Station Crumple Island, Maine

Station Crumple Island, Maine

USLSS Station #3, First District
Coast Guard Station #4

Crumple Island/Great Wass Island (#4):

This was originally (in 1874) called the Browney’s Island station and, in 1882, was called the Crumple Island station. The name was changed again in 1904 with this notation: "New station buildings have been completed and occupied at Great Wass Island, which replaces the former Crumple Island station." The original position was "off Jonesport;" later "west side Great Wass Island, off Jonesport, Maine." The station underwent extensive repairs and improvements in 1892. 

The original keeper was Abijah C. Bagley, who was appointed at the age of 32 on October 16, 1874 and resigned on July 12, 1880. He was followed by Reuben L. Hall (August 16, 1880 until he resigned on June 20, 1883——he died from disease caused by exposure while in line of duty on December 16, 1884), William Marshall (June 20, 1883 until he drowned on December 4, 1894), Oscar B. Hall (December 18, 1894 until he was incapacitated and retired on August 15, 1916), Ralph T. Crowley (March 1, 1917 until reassigned to the Cape Elizabeth station on October 2, 1918), Eugene C. Colbeth (June 24, 1919 until appointed as Assistant to the First District Superintendent in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on November 29, 1924), Harry F. Burnham (from the Merrimac River station on December 10, 1924 until reassigned to Section Base 4 on June 9, 1925), and Fred E. Small (reassigned from the Cross Island station on July 28, 1925 and leaving for the Portsmouth Harbor station on October 19, 1927. Next, Chief Petty Officer H. D. Larrabee is listed as being in charge in 1927. He is succeeded by Chief A. H. Calder in 1933 and Chief J. Urquhart in 1935.

The Work Relief and Public Works Appropriation Act of 1938 provided $53,550 for a new site, dwelling and equipment building, $38,000 for new boats and equipment, $41,972 for a new boathouse and launchway, and $33,060 for new telephone submarine cables. The old Crumple station was turned over to the GSA in 1951. The Great Wass Island station disappeared from the listings in January 1947.

Sources:

Station History File, CG Historian’s Office

Dennis L. Noble & Michael S. Raynes.  “Register of the Stations and Keepers of the U.S. Life-Saving Service.”  Unpublished manuscript, compiled circa 1977, CG Historian’s Office collection.

Ralph Shanks, Wick York & Lisa Woo Shanks.  The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard.  Petaluma, CA: Costaño Books, 1996.

U.S. Treasury Department: Coast Guard.  Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers and Cadets and Ships and Stations of the United States Coast Guard, July 1, 1941.  Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941.