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U.S.LLH.T. DAHLIA photo courtesy U of D Marine Collection Iron lighthouse tender built in 1874 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Neafie & Levy (Hull#unknown) as a) DAHLIA for the United States Li thouse Service: 130.9 X 26.4 X 19.8; 623 ‘oss tons. Sold in 1909 gross renamed b.) FLORA M HILL (U.S.206265). Crushed by ice and sank off Chicago on March 11, 1912. assigned to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, “for customs duty, and to enforce the rules and regulations governing the movements and anchorages of vessels in the St. Marys River.” The cutter’s crew, assisted by two launches, Carried out this assignment, which became known as the St. Marys River Patrol. To help in the regulating of traffic, the cuttermen manned six permanent lookout stations located along the waterway. in addition to this assignment, the cutter was also required to patrol local regattas. The next predecessor organization to appear in the Great Lakes was the U. S. Life-Saving Service. The mission of this service was to launch small boats in an effort to rescue people shipwrecked close to shore. The service began as a volunteer organization on the eastern seaboard. The federal government entered the picture in 1848 and moved haphazardly until 1654 when a strong storm swept the east coast and many died due to shipwrecks. Congress then authorized more money for the construction of lifesaving ¢ stations. Officially, the service began on the Great Lakes in 1876 with 11 stations on Lake Erie, Ontario, and Huron. The next year additional units were added and expanded to include Lakes Superior and Michigan. As shipping increased, so did the need for more stations until, by 1914, there were 62 stations scattered throughout the lakes. The rescues performed by the crews of the service caught the imagination of the public and the press. Indeed, the sight of a keeper, erect in the stern of his boat, urging on his crew as the boat pitches in high surf, could make the most staid journalist gush forth with purple prose. Surfmen soon began to be dubbed “soldiers of the surf” and “storm warriors.” The men who served at the Stations, however, led lives that could be best described as consisting of hours of boredom, interspersed with seconds of sheer terror. To be continued... 43-12-4 ~~