CLICK FOR LARGER PHOTO Coast Guard crew Sleeping Bear Point Station. John Basch (2nd from right) and Keeper Fred J. Marsh (far right) Summer Life-Saving Service wear 1910 The first keeper of the Station, William Walker, had been a surfman at the Grand Haven Station. He was hired by the 12th District Office in 1902. The keeper had to be able to keep logs and records--the ability to read and write. Most crews at the Life-Saving Station came from the community and needed to be able to handle boats. Especially important was the strength and skill to row a boat in rough seas. It was the job of the keeper to put a crew together, six men began work at the station by late summer of 1902. Most of these men, called "surfmen" came from a background of fishing, sailing, or lumbering. "He's a rigger, rower, swimmer, sailor, undertaker, And he's good at every one of 'em the same, And he risks his life for others in the quicksands and the breakers. And a thousand wives and mothers bless his name. He's an angel dressed in oilskins, he's a saint in a 'sou 'wester,' He's as plucky as they make, or ever can. He's a hero born and bred, but it hasn't swelled in his head, And he's jest the U.S. Gov'ment's hired hand." Quoted in Dennis L. Noble and T. Michael O'Brien, Sentinels of the Rocks: From "Graveyard Coast" to National Lakeshore (Marquette: Northern Michigan University Press, 1979), 49. It was hard work. There was a cot and closet for each man. A number above the closet door also indicated their position on the crew (1-6). Surfmen were ranked by skill level: #1 being the most skilled and #6 least skilled. There was always someone on patrol and there was always a chance of being awakened in the middle of the night to the cry, "Ship ashore!". Men worked until the first part of December and then returned to their homes until April 1.

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