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In the 1870s, some
years before Northwestern played its first intercollegiate football
game, many young men were part of a very different University
team: the crew of the nation’s first and only life-saving
station manned by students.
During the course of
four decades, 77 Northwestern students saved more than 400 people,
including small children and swimmers, from their deaths in Lake
Michigan.
"From 1871
until 1916, life-saving was one of the liveliest extra-curricular
activities on campus," reported the Daily Northwestern in
1947. "Students here actually stood watches, manned lifeboats
and saved lives."
On Sept. 8, 1860,
the Milwaukee-bound steamer Lady Elgin collided with a lumber-laden
schooner, the Augusta, a few miles north of Evanston. The death
toll of 287 would have been greater had it not been for the heroics
of a dozen or so Northwestern and Garrett students who volunteered
their help. Edward Spencer, class of 1862, was credited with the
rescue of 17 people.
The tragedy led
to a public outcry for better life-saving facilities. Before the
U.S. government could respond, however, the Civil War intervened.
Finally, after an especially harsh winter on the Great Lakes,
the government presented the University with one life boat in
1871. The boat was entrusted to the senior class who supplied
the crew.
A crew of six to eight
men was needed during each navigation season, from April 1 to
Dec. 1. Strong and vigorous routines were established, including
an inspection program and practice with the rescue equipment.
The men were to be in a constant state of readiness. These early
crews were declared to be "the best organized, drilled and
equipped on Lake Michigan."
In 1876, the federal
government built and equipped a life-saving station on University
property, in the area of what is now Fisk Hall, with the agreement
that the station be manned by students. Students on the government
payroll received $40 a month, plus an extra $3 for each "wreck
trip."
The small stone-and-brick
station, 38 by 40 feet, was erected because of a long, submerged
reef, the Grosse Point reef, that snakes out into Lake Michigan
about a mile north of campus. The reef was hidden peril to ships
blown in toward shore.
The 1870s were
quiet at the station, and crew members often used the boat for
recreation and entertaining coeds. In 1880, the government decided
to secure for the station "a man of mature years and with
an active seaman’s experience and judgement." Lawrence
O. Lawson was appointed keeper and remained at the station year-round.
He served in that position until 1903.
After participating
in numerous rescue operations following lake disasters in the
1880s, the Northwestern life-saving crew faced its biggest challenge
during the early morning of Thanksgiving Day, 1889.
The 1,500-ton steamer
Calumet, carrying 18 men, had run aground off the newly established
Fort Sheridan in Highland Park during "one of the fiercest
blizzards known in that region in years," according to the
station chief’s log. The temperature was not much above zero.
After receiving
a telegram from local residents, the Northwestern crew quickly
towed one lifeboat north through the snow and arrived as the vessel
was ready to break up. Lifelines fired by the cannons fell short,
so the crew had no choice but to brave the high and crashing surf.
In three trips to the wrecked ship more than 600 yards off shore,
the Northwestern students saved the entire Calumet crew.
When the rescue
was completed, the students were so numb they could barely walk.
So crucial was
the Northwestern crew’s role in the rescue that the Secretary
of the Treasury awarded Captain Lawson and each of his seven crew
members the Gold Medal for distinguished conduct and bravery,
the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Life-Saving Service. The
crew members were the University’s early campus heroes.
In 1898, the station
was moved to make way for the new Fisk Hall. Northwestern students
continued to man the station until 1916 when they were relieved
by the U.S. Coast Guard. Finally, in 1931, the Coast Guard moved
the life-saving operation to Wilmette Harbor.
The University bought
the building for $20 and converted it to the Northwestern men’s
student union. It later housed psychology offices and commerce
classes. In 1954, the 78-year-old building was razed to make room
for landscaping of the new Kresge Centennial Hall.
While the building
no longer exists, the history of those adventurous days, when
Northwestern housed the country’s only student-manned life-saving
station, remains.
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