On Its Way Home: Historic Coast Guard Boathouse Goes Through Cape Cod Canal

It has certainly been a long, strange trip for the former Stage Harbor Coast Guard boathouse. And its journey isn’t over yet.

 Late last Thursday afternoon, the historic structure, which once sheltered the iconic CG36500 lifeboat, made its way on a towed barge through the Cape Cod Canal heading for New Bedford, where it will undergo initial renovations. Sometime in the next few months it will return to Chatham after a 16-year absence, taking its place at 90 Bridge St. to house the town’s shellfish upwelling operation.

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“It’s been a long haul,” said David Doherty, who spearheaded the rescue of the boathouse from the wrecking ball in 2009 and saved it again in 2021 when it was slated for demolition.

 When it returns to town, the boathouse will sit on pilings across the harbor from the spot it occupied for decades on the shore of Stage Island. There it housed Coast Guard vessels, including the CG36500, which famously rescued 32 men from the stern of the tanker Pendleton in 1952 in what is still considered the greatest small boat rescue in the agency’s history.

 The CG36500 now belongs to the Orleans Historical Society, and the desire to not lose another piece of the town’s historical heritage was at the root of the efforts over the years to save the boathouse.

 After it was decommissioned in the 1950s, the boathouse was sold to the developers of Stage Island and sat vacant for decades. When the land shoreward of the boathouse was slated for development in 2009, Doherty and others stepped in to try to find another location for it in town. Although they scoured the shore, intent on keeping the boathouse in Chatham, the effort proved unsuccessful.

 “It’s 30 by 60 feet, so it’s not a small boathouse,” noted Jack Farrell, who worked on the project with Doherty. 

 Through his work with the Chatham Conservation Foundation, Doherty had developed a relationship with developer Jay Cashman, who leases land on Strong Island from the nonprofit. 

 “Jay has quite an affinity for the Coast Guard,” Doherty said, and agreed to move the boathouse to his shipyard in Quincy. “If not for Jay Cashman, it never would have happened,” Doherty said. In an all-day operation, a huge crane lifted the boathouse onto Cashman’s barge; the operation had to wait until high tide because the boathouse was so heavy, Farrell recalled.

 Plans to use the boathouse in conjunction with a student boating program in Quincy fell through, and it remained in the shipyard until 2019, when it was taken to Hull, where it was going to be restored and used for storage and other marine activities. But property owner Michael McDevitt failed to get permits from the town and ended up in court, which ordered him to either remove or demolish the boathouse.

 Doherty stepped in again and purchased the structure, once again storing it at Cashman’s shipyard, where it languished until plans were developed to relocate the town’s shellfish grow-out operation from the harbormaster’s building at Old Mill Boatyard to 90 Bridge St. Seeing an opportunity to return it to its home, Doherty offered the boathouse to house the facility. A structural examination determined that the building was in good condition and could be adapted for the upwelling system.

 Robert B. Our Company has completed installation of the pier system on which the boathouse will rest, according to Natural Resources Director Greg Berman. The company towed the boathouse to its dock in New Bedford, where the sloped floor — designed to facilitate launching boats — will be removed and a new level, steel-reinforced floor installed. Windows that had asbestos glazing have been removed and securely boarded up, Doherty said.

Additional work is being done on the $11.03 million Bridge Street project, including installation of additional timber piers, which won’t impact the return of the boathouse, Berman said. The town recently received an $857,048 grant from the state Seaport Economic Council program toward the cost of the boathouse’s return, rehabilitation and repurposing. That grant, along with a $730,620 grant for the project from the state Agricultural Resources Food Security Infrastructure program and community preservation funds to cover transportation and historical renovation of the building, bring the total grants for the Bridge Street project to $3.9 million, according to the town.

 Once the work in New Bedford is completed, Doherty will turn over ownership of the structure to the town.

 Farrell credited Doherty with having the tenacity to stick with the project over many years. “It would have been easy to walk away, but he didn’t,” he said. Others contributed to keeping the boathouse project alive, including former harbormaster Stuart Smith, historical commission chair Frank Messina and Protect Our Past founder Ellen Briggs, said Farrell.

 “They saw merit in it from the get-go,” he said.

 The New Bedford work is expected to take a few weeks, Berman said. The return of the boathouse could happen as soon as next month, but the journey is weather-dependent and may not happen until the spring. Doherty said he hopes to get the CG36500 to escort the boathouse back into Stage Harbor.

 “We definitely want to make a big hullabaloo about it, because it’s a big deal,” he said. “I’m thrilled. I can’t wait to see it.”