Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 2 1 70 year, Congress appropriated funds to pay for life-saving equipment to be used by volunteer organizations. Volunteers known as "wreckers" staffed the stations up and down the Jersey Shore, but at times, little could be done to help those in need due to sparse volunteer forces and subpar equipment. As a result, the U.S. Life-Saving Service (USLSS) was officially created on June 18, 1878 after a particularly deadly season on the seas, and many of the first official stations in support of the USLSS were established along the Jersey Shore. Stations were at first manned from November to April with a six-man crew, but by the turn of the century, they operated year- round. The dramatic and harrowing rescues performed by the USLSS captured the attention of the press, especially when USLSS crewmembers were lost in the line of duty. To better serve the maritime community, the U.S. Rescue Cutter System and the U.S. Life-Saving Service merged to create the USCG on January 18, 1915 by President Woodrow Wilson's signature on the Act to Create the Coast Guard. The USCG absorbed the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1939 and the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation in 1942. Since 2003, the USCG is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. There were originally twenty-four Coast Guard Stations in Monmouth and Ocean Counties from Sandy Hook through Beach Haven, some having first been USLSS stations, but most of them were abandoned by the 1960s. Out of the twenty-four stations, three are currently active. Station Sandy Hook covers the north- ernmost coastal area of Monmouth County with an area of respon- sibility that extends from Breezy Point, Belford, Great Kills, Keyport, Outer Bridge, Raritan River, and the Navesink/Shrewsbury Rivers. Station Barnegat Light covers the south- ernmost waters from Seaside Park through Barnegat Inlet to Absecon Inlet, including Barnegat Bay and Barnegat Shoals. U.S. Coast Guard Station Manasquan Inlet One of the stations tasked with the responsibility of protecting Jersey Shore waters is Station Manasquan Inlet, located in Point Pleasant Beach, with an area of responsibility extending from Long Branch through Seaside Heights. The well-known building, located at 40 Inlet Drive, was named to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2021. Known as the Old Coast Guard Station Manasquan Inlet and Coast Guard Lifeboat Station #105, the building replaced five coastal lifeboat stations when it was constructed from 1936 to 1937: Squan Beach Station in Manasquan, Bay Head, Mantoloking, Chadwick Beach, and Station Barnegat Light covers the southernmost waters from Seaside Park through Barnegat Inlet to Absecon Inlet, including Barnegat Bay and Barnegat Shoals. Tom Lynch / AngryFishGallery.com JERSEY SHORE PROFILE SEMPER PARATUS, continued from page 68

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