52 Ancestors Challenge Week 31: "Help" - Meadow Island Life-Saving Station

Just recently I had the opportunity to stay in a lighthouse. Yeah no joke. There is a beautiful AirBnB property called Wings Neck Lighthouse, in Pocasset, Massachusetts where you can stay in the lightkeeper's home of what is now a decommission lighthouse. There is no actual light in the lighthouse but the views of Buzzards Bay from the top of the structure are amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to stay on Cape Cod.

While there I reflected a great deal on the lives of my seafaring ancestors. I am not a boat person. I turn green just thinking about it but I come from a long line of seafaring people. Here is a smattering of my nautically inclined ancestors:

• Both my grandfathers served in the U.S. Navy during WWII.
  

• Great grandpa, Abram Thomas Earle (January 13, 1891 - November 18, 1973) purportedly built his own boat. 

• His father, my great-great grandfather, Abraham Earle (1849 - 1890) died at sea aboard a ship called the Rise and Go.

• Abraham's father-in-law, my 3rd great grandfather, Reuben Samms (1830 - October 7, 1869) also died at sea. As did his father, also named Reuben Samms (1799 - December 11, 1870).

Sad story there with those Samms. It seems that during the 1870s, the Samms family of Gadds Harbour, Newfoundland carried on seal hunts on a small scale. The enterprise was short-lived though because of an accident at the ice. Their ship, The Reddie, was lost with her entire crew of 7 men; one of which was Reuben Samms the elder. That crew left 6 widows and about 14-16 children without fathers. It is said that there was only one man left in Gadds Harbour after the loss of The Reddie. One spring, that gentleman attempted to walk across the ice from Gadds Harbour to Woody Point for food and supplies and never returned. It is assumed he fell through the spring ice and drowned.

• Another of my great grandfathers, Charles Aloysius Henry (March 26, 1896 - June 14, 1949), lost a brother, Victor (July 10, 1902 - September 13, 1940), in a boating accident.

• A 3rd great grandfather, John Aloysius Joyce (February 11, 1829 - September 30, 1910), served in the U.S. Navy during the Mexican-American war (1846-1848) when he was just a boy.

I am sure if I plunked around a bit more I could find others who either perished at sea or rode upon it as part of their occupation, military service, or personal passion. What most of them needed was a watchful eye from their peers, like that of the brother of my 3rd great grandfather John Losee. 

His brother, Leander Losee (November 8, 1846 - April 23, 1917), served in the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He went on to serve as head of a Life-Saving Station here on Long Island, New York. Unfortunately, Leander had a pretty public ousting from his position due to gambling and drinking on the job but that is neither here nor there really. 

Life-Saving Stations were the precursor to the United States Coast Guard. They consisted of extraordinary boat houses strategically located along the coasts of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as well as around the Great Lakes and stouthearted men, yes, as far as I can tell for Leander's Station it was only men, knowledgeable and at the ready to rescue those in need. Ships running aground was extremely common and especially so along the south shore of Long Island and the coast of northern New Jersey as an excessive number of ships attempted to enter the narrow passageway into the Port of New York at a time before air travel and advanced nautical navigation systems.

The first legislation for the establishment of U.S. Life-Saving Stations was enacted in 1848. Some of the earliest were built on Long Island beginning in 1849. Much like volunteer firefighters today, the crews of these Life-Saving Stations were comprised of men with the best of intentions to save, to rescue, those in danger. In a position, though, that is much like manning a reference desk (said the librarian), a lot of time is spent sitting around waiting for something to happen; waiting to be needed. And what is that saying? Idle hands are the Devil's play things. Vices take hold when waiting is your workshop. Oh Leander. (Oh. Hey. Oleander is a flower) Anyway...

According to a U.S. Coast Guard list from 1876, there were 11 District, encompassing 157 stations. 36 of the stations were in the 3rd District, the second largest district. District 3 consisted of stations in Rhode Island and Long Island. 32 of those 36 stations were on Long Island and Leander Lozee (misspelling of his surname Losee) is listed as keeper of station #28, Meadow Island, L.I. 

However, an article from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from February 3, 1880, puts Leander in charge of Life Saving Station #31. #28? #31? I have a feeling the stations numbers changed with the growth of the program. 

The Coast Guard's website (https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Land/Stations-Units/Article/2665769/station-meadow-island-new-york/) states the Meadow Island Life-Saving Station was positioned at the entrance to Jones Inlet. For those Long Islanders who have never heard of it, I am not surprised. It is due north of where the present-day Coast Guard Station is located on the west end of Jones Beach. There are a couple bay houses on Meadow Island but it is largely uninhabited and hosts a significant stretch of the Loop Parkway.

I find the station listed as "discontinued" in the report dated June 30, 1880. The Coast Guard's website also states Leander was the only known keeper and that he was appointed on December 9, 1872 at the age of 30.  A mention in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on page 3 of the February 17, 1880 edition states the station was ordered closed. Thus, I assume the rise and fall of that Life-Saving Station all hinged on Leander.

Just scrolling through the very detailed Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Stations for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1880, I learned that the number of disasters in District 3 totaled 22 with 144 people saved and no lives lost. At least 15 of those lives can be directly connected to Leander and the Meadow Island Life-Saving Station; that's 10% of the lives save in that year alone. I'm not sure I was entirely comprehensive, however, 11 of those individuals saved were crew members of 2 wrecks near Jones Inlet:

1. The schooner L. V. Ostrum out of Patchogue, Long Island traveling from Fire Island to New York City with a crew of just 3 men
2. The schooner Hector out of Boston destine for Philadelphia with a load of coal and a crew of 8.

For those doing the math, the additional 4 lives rescued by the members of Meadow Island station came just days before it's closure. On February 4, 1880 a vessel called Gussie ran aground after being caught in a gale and was heaved afloat by the crew of Meadow Island's station.

Point is, the sea is dangerous and just like our more familiar firefighters on land, there were and continue to be individuals willing to risk their lives at sea to help others. Some of those souls were my relatives.