Station High Head, Massachusetts
Coast Guard Station #35
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Location:
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Northwest of Cape Cod Light; 42-03' 55N x 70-06 50"W
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Date of Conveyance:
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1881
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Station Built:
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1882
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Fate:
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Disestablished in 1921
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Remarks:
Mention is made in the 1881 Annual Report that proposals were solicited for a life station here, "a locality peculiarly dangerous to navigators." The station was referred to as Peaked Hill Bars, but a station with that name already existed. The account goes on: "only two (bids) were received for the station at Peaked Hill Bars, both of which were so much higher than was anticipated that it was deemed expedient to reject them and defer further action until early in the coming spring, when it has been determined to invite proposals again upon plans modified in certain particulars." The station here was built around 1882--at least the first keeper was appointed then. The station first appears in the 1883 records as being "three miles north of Highland Light." The site of the station is at the eastern end of the dreaded Peaked Hill Bars and many wrecks had occurred in the nearby waters.
The station was discontinued in 1921 and not listed in 1922.
Keepers:
The first keeper was Charles P. Kelly, appointed December 22, 1882 and served until he died on June 27, 1915. Kelly got his surfman experience at the Peaked Hill Bars station and was one of the survivors of the accident when three of the crew died trying to help the sloop C. M. Trumbull. He was followed by William E. Silvey (acting, but never appointed keeper), and Albert L. Burch (acting until his appointment on July 25, 1916 and reassigned to the Wood End station on May 5, 1921).
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 Unpublished manuscript, compiled circa 1977, CG Historian’s Office collection.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.