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.
[Illustration: CHATHAM STATION.]