Lookout and Patrol
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Lookout and patrol were the two most important tasks of the surfmen. At the Sleeping Bear Point Station a surfman was on lookout from sunrise to sunset. In 1905, the lookout tower was constructed. It was simply a little house set up on wooden posts with a platform and railing around it. There were no seats in the tower, for fear that if the person on watch became too comfortable they would fall asleep. Men stood for four hours scanning the lake for signs of ships in distress and they were also expected to record each ship that passed by. Many lookout towers had bells like ships and men were expected to ring the bell every half-hour. If they forgot, the keeper would check to see if the surfman had fallen asleep. On foggy days and at night there were also beach patrols. Men walked the beach for a set distance in one direction, until they reached a watchman's clock. The men carried a special key that they had to insert into the clock to prove they had walked that distance. They never failed to walk the beach in the worst of weather. Gerald E. Crowner, a surfman at the South Manitou Station in 1926-28 wrote: "I have made patrols in blizzards and driving rain and sleet storms when gale winds drove ice water down one's neck." They carried coston signal flares which they used to warn ship's that sailed too close to shore, or to tell ships that were in trouble that they had been seen. On October 3, 1905, "at 3:05 AM the station watch saw a steamer heading for the Beach near the lookout. He immediately burned a coston signal and there upon the steamer changed her course and stood out into the lake." |
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Beach Patrolman on his rounds 
Life-saving service watch tower |
