Historic Coasts
Local history of the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) dates back to the War of 1812 between the United States of America and Great Britain when William Baker organized the first team of volunteer surfmen to patrol Fire Island looking for British war ships. After the war, ship commerce and travel increased significantly along the East Coast resulting in many ship wrecks and lives lost. In the approach to New York Harbor alone from 1839 to 1849 there were 338 shipwrecks. In response to the growing need for water rescues a group of philanthropists established the Life-Saving Benevolent Association of New York. They built ten life-saving stations on Long Island, including three on Fire Island. Life-saving stations continued to be added along the United States' coasts, including more on Fire Island. In 1871 the U.S. Congress organized this fledgling network of stations into the USLSS. Over the course of 44 years 400 men served in the USLSS at seven Fire Island rescue stations and rescued 7,000 people from 721 stranded ships. In 1915 the USLSS was merged with other federal government agencies to form the U.S. Coast Guard.| HM Number | HM24NB |
|---|---|
| Tags | |
| Placed By | New York State Department of State, Division of Historic Resources |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Wednesday, January 17th, 2018 at 1:01am PST -08:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 18T E 648439 N 4508055 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 40.71005000, -73.24271667 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 40° 42.603', W 73° 14.563' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 40° 42' 36.18" N, 73° 14' 33.78" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 516, 631 |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 11 Cottage Ave, Bay Shore NY 11706, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
Is this marker missing? Are the coordinates wrong? Do you have additional information that you would like to share with us? If so, check in.
Comments 0 comments