United States Life-Saving Service

United States Life-Saving Service
Seal
Pennant
Agency overview
Formed1878 (1878)
Dissolved1915 (1915) (merged with United States Revenue Cutter Service)
Superseding agency
JurisdictionFederal government of the United States
Agency executive

The United States Life-Saving Service[1] was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian efforts to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners and passengers. It began in 1848 and ultimately merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to form the United States Coast Guard in 1915.

  1. ^ Despite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: Treasury Department, United States Life-Saving Service (1876). Annual Report of the Operations of the United States Life-Saving Service for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30 1876. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office – via University of Michigan. and An Act To create the Coast Guard by combining therein the existing Life-Saving Service and Revenue-Cutter Service (PDF). Sixty-Third Congress, Session III, CHS. 19, 20. 1915. January 25, 1915.