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Stress and other negative aspects of the island

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The District Office ultimately controlled personnel for the lighthouses and other Small Coast Guard Units, which for the 1^st Coast Guard district was in Boston, MA. The second link was in South Portland, ME which controlled the smaller stations from somewhere around Wells, ME to about the Boothbay Harbor area. All stations were rated by the amount of personnel attached. The area controlled by South Portland was called a "Group" and they controlled all the stations in the group and were responsible for assigning personnel and logistics and the total operation of everything in the group. The main units under the group were the lifeboat stations and some other smaller boats like small tugs and units of that nature. These units all answered directly to the group office in Portland, ME. Because most of the light stations were manned by very few people they came at the bottom of the ladder and answered to the lifeboat station closest to them.

The person in charge of the lightstation was supposed to make most decisions concerning the logistics and operation of the station but in the case of the Cuckold's this was not the case during the time I was stationed there.

The Chief Petty Officer in charge of the lifeboat station at Boothbay Harbor made nearly all of the decisions concerning the Cuckold's and whatever happened there. It became a typical military method of operation in that the chief made the decisions and if things went well it was fine and if it went wrong the blame came down on me. The problem with this was that I often told the chief about things and he avoided or ignored my comments, made a decision, then a problem would evolve and then it was my fault after I had given him the problem with the proper solution.

A prime example of this was when the main light was turned on one evening. The Cuckolds had a rotating light with two bulbs, which gave the blinking effect as they turned. They were mounted with approximately 60 degrees between them so the beams shone in a "V" from the station. I observed that for some reason the light was rotating backwards. I knew something was wrong but we timed the light and the characteristics (timed flashes) were fine it was just that it was going backwards. I immediately called the support station at Boothbay Harbor and informed them of this. The reply I got was that an AC motor ran the light and this was not possible. The night passed and I called again the next day. I got about the same answer so because the station gave me little control I didn't want to call the group headquarters so I just let it ride after reporting it a couple times. I had strict instructions from the chief not to call South Portland unless it was an emergency and even then I was to go through him first. Anyway, about two weeks later I got a call from the chief and got reamed out royally. It seems that Kennebec River Lifeboat Station had observed the light rotating backwards and had called Boothbay and wanted to know what was going on. I explained that I had called and reported this and that the station at Boothbay had told me it couldn't even though I had said it was going backwards. I was told that I never called so Boothbay Harbor called South Portland and requested an electrician and the next day the main light had a new motor and was turning in the right direction. That was strike one for the chief in passing the blame to me. He lied and I paid for it.

When landing on the island I was the person in charge of the light station and would make the final determination on whether or not to land on the island. This was only in theory because every time, regardless of what I said we were ordered to go to the island. On that day, even though my own wife was involved I said that it wasn't safe to land because of the conditions of the seas and was over-ridden by the coxswain on the boat. We lost the groceries because he said it was ok to land on the island and I said it wasn't. His error and I replaced the groceries because of his bad judgment. The Coast Guard no the coxswain were responsible even though I said it was not safe to land the small boat. Things of this nature were continual while I was on the island. Control was totally in the hands of the people in Boothbay even when they had no real idea what it was like on the island.

These events finally got me to understand that I was in-charge when things went wrong and supposed to be all the time but because of the chief in Boothbay Harbor I never was in charge of the light station at all. In theory the station was there to provide logistics when needed and at their convenience but the control ended there. They ran the lighthouse from afar and this created many instances of this type of screw up.

One day the pump that pumped the salt water from a tank in the station for the station toilets failed. I disassembled the pump and found that a small venturi had disintegrated and needed replacing for about 2 or 3 dollars. Boothbay Harbor sent out the chief that was in-charge of engineering at the station to help. He and a first class petty officer came and told me I needed a new pump. I explained that the venturi was all that was wrong and would take care of the problem explaining how the pump worked, etc. in great detail and the petty officer told the chief that I was correct and that this part was all that was required. The chief said "I said he needs a new pump!" and that was that. A few months later, having passed the test for the next rank I became eligible for the service-wide exam for the next rank. The chief got his revenge and shot me down. By showing him I knew more about that pump than him it had made him look bad in front of one of his underlings and he got even. Fortunately for me I, seldom had to deal with him. The chief in charge of the station was my main nemesis.

The chief in charge at Boothbay Harbor was basically hated by most of his crew and was an interesting person. My wife and I would make arrangements to stay with parents on our two days off a month and the day before we were to leave the chief would say to his cronies in Boothbay Harbor, "Watch me ruin so and so's (my) day." He would then call the station and tell me that something had come up and he didn't have anyone to relieve me so I would have to wait another day or possibly the next week. He did this just for his personal enjoyment. He was quite tactful in that he never did or said anything to my wife of the wife of the assistant keeper. He did all in his power to make it miserable for us on the island. He played the same games with his crew at Boothbay Harbor and this was the reason he was hated by nearly all of them. Eventually, he got transferred to recruiting someplace in Mass. And had a nervous breakdown or something. He destroyed the morale of the men at Boothbay Harbor and at the Cuckold's before he left. I guess he did finally get his due but it was after I was out of the Coast Guard.

The men under him were somewhat afraid also in that more than one time the boat would come out to take either myself or the assistant keeper off for the two days. The coxswain would determine that the landing conditions were not good enough so they would just go back to the station and we would wait another week. I guess I should note that I had grown up the son of a lobsterman and could row a small boat just about before I could walk. I had spent more time on the water, even at my age than most of the men at Boothbay all put together.

Another example of the power trip in Boothbay Harbor was that it could be snowing inland and out by the island it was often clear as a bell. Someone would call from Boothbay harbor and ream us out for not having the light and foghorn on and we had almost perfect visibility around the station and the light didn't even need to be on. This was when I either just left it off or sometimes would turn it on to pacify them in case they called one of the stations in the area to check on me. All the time knowing that the light and foghorn had no need to be in operation.

The chief ran the station and had control through fear and intimidation. He made life for those on the station and on the light stations under his jurisdiction as unpleasant as possible.