Station Highland, Massachusetts
USLSS Station #8, Second District
Coast Guard Station #36
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Location:
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On Cape Cod, ¾-mile north northwest of Cape Cod Light; 42-02' 47"N x 70-04' 05" W
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Date of Conveyance:
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1875
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Station Built:
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1872
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Fate:
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Turned over to the GSA in 1955
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Remarks:
Highland station was built in 1872 as one of the original nine stations built when the service was extended to the Cape Cod shores. It takes its name from the Highlands of Cape Cod, which were in the immediate vicinity. It was built on a site listed as "northwest seven-eighths mile of Cape Cod Highland Light." The station was afforded "extensive repairs and improvements" in 1888.
At the end of the World War II, the station had a crew of eight men and its equipment included two trucks, an amphibious truck (DUKW), a beach apparatus service cart, and two pulling boats. Because of the low number of search and rescue cases, it came under scrutiny as a candidate for closure. This station and the Cape Cod Light Station were consolidated in 1947 and the name was changed to the Cape Cod Lifeboat Station in April of that year. The station disappeared from the records in July 1952. The property was turned over to the GSA in 1955 and subsequently turned over to the National Park Service in 1969. When patrolling toward the Pamet River station, surfmen were sometimes unable to reach the beach because of high tide. Then they groped along the tops of the cliffs which, in many cases, rose one hundred feet. So steep were the cliffs that surfmen installed ropes used to clamber up and down them.
Highland Lifeboat Station and Cape Cod Light Station consolidated in 1947 and became "Cape Cod Light and Lifeboat Station."
Keepers:
The first keeper was Edwin P. Worthen, who was appointed at the age of 36, with thirteen years experience as a surfman, on December 12, 1872, and resigned due to physical reasons on July 8, 1907; he was the oldest keeper in the service for some time. He was followed by William P. Paine, who was appointed July 2, 1907 and retired with thirty years of service on November 5, 1921. Then Edward B. Andrews was appointed on July 21, 1925 and was transferred to the North Scituate station on October 13, 1927; he returned on April 8, 1929 to relieve Chief Petty Officer R. C. Rich who served as the station commander in the interim and who was transferred to the Nahant station. Andrews was next reassigned to the Wood End station on July 10, 1931 and was relieved by Emanuel F. Gracie from Wood End on the same date. He stayed here until reassigned to the Boston District Office on May 13, 1939.
Photographs:
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.