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Wood Island Museum Opens Off Coast of Kittery, Maine

Posted on by Vaseline

D. Allan Kerr
| Portsmouth Herald

KITTERY, Maine — In their heyday, the tough surfers of the U.S. Life-Saving Service were legendary.

These “storm warriors,” so called by writers of the time, rowed out in wooden boats through the stormiest seas to rescue sailors in distress. The austerity of their existence is reflected in the code by which they lived — “You must go out, but you need not come back.”

In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson merged the Life-Saving Service with the Revenue Cutter Service to create what we know today as the U.S. Coast Guard. In the years that followed, as technology advanced rapidly, the heroic deeds of the storm warriors faded from public memory.

Now, after a multi-year restoration that raised $6.8 million, their legacy will live on at the former station on Wood Island, just off the Fort Foster waterfront in Kittery.

On Friday, August 9 — fittingly, the weekend of the Coast Guard’s official birthday — a long-awaited maritime museum opens on Wood Island, which for decades has housed crews from both the Life Saving Service and the Coast Guard. And it’s starting off with a bang, with a fireworks show on Saturday, August 10, to commemorate the branch’s birthday.

Visitors can read informational posters about such dramatic rescues as the frigate Oliver Dyer in 1888 and the Navy submarine S-48 in 1925, which included not only the crew but also a lucky dog ​​named Beans. They’ll learn about Captain Silas Harding, who, as keeper, or chief surfman, at Jerry’s Point Station in New Castle, New Hampshire, led the Dyer rescue, which earned the entire crew the Gold Lifesaving Medal — the highest award given by the service.

Harding later became superintendent of the agency’s First District, which included all stations in Maine and New Hampshire. In this capacity, he personally oversaw an even more notable mission: the rescue of the schooner Lizzy Carr in 1905 at Wallis Sands in New Hampshire.

How an island ‘maritime museum’ was born after threat of demolition

It has taken a great deal of effort to transform the former, long-neglected station into the renovated and pristine mother-of-pearl building it is today. Organizers hope that this project will revive the memory of these heroic men.

The Wood Island station was built in 1908 and remained in operation until after World War II. When the Coast Guard moved its operations from Portsmouth Harbor to its current location in New Castle in the 1950s, the island was eventually returned to the city of Kittery, which did not do much with it until the next century.

By 2009, the building had become so dilapidated that Kittery officials considered simply demolishing it. However, in 2011, a group of concerned citizens formed the nonprofit Wood Island Life Saving Station Association, also known as WILSSA, with the goal of restoring the station to its former glory at no cost to the city, even though the city retains ownership.

WILSSA and Kittery reached an agreement on the restoration project that did not include city funding. The restoration project began in 2016. Reid said that in addition to the $6.8 million WILSSA raised for the project, he “anticipates a little bit more … for additional exhibits, furniture, draperies, etc.”

Since then, in addition to restoring the structure using much of the original material, the organization has also constructed new sea defenses on both the north and south sides of the island; a new pier; a unique training pole that was on display in a spectacular demonstration last September; and a restored sea railway, which may actually be put into service in the future.

Just as important, the electricity works, the restrooms work, and the exhibits are on display. In July, the city of Kittery issued a crucial certificate of occupancy, confirming that all inspections had been passed and the building could open for business. Reid said WILSSA has an operating contract with the city to run the museum for 40 years.

“A maritime museum on an island. Accessible only by boat. What a remarkable thing,” WILSSA President Sam Reid recently remarked.

The path that eventually brought this project to fruition has seen remarkable collaborations and fortunate events. Here’s how things went for the restoration of the Kittery Station:

Over a year ago, former Wood Island visitor Steve Rogers (who also happens to be the real name of comic book superhero Captain America) stumbled upon a pair of small chests believed to belong to Seacoast surfer George Ricker. Somehow, they had ended up in the collection of a Florida antiques dealer. Rogers initiated a series of electronic correspondence that led to WILLSA board member Jake Winebaum, and the items eventually turned up back at Wood Island.

One of the items is a truly unique Life Saving Service medicine chest, over 100 years old, which still contains bottles of brandy and snuff, as well as the agency’s instructions “for the use of the medicines … contained in this chest, for resuscitating persons recovered from the water.” The second chest contained letters, photographs and other personal items belonging to Ricker, who served at Wood Island in the early 1900s before later being appointed manager at the Isles of Shoals and Rye Beach locations.

