Stepping into the boathouse, it feels like we are transported back in time a hundred years. Its only a small structure sprawled to the right-hand side of the Sleeping Bear Point Lifesaving Station, but inside lie the tools that have saved possibly dozens of lives. The station was built to look out upon beautiful lake Michigan and all the disasters that occurred upon it. When a wreck was spotted, the crew at the boathouse would rush to the small building and risk their lives to help the men and women stranded on the water. It is easy to imagine the creak of the house as the wind and sand whipped against it in the fiercest of storms. How difficult it must have been to make a few important decisions under those circumstances, yet the men usually managed to make the correct ones. Often they would go out in their surfboats, which were specially designed to withstand the turmoil of the harsh freshwater sea. They would row standing up and use the weight of their bodies to push forward, all the while tearing apart the flesh of their hands. If the wreck was close enough to shore, they would use a Lyle Cannon. They would send a line out to the wreck and go to the tedious task of transporting one person at a time back to shore. Sometimes they would use the torpedo boat, on the line which allowed several people at a time to come to land. No matter how and what they chose to do, they would have to endure as much agony as those they were trying to save. They were like soldiers on a battlefield, fighting against the waters. If they didn't die during the lifesaving attempt, the cold would stay with them for months afterward. Often they would die of pneumonia, which made it difficult to keep track of the record-keeping for the casualties of these men.

CLICK FOR LARGER PHOTO Sleeping Bear Point Lifesaving Station from the beach. The boathouse is the small building on the far left. Turn around from the boathouse and you will see yet another beautiful view of Lake Michigan.

www.schoolship.org/maritime/