through the day. A continuous lookout is also maintained at every station night and day.

Each patrolman carries warning signals. Upon discovering a vessel standing into danger he ignites one of these, which emits a brilliant red flame of about two minutes' duration, to warn her off, or, should the vessel be ashore, to let her crew know that they are discovered and assistance is at hand.

If the vessel is not discovered by the patrol immediately after striking, rockets, flare-up lights, or other recognized signals of distress should be used. If the weather be foggy, some recognized sound signal should be made to attract attention, as the patrolman may be some distance away at the other end of his beat.

Masters are particularly cautioned, if they should be driven ashore anywhere in the neighborhood of the stations, to remain on board until assistance arrives, and under no circumstances should they attempt to land through the surf in their own boats until the last hope of assistance from the shore has vanished. Often when comparatively smooth at sea a dangerous surf is running which is not perceptible 400 yards offshore, and the surf when viewed from a vessel never appears as dangerous as it is. Many lives have been lost unnecessarily by the crews of stranded vessels being thus deceived and attempting to land in the ship's boats.

The difficulties of rescue by operations from the shore are greatly increased in cases where the anchors are let go after entering the breakers, as is frequently done, and the chances of saving life correspondingly lessened.

RESCUE WITH THE LIFEBOAT OR SURFBOAT

The patrolman, after discovering your vessel ashore and burning a warning signal, hastens to his station or the telephone for assistance. If the use of a boat is practicable, either the large lifeboat is launched from its ways in the station and proceeds to the wreck by water, or the lighter surfboat is hauled

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overland to a point opposite the wreck and launched, as circumstances may require.

Upon the boat reaching your vessel the directions and orders of the officer in charge (who always commands and steers the boat) should be implicitly obeyed. Any headlong rushing and crowding should be prevented, and the captain of the vessel should remain on board, to preserve order, until every other person has left.

Women, children, helpless persons, and passengers should be passed into the boat first.

Goods or baggage will positively not be taken into the boat until all are landed. If any be passed in against the remonstrance of the officer in charge, he is fully authorized to throw the same overboard.

RESCUE WITH THE BREECHES BUOY OR LIFE CAR

Should it be inexpedient to use either the lifeboat or surfboat, recourse will be had to the wreck gun and beach apparatus for the rescue by the breeches buoy or the life car.

A shot with a small line attached will be fired across your vessel. Get hold of the line as soon as possible, and haul on board until you get a tailblock with a whip or endless line rove through it. The tailblock should be hauled on board as quickly as possible to prevent the whip drifting off with the set or fouling with wreckage, etc. Therefore, if you have been driven into the rigging, where but one or two men can work to advantage, cut the shot line, and run it through some available block, such as the throat or peak-halyards block, or any block which will afford a clear lead, or even between the ratlines, that as many as possible may assist in hauling.

Attached to the tailblock will be a tally board with the following directions in English on one side and French on the other:

"Make the tail of the block fast to the lower mast, well up. If the masts are gone, then to the best place you can find. Cast off shotline, see that the rope in the block runs free, and show signal to the shore."

The above instructions being complied with, the result will be as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

As soon as your signal is seen a 3-inch hawser will be bent onto the whip and hauled off to your ship by the life-saving crew.

If circumstances permit, you can assist the life-saving crew by manning that part of the whip to which the hawser is bent and hauling with them.

When the end of the hawser is got on board, a tally board will be found attached, bearing the following directions in English on one side and French on the other:

"Make this hawser fast about 2 feet above the tailblock, see all clear and that the rope in the block runs free, and show signal to the shore."

These instructions being obeyed, the result will be as shown in Figure 2. Take particular care that there are no turns of the whip line round the hawser. To prevent this, take the end of the hawser up between the parts of the whip before making it fast.

When the hawser is made fast, the whip cast off from the hawser, and your signal seen by the life-saving crew, they will haul the hawser taut and by means of the whip will haul off to your vessel a breeches buoy suspended from a traveler block, or a life car, from rings running on the hawser.

