The US Life-Saving Service Heritage Association is pleased to offer this complimentary description of the US Life-Saving Service’s Beach-Apparatus Drill published in 1883. Also provided is information on how to properly set up and display a Beach-Apparatus Cart as it would have been set-up per the service’s regulations in this document. Museums and other individuals looking to properly equip or display a beach cart can follow this information to accomplish an accurate display.
Photo Above: Yaquina Bay. Mondays and Thursdays were reserved for beach apparatus drill. Here the crewmen are setting up a breeches buoy near the Yaquina Bay Life-Saving Station. The keeper is firing a line with a small cannon, called a Lyle gun, towards a pole representing a mast of a stranded vessel 75 yards away. The gun could fire the 17-pound projectile with accuracy up to an extreme range of 695 yards. The life-savers would then erect a series of lines and pulleys to rig the breeches buoy to rescue stranded mariners. A crew was expected to set up the breeches buoy in under five minutes and in the dark. A proficient crew could set it up in two minutes and thirty seconds. (Author's Collection.)
