The Evolution of Modern Search and Rescue

[By Renee Coleman, National Coast Guard Museum]

The National Coast Guard Museum will afford visitors the opportunity to journey through the history and evolution of search and rescue (SAR), from the mission’s infancy to modern-day practices.

Even in its most primitive form, search and rescue has been the cornerstone of the Coast Guard’s mission-set for centuries. Modern-day search and rescue has come a long way since the 19th century when SAR could only be performed from the shore.

Search and rescue contraptions such as the life-car and breeches buoy were bolstered by the grit of the brave surfmen who pioneered the U.S. Lifesaving Service. As time and technology edged on, SAR equipment has evolved to fit the needs of the modern-day mariner. To this day, refinements are made to fine-tune SAR technology with the ability to provide precision coordinates of mariners in distress and facilitate life-saving measures—from the Atlantic Ocean to the mighty Bering Sea and the bodies of water in between.

“The biggest difference between early search and rescue and what we do today is that early search and rescue was almost always done shore side,” said Gabe Christy, curator for the National Coast Guard Museum. “Back then there wasn’t a way for shore-based units to communicate beyond line of sight with a vessel or person in distress.”

In the 1800s, the U.S. Lifesaving Service adopted a professional and fairly standardized approach to search and rescue. If a vessel became stranded on a rock or in shoal water close to shore, the crew would shoot off a flare, which would be seen by a U.S. Lifesaving Service surfman. The surfman would approximate the location of the vessel, return to the station, and alert the keeper. The keeper would assemble the crew and load up the beach cart, which was a two-wheeled wooden cart. The cart held a Lyle gun, breeches buoy and/or a life-car, and other SAR equipment.

“This cart was pulled by a crew of six men by physically strapping ropes around their chests,” Christy said. “The crew would pull the cart down the beach within eyesight of the stranded vessel to position the Lyle gun. The Lyle gun was used to fire a rope from shore to ship and send out either the life-car or breeches buoy.”

The breeches buoy was developed in the mid-19th century and is essentially a life ring with a pair of pants sewn on the inside. It could hold the weight of 1-2 people. Once the breeches buoy made its way to the vessel in distress, the surfmen would use a pulley system to run the buoy to and from the vessel until the ship’s crew was safely ashore.

“Even though it was an incredibly simple system, it worked surprisingly well and was in fairly regular use until the mid-20th century,” Christy said.

The other system used was a life-car.

“If you think of a sheet metal boat with a metal dome and two large chains with rings on either end, that’s the life-car,” Christy said. “The pulley-style system to get it out to a vessel in distress was similar to the system used for the breeches buoy.”

A life-car could theoretically hold 4-6 people, depending on their size.

“The advantage of a life-car is that those being rescued were protected from the elements while being brought to shore,” Christy said. “The breeches buoy is a different experience in that the survivors were completely exposed to the elements. Regardless of the method, the journey back to shore probably wasn’t pleasant for anyone involved, but at least they got to shore, which is still a better option than being stranded at sea.”

This all fared well for mariners who were stranded within eyesight of a surf station, but vessels in distress miles from shore had few options. If a vessel was lost at sea, another sea-going ship might find debris or survivors if a small rescue boat was deployed from the vessel in distress. Aside from that, there wasn’t much else that could be done. That slowly changed in the early 1900s.

“It wasn’t until circa 1906 when shipboard communication became standardized and the first international radio telegraph convention adopted SOS as the international distress signal,” Christy said.

From 1906 to present day, the advent of modern technologies has greatly improved the chance of survival at sea. One such technology, the COSPAS Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System (SARSAT), is touted as taking the “search” out of search and rescue. SARSAT is the international, humanitarian tracking system that provides emergency distress alerting and locating information to search and rescue authorities.

The satellite system tracks and locates activated emergency beacons, whether it’s a personal locator beacon (PLB), emergency position-indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) or emergency locator transmitter (ELT). A PLB is typically carried on a person; an EPIRB is found aboard boats; and an ELT is used onboard aircraft.

“The first search and rescue satellite came online in the mid-80s,” said Ed Thiedemen, a search and rescue systems specialist at Coast Guard Headquarters. “As a result of using the search and rescue satellite systems, we’ve been refining that technology and making improvements to these first-generation beacons.”

In essence, it's a similar technology to that of a mobile phone. It allows for more beacons to be operated simultaneously without interfering with each other, Thiedemen said. It enables rescuers to determine a more precise location of a mariner or vessel in distress. In 2010, second-generation beacons were developed.

While all of this technology serves a purpose, it’s rendered useless if owners and operators fail to take the very necessary first step: the device needs to be registered.

“We work with NOAA and the Department of the Air Force in advocacy of this technology,” said Cmdr. Stacy Teixeira, from Coast Guard SARSAT at Coast Guard headquarters. “We have a responsibility to educate mariners on how to properly use EPIRBs and PLBs because it could make a world of difference in a search and rescue scenario.”