Figure 2.

Figure 3, below represents the apparatus rigged, with the breeches buoy hauled off to the ship.

If the breeches buoy be sent, let one man immediately get into it, thrusting his legs through the breeches. If the life car, remove the hatch, place as

many persons therein as it will hold (four to six), and secure the hatch on the outside by the hatch bar and hook, signal as before, and the buoy or car will be hauled ashore. This will be repeated until all are landed. On the last trip of the life car the hatch must be secured by the inside hatch bar.

In many instances two men can be landed in the breeches buoy at the same time by each putting a leg through a leg of the breeches and holding onto the lifts of the buoy.

Children, when brought ashore by the buoy, should be in the arms of older persons or securely lashed to the buoy. Women and children should be landed first.

In signaling as directed in the foregoing instructions, if in the daytime, let one man separate himself from the rest and swing his hat, a handkerchief, or his hand; if at night, the showing of a light and concealing it once or twice will be understood; and like signals will be made from the shore. (See also, Signals," on p. 359.)

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Circumstances may arise, owing to the strength of the current or set or the danger of the wreck breaking up immediately, when it would be impossible to

send off the hawser. In such a case a breeches buoy or life car will be hauled off instead by the whip or sent off to you by the shot line, and you will be hauled ashore through the surf.

If your vessel is stranded during the night and discovered by the patrolman— which you will know by his burning a brilliant red light-keep a sharp lookout for signs of the arrival of the life-saving crew abreast of your vessel.

Some time may intervene between the burning of the light and their arrival, as the patrolman may have to return to his station, perhaps 3 or 4 miles distant, and the life-saving crew draw the apparatus or surfboat through the sand or over bad roads to where your vessel is stranded.

Lights on the beach will indicate their arrival, and the sound of cannon firing from the shore may be taken as evidence that a line has been fired across your vessel. Therefore, upon hearing the cannon, make strict search aloft, fore and aft, for the shot line, for it is almost certain to be there. Though the movements of the life-saving crew may not be perceptible to you, owing to the darkness, your vessel will be a good mark for the men experienced in the use of the wreck gun.

IMPORTANT

Remain by the wreck until assistance arrives from the shore, or as long as possible. If driven aloft, the inshore mast is the safest.

If not discovered immediately by the patrol, burn rockets, flareup or other lights, or, if the weather be foggy, fire guns or make other sound signals.

Make the shot line fast on deck or to the rigging to prevent its being washed into the sea and possibly fouling the gear.

Take particular care that there are no turns of the whip line round the hawser before making the hawser fast.

Send the women, children, helpless persons, and passengers ashore first. Make yourself thoroughly familiar with these instructions, and remember that on your coolness and strict attention to them will greatly depend the chances of success in bringing you and your people safely to land.

WRECK SIGNALS

The following signals, approved by the International Marine Conference convened at Washington in October, 1889, have been adopted by the Coast Guard and will be used and recognized by the officers and men as occasion may require:

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Upon the discovery of a wreck by night, the life-saving force will burn a red pyrotechnic light or a red rocket to signify, You are seen; assistance will be given as soon as possible.

"A red flag waved on shore by day, or a red light, red rocket, or red roman candle displayed by night, will signify, Haul away.

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A white flag waved on shore by day, or a white light slowly swung back and forth, or a white rocket, or white roman candle fired by night will signify, Slack away.

"Two flags, a white and red, waved at the same time on shore by day, or two lights, a white and a red, slowly swung at the same time, or a blue pyrotechnic light burned by night, will signify, Do not attempt to land in your own boats; it is impossible.

"A man on shore beckoning by day, or two torches burning near together by night, will signify, This is the best place to land.

"Any of these signals may be answered from the vessel, as follows: In the daytime, waving a flag, a handkerchief, a hat, or even the hand; at night, by firing a rocket, a blue light, or a gun, or by showing a light over the ship's gunwale for a short time, and then concealing it."

