Winslow W. Griesser (1856–1931) was a station keeper in the

United States Life-Saving Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian eff ...

, one of the agencies that were merged to form the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. In 2016 the Coast Guard honored him by naming one of its new

Sentinel-class cutters The Sentinel-class cutter, also known as the Fast Response Cutter or FRC due to its program name, is part of the United States Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater System Program, Deepwater program. At , it is similar to, but larger than, the leng ...

, USCGC ''Winslow W. Griesser'', after him.

Early life

Winslow W. Griesser was born in

Marblehead, Ohio Marblehead is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in Ottawa County, Ohio, United States. The population was 865 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It sits at the tip of the Marblehead Peninsula, which divides Lake Erie proper from ...

on September 1, 1856. He entered the

as a

surfman Surfmen was the terminology used to describe members of the United States Lifesaving Service. It is also currently the highest qualification in the United States Coast Guard for small boat operations. Coast Guard Surfmen are rated to operate the ...

Keeper

Keepers were full-time employees, who slept in quarters above the boathouse that formed the core of their stations. Their boat crews were not full-time employees. The station keepers job included recruiting and training local men capable of manning their boats, when needed. The boats were light, and were mounted on light wagons. A boat's crew would manually tow the wagon to a good launching site, near a distressed vessel. The boat was launched by towing the wagon into the water until the boat's buoyancy floated it clear of the wagon. Griesser served at life–saving stations at

Fort Niagara, New York Fort Niagara, also known as Old Fort Niagara, is a fortification originally built by New France to protect its interests in North America, specifically control of access between the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the easternmost of the Great L ...

Lorain, Ohio Lorain () is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. It is located in Northeast Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River (Ohio), Black River about west of Cleveland. It is the List of cities in Ohio, ninth-most populous city in O ...

and

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. On November 21, 1900, when commanding the Buffalo life–saving station, Griesser distinguished himself by heroically swimming out to rescue a stranded mariner, in the teeth of a gale. Griesser and his crew tried to launch their boat when a

scow A scow is a smaller type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailboat, sailing scows. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scows carried cargo in coastal waters and inland waterways, having an advantage for navigating shallow water or small ha ...

came loose in the gale-force winds. When his boat was damaged, when being launched, Griesser decided to swim out to the sole remaining survivor of the scow, who was clinging to an offshore pylon. The first attempt by Griesser and one of his crewmen, to swim out to the stranded man, towing a rescue line failed, when the large waves tossed them back on shore, injuring his companion. Griesser then attempted to rescue the man without assistance. When he got close enough to throw the rescue line to the stranded man, he was too weak to secure himself, and the line fouled the pylon. Greisser was able to get close enough to free the stranded man, and secure the rescue rope to him, allowing him to be successfully hauled to safety. Griesser was so exhausted that he collapsed, once he got to shore. Griesser was award a

Gold Lifesaving Medal The Gold Lifesaving Medal and Silver Lifesaving Medal are U.S. decorations issued by the United States Coast Guard. The awards were established by Act of Congress, 20 June 1874; later authorized by . These decorations are two of the oldest me ...

Legacy

Griesser died in Marblehead, Ohio on August 26, 1931. In 2010 Charles "Skip" W. Bowen, who was then the

Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard The master chief petty officer of the Coast Guard (MCPOCG) is the senior enlisted member of the U.S. Coast Guard and the principal advisor to the commandant of the Coast Guard on all enlisted personnel matters. The holder of this position is ...

, worked to have the cutters in the new sentinel class named after

enlisted rank An enlisted rank (also known as an enlisted grade or enlisted rate) is, in some armed services, any rank below that of a commissioned officer. The term can be inclusive of non-commissioned officers or warrant officers, except in United States ...

individuals who served heroically in the Coast Guard, or one of its precursor services. The USCGC ''Winslow W. Griesser'', commissioned on March 11, 2016, is the sixteenth cutter in the class, and fourth vessel in its cohort of six to be stationed in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

. Several of Griesser's sons and grandsons enlisted in the Coast Guard.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Griesser, Winslow 1856 births 1931 deaths United States Life-Saving Service personnel Recipients of the Gold Lifesaving Medal