About The U.S. Life-Saving Service

With its' beginnings in New Jersey in 1848, the federally sponsored Life Saving Service was fine tuned and fully funded by 1871 and became well known and much appreciated on all the dangerous coasts and Great Lakes of the United States.

By 1914, there were 271 U.S. Life Saving Stations of various designs, each equipped with surfboats, breeches buoy apparatus carts and other essential gear that allowed the Keeper and his rugged and brave Surfmen to render assistance to crews of ships and other mariners in distress.

The heroic efforts and successes of the Lifesavers were stuff of legends. Their work was often performed under the worst possible weather conditions and at great personal risk. Yet, they persevered.

The motto "You have to go out, but you don't have to come back" was coined, and, in 1915, carried over to the newly formed U.S. Coast Guard. With the passage of time, all the men of the U.S. Life Saving Service are deceased.

These thousands of men should not be forgotten.

For a more complete history of the USLSS, visit www.uslife-savingservice.org