Tam Communications’/Coast Guard Channel’s Video Featured at Philadelphia Museum of Art
A few years ago, we were on the East Coast developing stories for our Coast Guard Channel, web-based news and entertainment network. Part of that trip included a stop at the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station on Cape Hatteras. Long-since decommissioned, the Station is now home to a museum dedicated to keeping the story of the Life Saving Service (now part of the U.S. Coast Guard. At Chicamacomico we were fortunate to witness and document the buoy breeches drill performed on weekends there during the summer by active duty personnel from nearby Stations Hatteras Inlet and Oregon Inlet. Using actual equipment of the era, the drill re-enacts the process used to rescue passengers and crew from shipwrecks just off the coast. It was a vital piece of rescue equipment when seas were too heavy to launch a surf boat.
What we didn’t realize at that time was that four years later, the Philadelphia Museum of Art would contact us about using some of our video in an exhibit honoring Winslow Homer. We, of course, jumped at the chance to be able to help the Museum, honor the Coast Guard, and showcase our work. The exhibit, Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and The Life Line, features Homer’s masterpiece The Life Line, painted in 1884. The painting depicts that very same drill and depicts the real human costs of such wrecks during the early days of sea travel and commerce. You can watch the video here on our YouTube Channel.