CHATHAM STATION.
The Chatham Station is another of the original nine stations erected on Cape Cod in 1872, and is situated near where it was first located. Its approximate position as obtained from the latest coast survey charts is latitude north 41° 39′ 10″, longitude west 69° 57′ 10″, one and one-quarter miles southwest of Chatham lights. A few years after the station was established it was moved across the harbor to where the Old Harbor Station now stands. It remained there a few years when it was again moved back to its original site, where it is now located, on the northern end of Monomoy, near the “cut through,” within easy distance of Chatham village.
When this station was moved from the Old Harbor site it was believed that a new station would be built there, but not until after the wreck of the schooner Calvin B. Orcutt on Old Harbor bars was the station erected. The first keeper of the station was Capt. Alpheus Mayo; he was in turn succeeded by Capt. Nathaniel Gould, Capt. Hezekiah Doane, and the present keeper, Capt. Herbert Eldredge.
The patrol, south from this station, is two and one-quarter miles; the north patrol about two miles. Checks are exchanged with the surfmen from the Monomoy Station on the south; on the north patrol time clocks are used. The station is supplied with four surf-boats, (Monomoy model), one dory, two beach carts with full sets of apparatus, and one life-car. “Baby,” a horse employed by the government, is kept at the station to assist in hauling the apparatus to wrecks.
CHATHAM STATION.