First Friday with Ted Olsson “An Ode to the U.S. Life Saving Service”

“An Ode to the U.S. Life Saving Service” 

Ted Olsson is a local poet, Docent for CHMM, and longtime resident of the Newburyport area with family connections to its maritime history. His lecture and poetry detail the story of mariners of the age of sail, the US Life Saving Service and the courageous surfmen who risked their lives to save the lives of others, often in perilous conditions.As seen in the many exhibits of the Custom House Maritime Museum and the Museum of Old Newbury, the coastal area around Plum Island and the Merrimack River has a unique and significant historical maritime story. During the last half of the 19th and early 20th centuries this story involved a transition from the age of sail to the age of engine powered vessels. This was also a time when the federal government built an agency to pursue a solution for a problem that plagued maritime trade for centuries – shipwrecks due to storms, accidents or aged vessels.