United States Life-Saving Service

United States Life-Saving Service. Struggles with the Sea. , In the 1870s, the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS) was established to aid the victims of shipwrecks on American shores. The service featured a network of stations, with seven or eight men , called surfmen , who lived together during the harshest seasons of the year. There were six stations situated on Delaware's coast, one of which was Station Indian River., Each night, the surfmen patrolled the beaches on foot, scanning the waters for signs of ships in distress. Stations were five to seven miles apart, so surfmen could cover the entire coast on their nightly patrol. If one of the men spotted a shipwreck, he would summon the others, and they would venture out with the necessary equipment to rescue the crew and passengers aboard the stranded ship. Since the Indian River Inlet was particularly difficult to navigate, the Indian River Life-Saving crew responded to more wrecks than their neighboring stations., The USLSS merged with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the United States Coast Guard. The Indian River Life-Saving Station, located just 1.5 miles north of the inlet, remained an active Coast Guard station until March 1962. In the Ash Wednesday Storm that year, winds and high tides damaged the structure and filled the first floor with sand and water. The Coast Guard decommissioned the station the following day and built a new station., Restoration of the original station began in the mid-1990s to turn Station Indian River into a museum to share the story of the surfmen and the role they played in Delmarva's rich maritime heritage. The museum is now the information and educational center for Delaware Seashore State Park, featuring history, nature and recreation programs throughout the years.