Historic Boathouse Returns To Chatham

The Coast Guard Boathouse being lowered by a huge crane. Photo courtesy of the town of Chatham.

An unusual sight could be seen off the south coast of Cape Cod this week as a historic boathouse was towed from New Bedford to its new home in Chatham, Massachusetts.

Some locals look on as the barge is towed into Chatham. Photo courtesy of the town of Chatham.

It’s a homecoming for the historic Coast Guard boathouse, which had been part of the Chatham waterfront for 70 years before some tumultuous years that saw it towed to several locations along Massachusetts’ South Shore.

The boathouse was recently in New Bedford, where it underwent repairs and renovations. Following those renovations, the boathouse was towed this week from New Bedford, through Buzzards Bay and along the south coast of Cape Cod to its home in Chatham’s Stage Harbor.

The Station Chatham boathouse was involved in the famed Pendleton rescue of 1952. During a severe nor’easter off the Chatham coast in February 1952, the tankers Fort Mercer and Pendleton each broke in half. The Pendleton was unable to make any distress call, but it was discovered during the search for Fort Mercer using the unusual shore radar with which the Chatham Lifeboat Station was equipped.

At home in Chatham. Photo courtesy of the town of Chatham.

The crew of 36-foot Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG 36500 from Station Chatham rescued the crew from Pendleton‘s stern section by maneuvering the boat under the ship’s stern and allowing the crew to abandon the remains of their ship on a Jacob’s ladder. One by one, the men jumped into the water and were pulled into the lifeboat. The Coast Guard crew saved 32 of the 41 Pendleton crew, and Coast Guard crew members were awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for their heroic actions.

The Coast Guard station was decommissioned in the 1970s. The boathouse was sold to developers, but it remained vacant for decades. Several proposed plans for the building never worked out, and it was moved to Quincy in 2019, and later to Hull, and then back to Quincy.

But things changed recently when a space opened up in Chatham that fit perfectly with the building and what local officials had in mind.

The building will now be part of a multi-use waterfront project in Chatham. It will be home to the town’s shellfish program and will allow the public to visit the boathouse and learn about its history.

With the boathouse in place, more renovation work is planned for the building. But officials said they hope to have the boathouse open to the public in the next month or two.