. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. TOP: John Allen Midgett is pictured some years after the Mirlo rescue. BOTTOM: The lifesavers who participated in the Mirlo rescue are presented American Grand Crosses of Honor in Manteo. July 23, This research takes him well beyond his woodwright skills. To find the original records of the Outer Banks stations, he shows the tenacity of a gumshoe detective and the enthusiasm of a revival preacher. While he works alone inside the building, Wenberg uses faxes, the Internet and e-mail to enlist the aid
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. TOP: John Allen Midgett is pictured some years after the Mirlo rescue. BOTTOM: The lifesavers who participated in the Mirlo rescue are presented American Grand Crosses of Honor in Manteo. July 23, This research takes him well beyond his woodwright skills. To find the original records of the Outer Banks stations, he shows the tenacity of a gumshoe detective and the enthusiasm of a revival preacher. While he works alone inside the building, Wenberg uses faxes, the Internet and e-mail to enlist the aid of dozens of professional and amateur historians and archivists to track the records. Working from homes and offices, they spend countless hours scouring libraries and archives to solve mysteries of the missing maritime records. Their combined success goes beyond the history of this single Outer Banks landmark. They are providing missing pieces in the legacy of the Lifesaving Service and other federal agencies in the 1800s. "Go back in the National Archives or the Library of Congress, you will find virtually nothing," Wenberg says. "You can find lots of things after ; EARLY LIFESAVERS Before the Coast Guard, there was the Lifesaving Service. Wenberg's research goes back even further to the Revenue Cutter Service and local humane societies that rescued the crews of ships lost along the dangerous shoals near the Outer Banks. In the late 1840s, the federal government agreed to form a lifesaving service, "but it never got off the ground," Wenberg explains. For the first two decades, the service's activities were focused in New York, New Jersey and the Great Lakes. The Civil War left the efforts stalled, but by 1871, there were 71 "red houses," also known as houses of refuge. The plain buildings looked more like barns than stations. In the 1870s, as shipping activity along the North Carolina coast increased, Sumner Kimball
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