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BOUNDARY LINES OF THE HIGH SEAS

The following lines divide the high seas from rivers, harbors, and inland waters described in this volume. Waters inshore of the lines here laid down inland waters," and upon them the inland rules and pilot rules given on page 367 apply. Upon the high seas-viz, waters outside of the lines here laid down-the international rules given below apply.

are

All bearings are in degrees true; distances in nautical miles, and are given approximately.

Boston Harbor.-From Londoner Rock Beacon (near Thatcher Island Light) 2052°, 19% miles, to Boston Lightship; thence 120°, 30 miles, to Coast Guard station at Peaked Hill Bars (near Race Point).

Nantucket Sound, Vineyard Sound, Buzzards Bay, Narragansett Bay, Block Island Sound, and easterly entrance to Long Island Sound.-A line drawn from Chatham Lighthouse, Mass., 1332°, 6% miles, to Pollock Rip Lighthouse; thence 149°, 11% miles, to Great Round Shoal entrance lighted whistle buoy (PS); thence 229°, 141⁄2 miles, to Sankaty Head Lighthouse; from Smith Point, Nantucket Island, 261°, 27 miles, to No Mans Land lighted whistle buoy 2; thence 359°, 8% miles, to Gay Head Lighthouse; thence 250°, 341⁄2 miles, to Block Island Southeast Lighthouse; thence 250°, 144 miles, to Montauk Point Lighthouse, on the easterly end of Long Island, N. Y.

New York Harbor.-A line drawn from Rockaway Point Coast Guard Station 1582, 74 miles, to Ambrose Channel Lightship; thence 2452°, 84 miles, to Navesink (southerly) Lighthouse.

General rule.-At all buoyed entrances from seaward to bays, sounds, rivers, or other estuaries for which specific lines have not been described, inland rules shall apply inshore of a line approximately parallel with the general trend of the shore, drawn through the outermost buoy or other aid to navigation of any system of aids.

RULES OF THE ROAD-INTERNATIONAL RULES TO PREVENT

COLLISIONS OF VESSELS

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following regulations for preventing collisions at sea shall be followed by all public and private vessels of the United States upon the high seas in all waters connected therewith navigable by seagoing vessels.

PRELIMINARY

In the following rules every steam vessel which is under sail and not under steam is to be considered a sailing vessel, and every vessel under steam, whether under sail or not, is to be considered a steam vessel.

The words "steam vessel" shall include any vessel propelled by machinery. A vessel is "under way," within the meaning of these rules, when she is not at anchor, or made fast to the shore, or aground.

RULES CONCERNING LIGHTS, AND SO FORTH

The word "visible" in these rules when applied to lights shall mean visible on a dark night with a clear atmosphere.

Article 1. The rules concerning lights shall be complied with in all weathers from sunset to sunrise, and during such time no other lights which may be mistaken for the prescribed lights shall be exhibited.

Art. 2. A steam vessel when under way shall carry-(a) on or in front of the foremast, or if a vessel without a foremast, then in the fore part of the vessel, at a height above the hull of not less than twenty feet, and if the breadth of the vessel exceeds twenty feet, then at a height above the hull not less than such breadth, so, however, that the light need not be carried at a greater height above the hull than forty feet, a bright white light, so constructed as to show an unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of twenty points of the compass, so fixed as to throw the light ten points on each side of the vessel, namely, from right ahead to two points abaft the beam on either side, and of such a character as to be visible at a distance of at least five miles.

(b) On the starboard side a green light so constructed as to show an unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of ten points of the compass, so fixed as to throw the light from right ahead to two points abaft the beam on the starboard side, and of such a character as to be visible at a distance of at least two miles.

(c) On the port side a red light so constructed as to show an unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of ten points of the compass, so fixed as to throw the light from right ahead to two points abaft the beam on the port side, and of such a character as to be visible at a distance of at least two miles.