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The Letter

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I am putting this here because of the time involved between now and when I was there. I can't seem to get the proper chronological order. Sometime during my time on the Cuckold's a letter was sent to Margaret Chase Smith about some of the conditions on the island.

I mentioned earlier that the outboard motor was broken one day and basically not repairable. All family light stations are entitled to an outboard motor. This is one of the Coast Guard regulations. I found it interesting that when the outboard motor blew up I was not allowed to purchase and use my own and they didn't replace this item. Because of the location of the station, exposed to the open ocean, it was definitely a safety thing with women and children on the island. The personnel at the group in South Portland didn't figure it was important enough to get another motor and I guess they were expensive but a few hundred dollars probably could have gotten worked into the budget. Senator Smith requested that the Coast Guard look into the matter and we received a motor from another station. The motor we received was a motor that had been junked at another station and would not run and hadn't been run for a long period of time. However, it filled the request for a motor and in fact we did get the motor even though it was junk. I still had the old motor and it was a similar brand so in the end I was able to get it going by swapping a piston and other parts from one to the other so I did eventually get it going. We should have had a new motor. It is very possible that in an emergency we could have gotten off the island with the motor under bad conditions and would not have made it by rowing in heavy seas and wind. The motor sent was obviously sent to satisfy the letter and still keep us on the island.

There was never any abuse as far as leaving the island. Some of the stations had the keepers gone most of the time during the daylight and even in the evening hours. I know political inquiries really upset the military. I guess because the higher ups don't like taking orders. I felt that the chief in Boothbay Harbor had at least a little to do with it and I know he accused the two of us men on the Cuckold's of many things that we didn't do. I had the last laugh on that one because I was able to get the old junk motor running.

That was the first of the two main issues of the letter. The second being the problem of rats on the island. I set traps as suggested and caught about two or three a day for a while down to one a day after some period of time. At night we could sit and watch television and hear them run up and down the walls and across the ceiling as we sat there. The traps just weren't taking care of the problem. I had asked for help many times from South Portland and had received none. The money allocated for anything out there required approval from above if it was more than a very few dollars. The issue here was safety in that I had a baby that was sleeping in a rat infested building and he went to bed with a bottle quite often so there was milk in the room and in his crib. Stories of rats eating babies fingers, etc was somewhat etched in my mind so I really thought we should get rid of some rats. I guess Senator Smith thought so too as the Coast Guard sent out an exterminator twice and we did get rid of most of the rats. At least we didn't hear them running all through the house anymore.

The executive officer at South Portland called and I got chewed out really bad. I guess he was justified but I was told that everything had to go through Boothbay Harbor and I was doing as I was told and when that letter went in I guess he is the one that heard about that so it rolled down to me. Nothing would have happened if they had just listened when I told them about the problems and had taken some action but they hadn't. All that would have been required was to authorize me to hire an exterminator. Because he wouldn’t  he got a black mark on his record and I got rid of the rats and got my butt chewed out because of the incompetence of the Coast Guard. I feel to this day that because I was in charge that when I said something, if I was competent enough to be in charge that they should have checked on what was going on and not just taken the word of the personnel in Boothbay Harbor.

To my wife and I the letter was worth it even though I didn't send it. I know I felt safer without the rats running all around my baby and with the motor to get us off the island if we were ill or had a broken bone or something. It was all worth it but it got me black-balled for the rest of my Coast Guard career.