For breakfast, the stand out item was the sausages- big and juicy (not the usual small ones). For supper, the fried chicken platter was quite tasty and very large (could easily be split between 2 people). The servers were inexperienced and seemed overwhelmed and so were quite slow (there needs to be more training and better communication between the kitchen and the front of the house). Overall, although the food is decent to good, iit is pricey for what you get and the service needs work. Today the Lifesaving Station stands in remembrance of the courageous lifesavers who held watch over the ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic.’ We hope that you will one day stop by to enjoy a meal and take in our piece of Outer Banks history.We were staying at the resort and so went here for dinner one night and breakfast three mornings. Renovations to Keeper’s Loft in 2012 dressed up the venue to open its doors and hold both meetings and weddings. 5 Bar originally served as a Board Room, and laundry was done in the back where the Kitchen now stands.” -Janice Beasley, Longtime Sanderling Resort Employee The front of the building has never changed. It had originally been an open deck until about 1994. One of the biggest changes made to the Lifesaving Station was the addition of the ‘Keeper’s Loft’ upstairs. Badges and insignia were tracked down in New England and added to the decor. However, researching uniforms affiliated with the Station and Coast Guard proved to be a challenge. “Most of the items were already at the site I just put them together in bespoke displays shadow boxes,” Stetson recalls. Understanding the importance of history to the building, Wes Stetson took the task of collecting memorabilia for the site.

When wrecks were closer to shore, the Lyle gun was used to fire out an eighteen pound bullet over 300 yards for the stranded ship to use as a breeches buoy to pull themselves to shore. These surfboats were stored in the current downstairs dining area of the Lifesaving Station restaurant. Upon seeing a ship in distress, they would light a coston light and fire flares to warn ships if they were too close to land.Ĭrews could save ships either by 24 foot long surfboats or with a Lyle gun. This check was then shown to the station’s Keeper to prove they had completed their patrol. This patrol was measured to go halfway between their station and the next, where they would meet their neighboring station’s patrol to turn a key in a time-clock. Rescuers at Caffey’s Inlet patrolled for seven miles along the coast to look out for ships every day. He made plans to preserve its history while opening it up as a restaurant to the public in 1985. in 1965 and Earl Slick acquired it in 1977. 5 station.Įventually the Federal Government sold the site to Pine Island Inc. As shipping patterns used less of North Carolina’s coast in the late 1950’s, this cutback included the Caffey’s Inlet No. Life-Saving Service was: “You have to go out you don’t have to come back.” Keeper Jamesĭue to the increasing shift from using sails to gasoline paired with the introduction of modern equipment like airplanes, radios, and radars, the Coast Guard began to abandon some of the stations. By 1915, President Wilson signed for the Life-saving Service to become the United States Coast Guard. In 1878, the network of stations were recognized as a separate agency of the United States Treasury, called the Life-Saving Service. As the number of shipwrecks increased along the treacherous waters off North Carolina’s coast, stations were built along its coast starting in 1874. In 1848, the Federal Government, administered under the United States Revenue Marine, formally got involved in the efforts to save lives of shipwrecked mariners that previously were private and humanitarian efforts.

The sanderling livestation restaurant