This is the Vermilion Boat Club. This picture was taken in 2010. But this building is old. More than 150 years old, in fact. And it has a rich history.
This is a picture of that same building. The Vermilion Boat Club -1848. That building was built as a Rescue House to save people. Yes, save people.
You see, Lake Erie is the most dangerous lake in the world. Its dangerous and unpredictable weather patterns have claimed more lives than any other lake in North America.
Coast Guard Cutter battling the waves in Lake Erie
Ferry from Vermilion to Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie in Sept. 09
Dock in Vermilion Pier during storm
Waves literally freezing in mid-air during the winter
In the early-to-mid 1800s, the amount of boat traffic dramatically increased from medium-sized crafts transporting raw goods from NY and PA along the Erie Canal to Cleveland. Despite several lighthouses along the north coast of Ohio, winter storms often battered the boats, making safe navigation impossible. In 1848, during on particularly bad storm, the people of Vermilion watched a boat and its crew of 8 people crash onto the rocks. The townspeople could literally hear the cries of the crew members, screaming out for someone to help them. All 8 froze to death and drowned.
After that night, some brave volunteers founded the Vermilion Life-Saving Service. It’s goal? To ensure that if another disaster like the one in 1848 occurred, the townspeople would be able to at least try to help.
This volunteer crew included men who were skilled sailors and crew-members.
During the summer months, the men would run drills to prepare themselves.
The town rallied around this cause. Small boat-houses – to store the life-boats and life-saving gear – were built. And it wasn’t just the men. A small house was built to bring the rescued people, and the town’s women and children staffed it with warm fires, thick blankets, and cups of hot beverages (and rum, to bring the blood back to the surface of the skin). Later, nurses made sure there were medical supplies in case of bodily injury. This was a whole community effort. The motto, hanging on a carved wooden plaque was simple in its poignancy of both mission and the potential danger. It read, simply: “We have to go out. But we don’t have to come back.”
An actual patch from the volunteer uniform of the Life-Saving Service. From 1848-1898, for 50 years, the L.S.S. saved dozens and dozens of lives, and with its skilled boat crews who understood the currents and water levels, helped many ships into safe harbor.
In 1898, an Ohio editorial cartoonist reacted to the Federal Government’s refusal to provide additional aid to the L.S.S. The caption had Uncle Sam saying that although the benefit of the LSS was good, $10,000 was a lot of money to spend. In 1898, the US Coast Guard formally took over life-saving operations in Lake Erie. The LSS of Vermilion continued to man the lighthouse in Vermilion, ensuring it had oil and that the mirrors were clean. The boat house – known as the Rescue House – was also maintained in case those rescued needed care. A few years later, the Ohio State Parks Department took over operation of all the Lake Erie lighthouses. The LSS of Vermilion continued to maintain the Rescue House. A few years after that, the first hospital opened near Vermilion. The LSS was left, literally, without a cause. Without the LSS in operation, the people of Vermilion went on with their lives. They continued to meet together,and live together. After all, 50 years of ties that strong don’t just dissipate. But the Vermilion Boat Club changed. Into something else.
For a while, the people continued to meet together for social events. Then it became a housing collective. Until nearly 110 years later, it became this.
The Vermilion Lagoons. The largest private housing community in Lake Erie.
Each home ha a little dock, and each home has a small or medium sized recreational boat.
The Home Owner’s by-laws are strict. Each home must be white, with dark green shutters and brick. The result is stunning.
The homes are meticulously kept, with well-manicured lawns.
Many of the homes are nearly mansions, with 5,000-7,000 square feet. The least expensive home in the Vermilion Lagoons is $790,000, which is a lot of money in Ohio.
And the people of Vermilion? Now, it’s summer time. Which means recreation aboard the “Liquid Addiction.”
In 2010, when I visited my parents, the whole city of Vermilion was brimming with excitement because the “Unity” – a 113-foot SuperYacht owned by Elena Ford, the great-great-great granddaughter of Henry Ford, was touring the Great Lakes.
The “Unity” is the largest super yacht in North America. The Fords actually paid 17 million to various yacht clubs in Ohio and Michigan to re-dredge their waterways to allow the yacht access. It visited Vermilion in July, to much fanfare.
What once was designed as a Life-Saving Service
Was now a Yacht Club.
Would the founders even recognize what the Vermilion Boat Club had become? When we were saved, we were called to join Christ in his rescue mission to the world. When Christ called us to himself, it was not a call to a life of comfort and convenience. Instead, he told us to take up our cross and follow him. Christ’s call was to follow him and make fishers of men. Christ’s call was to go out into this world, braving all obstacles in order to make disciples of all nations. Christ called us to a life on the edge, a life of uncertainty. “We have to go out, We don’t have to come back.” We have to go out. Paul said, For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. We are no longer to live for ourselves, but to live for Christ. Let it not be said of us that we turned the life-saving message of the gospel into an excuse for lazy living, content to let the lost perish while we grow fat in our apathy.
