Coast Guard Station Toms River
Part of 1st District
Seaside Park, New Jersey
Toms River Life Saving Station in 1898
TypeCoast Guard Station
Site information
OwnerBorough of Seaside Park
Open to
the public		Yes
Site history
In use1856–1966
1915 list of New Jersey stations
1913 letter describing a rescue

Coast Guard Station Toms River is a former United States Coast Guard station in Seaside Park, New Jersey, at the mouth of the Toms River. The area was manned in 1856 with Samuel Chadwick as the first lifeguard. The first boathouse was constructed in 1872 by the New Jersey Life Saving Service as the Toms River Life Saving Station.[1] Station Toms River was United States Life-Saving Service Station #13 and Coast Guard's Station #109 in the 5th District.[2]

History

The New Jersey Life Saving Service was established on August 9, 1854.[3][4] Samuel Chadwick was appointed the first lifeguard in 1856.[2] A boathouse for the Toms River Life Saving Station was built in 1872 on Decatur Avenue.[3][5]

The station was transferred to the United States Life-Saving Service in 1898.[2] Between 1898 and 1900 a new, larger station was built on the same Decatur Avenue site.[3]

On November 30, 1896 the schooner Bertha Warner ran aground and the station saved all but one man. The crew of the station consisted of Elwood Rogers, Pete Newman, Joe Smyers, Jim Applegate, George Everingham and others.[6][7] In 1906 the SS Carenz ran aground and 38 people were rescued.[8] In 1909 the SS Thurmond ran aground and Henry Ware led the rescue.[9][10]

In 1915 the United States Life-Saving Service was merged with the United States Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard.[3] The station was turned over to the General Services Administration of the United States government in 1964.[2] The Borough of Seaside Park bought the building in 1966 and in 1996 transformed it into offices for the city clerk, tax collector, and the water and sewer department.[3]

Timeline

  • 1854 the New Jersey Life Saving Service was established on August 9, 1854
  • 1856 Samuel Chadwick was appointed keeper in 1856 and left on an unknown date.[2]
  • 1867 William H. Miller (mariner) was appointed keeper on 13 November 1867 and left around 1875.[2]
  • 1876 Stephen Bills was appointed keeper on 10 March 1876 and left in 1879.[2]
  • 1879 William H. Miller was appointed keeper on 27 August 1879 and he resigned on 28 November 1893.[2]
  • 1893 William Elwood Rogers was appointed keeper on 28 November 1893 and was dismissed on 7 February 1902.[2]
  • 1902 Henry Ware was appointed keeper on 17 February 1902 and transferred to Coast Guard Station Cedar Creek on 15 July 1910.[2]
  • 1910 David B. Bowen (1874-?) was appointed keeper on 1 July 1910 and he was serving as keeper in 1915.[2][11]
  • 1915 the United States Life-Saving Service merged with the United States Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard.[3]
  • 1964 turned over to the General Services Administration

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lurie, Maxine N.; Lurie, Maxine; Michael Siegel, M. D.; Mappen, Marc (2004). "Seaside Park". Encyclopedia of New Jersey. ISBN 9780813533254. Retrieved 2012-09-29. A Life-Saving Service (now Coast Guard) station was built in 1872. ...
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Station Toms River, New Jersey" (PDF). United States Coast Guard. Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Andrew J. Anderson (October 1998). Seaside Park. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738557786.
  4. ↑ David Veasey (2000). Guarding New Jersey's Shore: Lighthouses and Life-Saving Stations. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738504179.
  5. ↑ "Seaside Park's Coast Guard Station". Seaside Park, New Jersey. Retrieved 2012-09-30. The Toms River Life Saving Station No. 13 was originally located at May's Corner, Decatur Avenue and the Boulevard ...
  6. ↑ "Life Saving Station #13". Retrieved 2012-09-30.
  7. ↑ Andrew Anderson and Gail Anderson (1998). Sea Side Park: Memories & Remembrances.
  8. ↑ "Steamer on Shoals". Lewiston Daily Sun. March 17, 1906. Retrieved 2012-09-29. ... steamer from Para, for New York, struck on the shoals near Toms River life saving station early today tonight lies fast in the sand. The steamer had 13 passengers in the cabin list and 25 in the steerage ...
  9. ↑ "The SS Thurmond Shipwreck". Retrieved 2012-09-30. On December 25, 1909, Christmas day, while en-route from Newport News, to Portland, Maine, and towing three schooner barges loaded with coal, a storm struck forcing the Thurmond to cut loose her tow. The Thurmond then turned to pick up the five crew as signed to each barge, but only rescued the first five before all three barges sunk, taking the remaining ten crew members to their watery graves. While searching for survivors in the blinding snowstorm, the Thurmond ran aground on the bar just off Seaside Park. ...
  10. ↑ Bill Davis (author) (1991). Atlantic: Montauk to Cape May, New Jersey. ISBN 9780923155124. the next morning when beach master Captain Henry Ware of Toms River made his morning rounds, he spotted the vessel and called his men to assist in the rescue {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ Register of the officers, vessels and stations of the United States Coast Guard. United States Coast Guard. 1915.

Further reading

  • Ralph Shanks, Wick York, and Lisa Woo Shanks, The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard. Petaluma, CA: Costaño Books, 1996.
  • U.S. Treasury Department: Coast Guard, Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers and Cadets and Ships and Stations of the United States Coast Guard, July 1, 1941. Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941.

39°55′08″N 74°04′37″W / 39.919°N 74.077°W / 39.919; -74.077

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