Captain Trudell and his Gallant Crew, courtesy Archives of Michigan

Something about the weather of the last few days has made me think about what an amazingly tough job members of the US Lifesaving Service must have had. This photo is of Captain Trudell and his Gallant Crew going to relief ship in distress, Grand Marais, Michigan (c. 1910). Anyone who has ever been to Grand Marais during inclement weather will know that those rollers they’re stroking through for a photo op are mere ripples compared to what they saw when they were really needed.

The Grand Marais Lighthouse page on Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light has a brief bit about the station:

With traffic exploding along the south shore, the frequency of maritime accidents increased proportionally. To help guard the safety of mariners, 1898 also saw the beginning of construction of a life-saving station at the foot of the west pier. On its completion the following year, the station was considered one of the finest in all of the Great Lakes, boasting 2 surf boats, a 34-foot self-righting life boat, and a full complement of beach apparatus.

There’s a nice photo of the entirety of the Grand Marais complex from 1910, and you can see a few more photos at the Archives including a view of the station and the track to launch the surfboats, a Captain Trudell & his crew at attention in front of the station and the Grand Marais Harbor Range with the station in the background. The awesome historic photo gallery from the Grand Marais Chamber of Commerce has an aerial view of the complex, a photo of the station on July 4, 1927 and some other photos of maritime history.

The lifesaving station was replaced in 1938 by a US Coast Guard Station, which was deactivated in 1981 and transfered to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for use as a ranger station.