Station Rockaway Point, New York
USLSS Station #36, Third District
Coast Guard Station #92
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Location:
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West end of Rockaway Beach; 40-34' 10"N x 73-51' 50"W in 1915
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Date of Conveyance
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1856
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Station Built:
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1856
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Fate:
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Still in operation, now designated Station Rockaway
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Remarks:
The original station may have been built in 1856. In the 1882 Register, this station is called Rockaway Beach at a position at the "west end of Rockaway Beach;" the name was changed on June 1, 1883. Also in 1882, the Annual Report mentions that the station "which was in danger from the encroachments of the sea, has been removed about two thousand feet to the westward, to a site generously donated to the Government for the purpose by Mr. Newbold Lawrence, of New York." The station was extensively repaired and improved in 1888. In 1913, the station was rebuilt "to replace a structure that was old and unsuited to present-day needs." In the 1923 records, the position is given as "on Rockaway Beach, two and one-half miles east of Rockaway Point." This was the year that the original Rockaway station disappeared from the records and the Rockaway Point station was renamed Rockaway.
Funds were provided in the 1938 Work Relief and Public Works Appropriation Act to construct an equipment building, a barracks, a recreation, storage and machine shop buildings as well as perform bulkhead work (sufficient mooring facilities for four patrol boats). In addition, funds were provided for new station boats and equipment. The station is still in operation.
Keepers:
The original station may have been built in 1856, with June Cheney appointed as the first keeper in that year; it is not known when he left. Next was Isaac Skidmore (appointed at age 47 on July 3, 1869, and serving until some time in 1876), Nathaniel Carman (January 30, 1877, until his resignation September 22, 1881), Benjamin H. Weston (September 14, 1881, until his dismissal May 13, 1885), Daniel B. Abrams (May 8, 1885, until his retirement at age 64 on March 28, 1916), Hubert B. Tuttle (acting until his appointment December 1, 1916, and served until his reassignment to the Georgica station on September 1, 1917), William B. Tooker (acting until his appointment November 20, 1918, and reassigned to the Zachs Inlet station August 16, 1920), Percy E. Arnold (reassigned from the Zachs Inlet station August 16, 1920, he served until January 24, 1923, when he went back to the Zachs Inlet station), George F. Morin (reassigned from the Long Beach station January 24, 1923, he served here until his reassignment to CGC Vigilent on April 19, 1927), and William A. Goldbeck (reassigned from CGC Mascoutin on October 19, 1925, and reassigned to CGC Morrill on October 27, 1927). Next came Chief Petty Officers William D. Moore (1928) and C. 0. Gray (1931). Warrant Officer C. E. Conklin was reassigned on June 26, 1933 from the Eatons Neck station and served until 1936, when Chief Petty Officer J. W. Hean arrived; he departed in 1938.
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.