No matter what else happened in their daily lives, the surfmen and keepers of the United States Life-Saving Service lived for - and feared - shipwrecks. The adrenaline-pumping first few moments after the words "Wreck ashore!" rang out reaffirmed for each man why he had chosen this career. The noble nature of the work, the chance to wrestle lives from the grips of the sea, to save a life, enflamed the spirit. Sometimes those rescues were completely successful; sometimes victims succumbed; sometimes the rescuers themselves needed rescue. The following shipwreck stories get down to the basics of the Life-Saving Service and its mission: to save the lives of men and women imperiled upon the sea.
Photo Above: Wreck Czarina, 1910. >>>Click Photo to Zoom
On January 12, 1910, Captain Charles Dugan and his crew of 22 on the Czarina ran into trouble on the Coos Bay bar. A heavy sea struck the vessel as she crossed, flooding her engine room and putting out her fires. She floated helplessly, so the desperate crew set the anchor. The anchor ended up pinning the Czarina in the breakers, dooming the vessel. The crew and one passenger took to the rigging where, numbed by freezing winds, they dropped one by one into the surf over a 24-hour period. Only one survived. (Author's Collection.)
Photo Above: Coquille River lookout >>>Click Photo to Zoom
About a mile southwest of the station there was a lookout station to watch the river mouth. The watch house was similar to those mounted at other stations on a tower. This one, however, was elevated by its location on Coquille Point and had no need for additional height. The watch house was an 8-foot cube with windows on each side, capped by a hipped roof, and built on a wooden platform. (Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard.)
