A good portrait of whom is shown herewith through the courtesy of The Marine Record, of Cleveland, Ohio, may be said to have inaugurated the Service, conducted it successfully, and finally placed it in the Civil Service with a splendid code of rules, discipline and
esprit de corps running through the entire department second to no other body of men in the service of the country. Nowhere is the efficiency of this service greater than in the ninth, tenth and eleventh districts, which cover the Northwestern Lakes.
During the season of 1897 there were 276 disasters to vessels within these districts, in which the value of vessels and cargoes amounted to $2,395 830.
On board of these vessels the number of persons whose lives were in jeopardy, including passengers and crews, amounted to 1,330. In these casualties there were but five lives lost, and but seven of the vessels proved total losses. This report, of course, only covers vessels assisted by the Life Saving Service.
