Wreck in the Offing!

Date1878

Artist Howard Pyle (American illustrator, 1853–1911)

Illustration Citation"'Wreck in the Offing!' - Scene in a Life-saving Station," by Howard Pyle, in Harper's Weekly vo. XXII, no. 1106, March 9, 1878

MediumGouache on paper

Dimensionscomposition: 11 7/8 × 19 1/8 in. (30.2 × 48.6 cm)
sheet: 14 3/4 × 21 in. (37.5 × 53.3 cm)

Credit LineGayle and Alene Hoskins Endowment Fund, 1984

Object number1984-29

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDRAWING

Label TextThis scene is set in a life-saving station, where the sentry assigned to patrol the beach watching for ships in trouble rushes in shouting to the watchmen that he has spied a shipwreck nearby. Startled, they react to his summons with varying degrees of alarm.

Harper's Weekly was a powerful voice in calling for reform and support of the Life-Saving Service, founded in 1848 and active on the east coast. Here, in a rustic shack with its men on watch, the patrolman calls for immediate action, his expression reflecting panic more than command. He interrupts the card-playing central group, their portrait-like faces illuminated by lamplight, and surprises a rather somnolent (or drunk) old man at left. One rescuer reaches immediately for his gear. The others have not yet moved toward the sparse equipment nearby. Pyle’s scene served two purposes. It emphasized the harsh conditions, limited provisions, and prolonged boredom of the watchmen, whose wages according to Harper’s Weekly were “ridiculously low.” But it also reminded readers of the rescuers’ heroism. The text cited the dramatic reduction in shipwreck deaths since the Life-Saving Service had been granted even its minimal standing. Three months after Pyle contributed Wreck in the Offing! to Harper’s Weekly’s editorial, the United Life-Saving Service became an agency with a larger budget and professional staff, its own superintendent and a plan to build more watch stations manned by trained personnel. The Service was formalized as the United States Coast Guard in 1915.