The U.S. Customs house in Barnstable is architecturally and
historically significant for its role in the maritime commerce of
Cape Cod in the late 19th century. The Seventh United States
Customs District was established in 17___9 (A) with the Town of
Barnstable as its administrative center. Customs activities took
place in the collector's home until the mid-19th century when
collector Sylvanus B. Phinney secured congressional funding to
erect a fireproof, brick and cast iron customshouse/post office in
1855. Ammi Burnham Young, Supervising Architect of the Treasury
Department, designed the two-story, Renaissance Revival style
building with an advanced cast-iron structural system by 1856.
The customs house occupied the second level until 1913, while
the first level served as a post office until 1958. The County
Extension Service replaced the customhouse on the second level from
1924 to 1957. The Federal government deeded the building and
grounds to the Town of Barnstable in 1960 for use as a historical
museum, which opened that same year. The building is dedicated to
Donald G. Trayser, a local Barnstable historian, former editor of
The Barnstable Patriot, former Clerk of the Barnstable Superior
Court, and editor of Barnstable-______ (F) Centuries of a Cape Cod
Town, which was published in 1939. For many years, the historic
building housed the collection of the Barnstable Historical
Society. After the Society moved out, the customhouse was restored
by a group of dedicated local residents and reopened as the Coast
Guard Heritage Museum at the Trayser in July 2005.
In 1790 the forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard was the Revenue
Marine Service, later named the Revenue Cutter Service, under the
jurisdiction of Alexander Hamilton's U.S. Treasury Department.
Other commands like the Huts of Refuge run by the Humane Society of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Lighthouse Service, Life
Saving Service, Lightships and Aids to Navigation were independent
entities, not under the umbrella of the Coast Guard until later.
While President Woodrow Wilson officially created the U.S. Coast
Guard in 1915, the service has always considered August ___ (E),
1790 to be its "Birthday".
On February 18, 1952, during a severe "nor’easter" with 70
-knot winds and 60-foot seas off the New England coast, the T2
tankers SS Fort Mercer and SS Pendleton broke in half. Pendleton
was unable to make any distress call; she was discovered on the
unusual shore radar with which the Chatham, Massachusetts, Lifeboat
Station was equipped during the search for Fort Mercer. BM1 Bernard
C. Webber, coxswain of motor lifeboat CG-___6500 (C)from Station
Chatham and his crew, consisting of Andrew Fitzgerald, Richard
Livesey, and Ervin Maske, rescued the crew of Pendleton, which had
broken in half. Webber maneuvered the 36-footer under Pendleton's
stern with expert skill as the tanker's crew, trapped in the stern
section, abandoned the remains of their ship on a Jacob's ladder.
One by one, the men jumped into the water and then were pulled into
the lifeboat. Webber and his crew saved 33 of the 34 Pendleton
crewmen. Webber, Fitzgerald, Livesey, and Maske were awarded the
Gold Lifesaving Medal for their heroic actions. In all, U .S. Coast
Guard vessels, aircraft, and lifeboat stations, working under
severe winter conditions, rescued 62 persons from the foundering
ships or from the water; only five lives were lost among the crews
of Fort Mercer and Pendleton. Five Coast Guardsmen earned the Gold
Lifesaving Medal, four earned the Silver Lifesaving Medal, and 15
earned the Coast Guard Commendation Medal. The rescue of men from
the bow of Fort Mercer was nearly as spectacular as the Pendleton
rescue, but is often overshadowed by the Pendleton rescue. Eight
officers and crew were trapped on the bow of Fort Mercer and four
were rescued using rafts and a Monomoy surfboat. By contrast, all
aboard the bow of the Pendleton perished.
Commissioned on August 29, 1970, Air Station Cape Cod traces its
roots back to the 1920s. In its infancy, Coast Guard aviation was
conceived as a life-saving arm of the cutter fleet. In 1915 a
Curtis flying boat was utilized by the service to explore the
possibilities of aerial patrol and rescue. The experiment was so
successful, Congress authorized the Coast Guard to establish ten
air stations. However, funding was not forthcoming, and the project
fell by the wayside. World War I did allow service aviators at
naval air stations to get practical experience in patrol work and
operations. An air station was established in 1920 in North
Carolina, utilizing flying boats on loan from the Navy. Despite
this early success locating distressed mariners, Congress voted no
monies for the fledgling air service, and the station was closed in
1921. The passage of the Volstead Act in 191__ (D) would give the
service the boost it needed to get its aviation program airborne.
Suppression of liquor smuggling during Prohibition became the major
mission of the Coast Guard in the 1920s. CDR Von Paulsen, Coast
Guard Aviator number 5, flew a borrowed Navy seaplane on daily
patrols from the naval air station at Squantum, MA. The flights
proved to be so effective against rum runners that lawmakers
appropriated $152,000 for five aircraft. In May of 1925 three of
these seaplanes flew out of Gloucester, MA at Ten Pound Island.
This essentially became the Coast Guard's first operational,air
station. Two more aircraft were added in 1932 as a result of the
success in the law enforcement mission. In addition to its patrol
mission, Ten Pound Island became a training facility for pilots and
a laboratory for communication between aircraft and ship or shore
stations. Since there was no room to expand the Gloucester base, a
new air station was established at Salem, MA in 1935. Boasting
state of the art communications and modern repair facilities, it
was designed to handle the larger flying boats. In 1941 air crews
from Salem began to fly neutrality patrols along the coast, and in
November the Coast Guard was transferred to the Department of the
Navy. The War years saw the air station roster increase to 37
aircraft, making it the second largest station on the east coast.
On October 21, 1944 Air Station Salem was officially designated as
the first US Air-Sea Rescue service on the eastern seaboard. After
the war the service found itself with a varied inventory of
helicopters, multi-engined patrol planes, and flying boats. With no
runways to handle dry landings at Salem, the Coast Guard sought to
expand its facilities. In 1950 Air Detachment Quonset Point, Rhode
Island was established as a sub unit of Air Station Salem. During
the 1950s the Cosat Guard employed the helicopter with a great deal
of success as a rescue platform. With the development of the
HH-52A, an amphibious helicopter, the need for a flying boat was
lessened. Therefore, air stations having only water landing
capabilities, such as Salem, were being phased out. In 1968 an
agreement was reached with the DOD to utilize the Otis Air Force
Base on Cape Cod as the new home of a Coast Guard air station.
Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod was actually established on August
29, 1970.
At the posted coordinates, find the plaque about the restoration
of the original fence around the museum and use the following
formula for the last digit needed: Subtract the FIRST date listed
(the year the fence was installed) from the SECOND date listed (the
year the fence was restored). Add the sum of those numbers and then
choose one of the two numbers you get as the product as the digit
for B.
N 41° 41.ABC W 70° 17.DEF
Please remember to respect the private property along both
sides of the trail. Also, there is an active set of tracks to cross
when coming from the museum. Please stay alert when approaching the
tracks! After getting the final coordinates for this cache, you
should be able to search for these other caches as well:
Cape Cod Pathways Red Multi,
The Coast Guard Museum
The Old Jaol
This cache was created with help (and permission) from William
Collette (MKCS USCG ret), Jack McGrath (USCG Veteran, aviation) and
Francis Broadhurst (USN Veteran)
