It was the place of the sentries charged with searching the sea for ships gone asunder on eastern Long Island’s treacherous shoals. It was manned by an all-African-American crew and was the home of the famous Neptune Beach Club. Now, the Tiana Life-Saving Station in East Quogue is nearing the completion of a stunning restoration that will return its monument to its historic glory.
Built in 1912, the station was part of a chain of 39 along the island’s Atlantic shore, manned day and night by rescuers who patrolled the beaches and peered out from its watchtower. When a ship ran hard against the sand bars of the barrier beach, crews sprung into action, launching surf boats and shooting lines from the beach. Many mariners and ill-starred passengers were rescued in what were many times harrowing operations in nasty seas and icy waters.
A station on the Dune Road site was first erected in 1871 under an act of Congress that recognized the importance of the busy shipping lane into New York City. The station was reconstructed in 1912 and deactivated in 1937 when more modern navigation equipment made shipwrecks less likely. World War II breathed new life into the station when it served as a lookout for foreign invaders. It was during this time that the Tiana Station, previously Tyana, was manned by an all-African-American crew, only the second in the nation after Pea Island in North Carolina.
It was during the war that a sister station in Amagansett found its way into the history books after life-saving crew member John Cullen came upon four Nazi saboteurs secreted to the beach by a German submarine. Authorities were alerted, and the spies were arrested after explosives and a pack of German cigarettes were found on the beach. They were part of two sabotage teams, and six were found guilty of espionage. Their fate was the electric chair. The incident led to the establishment of the Coast Guard Beach Patrol, which grew to 24,000 men and became an important component of U.S. coastal defenses during the war.
The Tiana building was purchased by the Town of Southampton’s Community Preservation Fund in 2014 for $3,200,000. The station, with its huge doors, crew quarters, and observation tower, was painstakingly restored down to its original wood floors and walls. The expansive deck of the former Neptune club was recreated in hardwood, and an immense anchor harkening back to the island’s maritime past rests at the building’s entrance. It will host an exhibit about the men, U.S. Life-Saving Service members and later the Coast Guard, who were considered angels to the mariners they saved. Their work was dangerous, and many lost their lives toiling under the motto, “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.”