The Houses of Refuge in Florida were a series of stations operated by the United States Life Saving Service along the coast of Florida to rescue and shelter ship-wrecked sailors. Five houses were constructed on the east coast in 1876, with five more added in 1885 and 1886. There were also two life-saving stations built, one just south of the Jupiter Inlet, the other on the Gulf coast on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida. A house of refuge was planned for the Marquesas Keys, but was never put into commission. The houses were manned by civilian contractors who lived in the houses with their families. Most of these houses remained in service as life-saving stations until 1915 or later. Some of the locations became United States Coast Guard stations after the Life-Saving Service was merged with the United States Revenue Cutter Service to form the Coast Guard in 1915. History Prior to 1871, efforts to save lives from shipwrecks along the United States coast had been largely provided by volunteers. That year the U.S. Congress appropriated funds for the creation of a life saving service, leading to the founding of the United States Life Saving Service in 1878. In the 1870s, the middle and lower east coast of Florida was described as a "howling wilderness", with no means for shipwrecked sailors to find food, fresh water or shelter. Other than lighthouses at Cape Canaveral and Jupiter Inlet, and a few settlers at Lake Worth and Biscayne Bay, the coast south of St. Augustine was uninhabited. The impetus for construction of houses of refuge on the Florida coast came when a ship wrecked between Biscayne Bay and the New River (in present-day Fort Lauderdale) during a hurricane in October, 1873. The shipwrecked sailors were unable to salvage any food or water, and did not succeed in attracting the attention of passing ships. When they were found several days later, they were said to be "half-starved and existing on spoiled fish", with only brackish water from a marsh behind the beach for drinking. The resulting publicity in northern newspapers led Sumner Increase Kimball, head of the Revenue Marine Service, to order five houses of refuge constructed along the Florida coast. An Act of Congress in 1874 authorized the construction of five houses of refuge at specified locations on the Florida coast. In 1882, Congress authorized an additional five houses of refuge