Station White Head, Maine

Station White Head, Maine

USLSS Station #5, First District
Coast Guard Station #6

Remarks:

White Head (#6): White Head station was built on "White Head Island, one-half mile west of White Head Light" in 1874; until June 1, 1883, it was called the Whitehead Island station. From that time, it was called White Head. The station was repaired and improved in 1889. In 1921, a contract was awarded to construct a dwelling and accessories.  The station was still listed as an active station (called then the Whitehead station after the war) but disappears from the list of active stations in July 1955. The property was turned over to the GSA in 1956.  

Keepers/OICs:

The first recorded keeper was Horace F. Norton; he was appointed at the age of 38 on October 16, 1874 and resigned on June 30, 1882. He was followed by Freeman Shea (September 5, 1882 and died "from disease contracted in line of duty" on August 5, 1911), Alonzo Maker (August 23, 1911; he retired at age 64 on October 23, 1917), Rollo A. Morton (acting until appointed on November 20, 1918, he went to Damiscove Island station soon thereafter), Everett M. Mills (June 24, 1919 until transferred to the Rye Beach station on December 23, 1924), Lee R. Dunn (June 24, 1919 until reassigned to the Office, Collector of Customs, Rockland, Maine on November 23, 1925), Alan R. Tabbutt (appointed November 22, 1925 and reassigned to the Isle of Shoals station on October 1, 1926), Wallace I. Brown (appointed November 11, 1925, he died on April 25, 1929), Everett M. Mills (reassigned from the Coast Guard Cutter Active on July 21, 1929, he was reassigned to the Straitsmouth station on July 12, 1935), and Lee R. Dunn (from the Isle of Shoals station on July 10, 1935 until he retired on January 1, 1939).

Sources:

Station History File, CG Historian’s Office

Gamage, David. "Growing Pains and Politics: White Head Life-Saving Station, 1873 - 1878." Wreck & Rescue 7, No. 2 (Aug 2004), pp. 6-13.

________.   "Our Sister Service; The U.S. Life Saving Service, 1878-1915: Whitehead Island Life-Saving Station, St. George, Maine."   The Keeper's Log (Fall 2000), pp. 12-14.

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  Unpublished manuscript, compiled circa 1977, CG Historian’s Office collection.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.