Personal protection equipment used by sailors in Lewes in 1918
These sailors donned personal protection face masks in 1918 with a worldwide influenza epidemic bearing down on the human population.
They were stationed at a U.S. naval facility located near what is now the Cape Henlopen State Park fishing pier. The facility took over infrastructure including piers and buildings constructed in 1880 as part of a National Quarantine System aimed at screening immigrants coming into the country with potentially infectious and communicable diseases.
The Breakwater Quarantine Station operated between 1880 and 1916 after which it became the U.S. Navy facility which conducted minesweeping operations in the mouth of Delaware Bay resulting from World War I military conflicts. The Navy base operated at this site during 1917 and 1918.
