cord had been kept, there was proof that 4163 lives
had been saved and $716,000 worth of property.

In 1871, S.I. Kimball, to whom the Revenue Marine Bureau was then
given in charge, proceeded to completely reorganize the service. New
houses were built or the old ones repaired and enlarged; competent men
were appointed as keepers, and strict orders given as to the selection
of experienced and skillful surfmen as crews; the houses were
thoroughly furnished with every appliance requisite in time of
disaster, for which the keeper is held responsible. The average
distance between the stations is three miles. Immediate proof of
the efficacy of the improvements in the service was given, as in the
twenty-two wrecks occurring that season on the Long Island and New
Jersey coasts not a single life was lost. In a word, Mr. Kimball began
successfully the seemingly hopeless task of converting the dirty,
ruinous station-houses and their lazy, disorderly keepers and crews,
scattered along the coast, to the order, discipline and efficiency
of forts and drilled soldiers, and the result proved that order and
discipline, when evolved out of the worst materials, can grapple with
and conquer even the sea. In 1873 the seventy-one station-houses
were increased to eighty-one, the line having been extended along the
coasts of Cape Cod and Rhode Island. Congress having appropriated
one hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of new stations,
twenty-three were contracted for, giving the Maine coast five; New
Hampshire, one; Massachusetts, five; Virginia, two; North Carolina,
ten. The connection between the life-saving and storm-signal
service was effected at several stations, thus supplying telegraphic
communication between the department and the coast outposts. This,
probably, was the most marked advance made by the service: it was
the nerve-line which brought the working members under control of an
intelligent head. In thirty-two wrecks occurring during the year on
the coasts where stations were established but one life had been lost.

The unprecedented success of the service to this point justified its
demand for larger means and fuller powers. In the last session of
the Forty-second Congress a bill was introduced by Hon. John Lynch of
Maine to provide for the establishment of additional stations on the
North Atlantic seaboard, and directing the Secretary of the Treasury
to report the points on the entire sea and lake coasts at which