Sumner Kimball developed U.S. Life-Saving Service

Prior to the formation of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, rescues at sea were the responsibility of the U.S. Life-Saving Service, which was officially formed in 1878.

Curiously, during the 37-year history of the Life-Saving Service, this federal agency within the U.S. Treasury Department had but one superintendent in charge.

He was Sumner Increase Kimball of Lebanon, Maine. Born in 1834, Kimball was educated at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and then became a lawyer.

 

Kimball was given his first government job in 1861, an appointment made by President Abraham Lincoln. Kimball was assigned as a clerk on the Washington, D.C., staff of Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, a former U.S. senator from Ohio. Kimball was an impressive and talented performer who gained respect within the halls of government.

The strongest congressional advocate for the creation of a national Life-Saving Service was U.S. Rep. William A. Newell of New Jersey (shown below), who started speaking out in 1847. He argued that well-intentioned volunteer lifesavers were no match for the cruel side of Mother Nature.

 

According to an essay posted online by curators at the Ocean City (Md.) Life-Saving Station Museum, two weather-related shipwrecks in 1854 off the coast of New Jersey elevated the issue in the arena of public opinion.

First, the Powhatan was grounded near Beach Haven, N.J. Its crew and passengers (primarily German immigrants) all perished (at least 250 people). A few months later, the New Era wrecked off the coast of present-day Asbury Park, N.J., killing as many as 230.

Pressed to “do something,” Congress agreed that “the concept of a government-sponsored service to aid mariners in distress was a valid one,” the museum reported. “The first funds authorized were primarily for the provision of boats and crude stations at a few critical areas along the coast. No provision was made to fund employment of manpower.”

“There was still considerable trepidation at the federal level as to just how much involvement was appropriate. The times prior to the Civil War were filled with issues involving states’ rights, and Congress was very cautious not to infringe upon those rights.”

“Unfortunately, the Civil War intervened in the further development of any competent Life-Saving Service, and no advancement of importance was attempted between 1861-65,” the museum curators said.

“Once reconstruction of the South began, it was more obvious than ever that coastal shipping needed assistance,” the essay stated.

During the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, beginning in 1869, the wheels began to turn.

By 1870, George Sewall Boutwell of Massachusetts, as President Grant’s Secretary of the Treasury (shown below), was tasked with finding a “reform-minded person to head the Revenue Marine Bureau to commence the process to bring about changes that would better serve the interests of the maritime industry.” (Ultimately, this would result in the formation of the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1878.)

 

When approached about the job in 1871, Kimball agreed to head the Revenue Marine Bureau…if, and only if…Sec. Boutwell would give his personal assurance that he would deflect politicians who sought to interfere with Kimball’s operation of the bureau.

“Fortunately, Sec. Boutwell agreed to Kimball’s terms for acceptance of the job,” the museum essayists wrote.

Kimball rolled up his sleeves and went to work, “completely overhauling the Revenue Marine Bureau and its hodge-podge system of lifesaving stations,” wrote Dr. Dennis L. Noble, a noted U.S. Coast Guard historian.

In doing so, Kimball proved to be “one of America’s greatest, prolific and accomplished federal government administrators,” Dr. Noble commented. 

Life-Saving Service ‘comes to the rescue’ beginning in 1878

Sumner Increase Kimball labored for seven years – from 1871-78 – to put together the proper framework within the Revenue Marine Bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury that would enable the nation to have a “first-class lifesaving organization” to patrol the national coastline and interior waterways.

Two shipwrecks off the coast of North Carolina in the late 1870s helped ramp up public awareness in support of Kimball’s mission.

First, on Nov. 24, 1877, the U.S. Army steamer Huron (shown below) wrecked off Nags Head in a violent storm, and 103 persons drowned. (Sources reported that a makeshift lifesaving station two miles away at Nags Head was “closed for the season.”)

 

Then, only 20 miles farther north, on Jan. 31, 1878, the steamer Metropolis wrecked near shore at Currituck Beach during another tempest. (Sources said that a rescue attempt “was bungled by a lifesaving team that was inexperienced and ill-prepared.”) Most of the 245 Metropolis passengers managed to swim about 100 yards to shore, but 85 others drowned.

Early on, Kimball employed two strategies that “helped the planets align.” First, he dispatched Capt. John Faunce of the Revenue Marine Bureau (shown below) to travel the nation’s coastlines and file an inspection report with recommendations for lifesaving improvements.

 

Using Capt. Faunce’s findings, Kimball published a 45-page manual on regulations and operational procedures to guide a Life-Saving Service agency.

Kimball hoped to construct Life-Saving Stations at seven-mile intervals along the east coast, to form an interlocking system of lifesaving that would stretch from Maine to Florida to Mexico.

Second, Kimball employed William Douglas O’Connor (shown below) , a professional journalist, whose skills were used to convince Congress and the public that Kimball’s “cause was a worthy one,” wrote the curators at the Ocean City (Md.) Life-Saving Station Museum.

 

“Kimball shrewdly used O’Connor’s writing ability to attract public interest in the heroic services provided by the lifesavers and…to persuade legislators to provide funding,” the museum curators wrote.

“On June 18, 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes (shown below) signed a bill creating the U.S. Life-Saving Service as a separate agency within the Treasury Department. Soon thereafter, Kimball was nominated to be the General Superintendent of the service and rapidly confirmed by the Senate.”

 

Kimball continued to head the Life-Saving Service for 37 years during its entire existence (1878-1915)

“Much of the present-day Coast Guard’s highly regarded reputation as a humanitarian organization is the result of Kimball’s organizational skills and management abilities,” the museum curators commented. “Many of the routines that he established, such as constant drills with rescue equipment, are just as important today as they were more than a century ago.”

Kimball in his later years.

 

Writing for the Island Free Press of Hatteras, N.C., in 2022, James D. Charlet dubbed Kimball a “wizard,” suggesting Kimball’s birthday of Sept. 2 be observed as a national holiday.

Charlet is a well-known storyteller throughout the Northern Outer Banks. He was associated for many years with the Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site and Museum at Rodanthe in Dare County. He dressed and acted the part of “Keeper James,” and has developed a vast knowledge base about the history of the Life-Saving Service.

 

James Charlet frquently appears with his wife Linda Molloy, 

who portrays the character of Miz Linda.

“Today’s U.S. Coast Guard is revered for its consistency, uniformity and teamwork, but perhaps most of all, for its excellence and rapidity of response,” Charlet said. “The origin of all that goes back to one man and one time – the former General Superintendent Sumner Kimball.

“His impact on both organizations – the Life-Saving Service and the Coast Guard – would prove to be immeasurable. He made America vastly safer for maritime travel and…more secure.”

“Thank you, sir.”