Coastal Style Sisal Rugs

Yesterday was beautiful with crisp, clear September skies and temperatures in the low 70’s. My daughter had a half day of school, and so I quietly slipped out of the office at lunchtime with no intention of returning. Kate, her friend Kori, and I set out in our dinghy for a little expedition. We covered quite a bit of water, eventually deciding to go explore the Wood Island Life Boat Station at the mouth of the Piscataqua river.

The station was built in 1908, and commissioned in 1909. It was operated by the US Life Saving Service until 1915 when the service was disbanded and replaced by the US Coast Guard. The Coast Guard continued operations there until 1941 -at which point it was abandoned. The building is boarded up, but still fairly open to weather.

Years ago, I beached there in my kayak, and snuck inside to take a peek. The inside was completely rotted out, and finding solid footing was difficult. Basically, you stayed close to the walls, and tested everything before giving it your full weight. I climbed the stairs to the second floor on the stringers as the treads had completely rotted away. The structure was unsound -still, though, you could sense the purposefulness of the place, and the hardships these men must have faced.

The station is located on an island off of Kittery, Maine (I’d like to consider it in Portsmouth, but it is on the wrong side of the river), and stands behind Whaleback Light on its own islet. When it was built, it housed the Station Keeper and six regular Surfmen with a Winterman added from December through April.

The station itself is similar to a Cape style house with attached garage (and a viewing tower). On the first floor was the Keepers bedroom, the Station office, a kitchen and dining room. On the second floor were the Surfmen’s sleeping quarters, and from there was access to a watch tower. The attached garage is a two bay boat house with a marine railway that would hold the stations two lifeboats.

(Old Picture of the river side of the station. note the marine railway ramp leading to the water from the “garage”.)

The lifeboats were about 30 feet in length, and when needed the boats were rolled directly into the water on the railway. They rarely had to rescue people on calm days, and these boats were built to survive the worst conditions. They had watertight compartments, self-bailing tubes to drain the boat, and iron keels which brought their weight to nearly 2 tons. The design allowed the boats to be self-righting, which helps when you are ina rowboat crashing through waves that just wrecked a ship.

Wood Island is one of those cool sights that you see here in New England every day, and nine times out of ten, completely ignore. Hopefully this site will be preserved to remind us of the past. I am not a big fan of turning every historical structure into a museum with caretakers in period garb, and I’d hate to see the Station go this way. It needs something more akin to an outward bound camp where the station and the boats are actively used and appreciated.

for more information, check out:

USCG Search and Rescue
Portsmouth Public Library