The loud-mouthed station keeper comes in and says it's time to start lifesaving drills. That means rowing a schooner for hours, and sometimes, purposely capsizing into the icy water.
After that, you're on watch. You look out into the darkness from a wooden watch tower and note the passage of logging ships and harsh weather until the wee hours of the night.
That’s a taste of life as a surfman in the early 20th century stationed at the Vermillion Point Life-Saving Station near Whitefish Point.
In 1876, the United States Life-Saving Service arrived on Lake Superior and began dotting the coastline with stations.
Hidden behind nearly seven miles of logging trails, Vermillion Point was one of the more remote stations in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Some of those stories are chronicled in the book “Life on a Lonely Shore” by Edward Canfield and Thomas Allen.
In the capsizing drill, six men would crew a surfboat, which could weigh between 700 and 1,000 pounds. They would row in choppy waters off Whitefish Point for a half hour then purposely capsize the boat.
Wearing life jackets made of cork and canvas, the men would right the boat. The quickest time recorded for the maneuver was 13 seconds.
After righting the boat, they would row for another 30 minutes before the drill was over.
Soon after the United States Life-Saving Service merged with the U.S. Coast Guard, the station was closed in 1944.
While Lake Superior weather has destroyed most of the original station, an effort is underway by the nonprofit S.O.S. Vermillion, to restore the original boat house and residence quarters.
The land was transferred to the Little Traverse Conservancy in 2004 and is open for quiet recreation today.