In another instance, the family of Hugh Snow, a former manager of the Wood Island Station, donated an original Life Saving Service bell from the Fletcher’s Neck station near Biddeford Pool in Maine.

Fittingly, the man considered the father of the Life Saving Service was himself a Maine native. Sumner Increase Kimball was born in Lebanon, grew up in Sanford, attended Bowdoin College, and represented Berwick in the state legislature. Trained as a lawyer, Kimball went on to work for the U.S. Treasury Department as a clerk. He later founded the Life Saving Service and headed the agency as its only chief executive officer in history, from its founding in 1878 until the 1915 merger that created the Coast Guard.

In fact, an article in the February 1906 Portsmouth Herald reports that both Kimball and Capt. Harding personally inspected several locations before Wood Island was selected as the ideal home base for a new station. Now, the stories of both men are shared at the museum there.

One of the most popular features will likely be the lookout tower that sits atop the station, offering majestic views of the harbor and the neighboring Whaleback Lighthouse. The original wooden crew lockers also serve as a haunting reminder of the hardy men who called the station home. They spent their adult lives on or near the sea as fishermen, sailors, and the like.

M/V Utopia brings visitors to Wood Island Museum

Initially, the plan is to open the facility on weekends. Portsmouth Harbor Cruises will operate regular trips — two a day, initially, on Saturdays and Sundays — from Portsmouth’s Ceres Street to Wood Island aboard the new 42-foot M/V Utopia. Tickets are $30 per person, which includes both the boat ride and museum admission. Reid said the M/V Utopia will be the primary provider of rides to the museum.

The Utopia has a capacity of 32 passengers, but owner Drew Cole says he plans to carry no more than 25 people at a time.

“I think this is a great addition to our company,” he said of the new tour. “I bought Utopia with that in mind.”

Reservations can be made through the Portsmouth Harbor Cruises website. Departures at 12:15 and 2:30 will be offered on August 9, the museum’s opening day.

More information for visitors: woodislandlifesaving.org. The museum also books private events.

Boat owners can travel to Wood Island on their own, Reid said.

National Register of Historic Places a Goal for Wood Island

While the museum’s opening is a significant milestone, the work on Wood Island is far from over. One of the next major steps is securing recognition on the National Register of Historic Places.

The station had already been eligible for nomination to the register in 2015, which was important to qualify for certain protections during the restoration, Reid said. Original window and door frames, baseboards and the like were tagged by room and location, then stored for seven years before being stripped, cleaned and returned to their respective locations for preservation, he noted. But now WILSSA must submit the required documentation for inclusion on the exclusive list.

“It will definitely get final approval,” Reid said.

The training pole, which is made to resemble a ship’s mast, has traditionally been used by surfers during training exercises to hone their skills. Last September, a team of reenactors from the Chicamacomico Life Saving Station in North Carolina traveled to Kittery to give a live demonstration of the exercise, which requires ingenuity and sinew, as well as lines, pulleys and a small cannon-like device known as a Lyle gun.

WILSSA hopes to offer more demonstrations like this in the future, as the re-enactors do at the station in North Carolina.

The marine railway built on Wood Island is historically accurate, and the organization hopes to one day allow visitors to ride the railing into the water in surf boats, which resemble those surfers use during rescues. WILSSA claims it is the only remaining lifeboat station with an operational railway. The museum already has a 1930s lifeboat, the Mervin Roberts, which was restored in a two-year process by woodworker Nate Greeley of York, Maine.

Meanwhile, both seawalls protecting the facility on the small island are in need of repair after several recent severe storms. The walls were built through a remarkable partnership with the Maine Army National Guard, but have sustained significant damage from the weather.

August 10 Fireworks Event Invites Community to Celebrate and Give Back

But of more immediate concern is the upcoming fireworks extravaganza on Saturday, August 10 at 9 p.m., hosted by Wood Island, commemorating the recognized August 4, 1790, birthday of the Coast Guard, based on the date the Revenue Cutter Service was officially established. The agency’s merger with the Life Saving Service in 1915 formed the division of the Department of Homeland Security we know today.

For the third year in a row, people can watch the fireworks from New Castle’s Great Island Common and also bring non-perishable food to donate to Gather, the Portsmouth Food Bank. Last year, 1,000 people donated 800 pounds of food during the event, according to WILSSA.

The organization says this concept of “helping others, then and now” is a way to honor the selflessness of the surfers, whose livelihood was based on saving lives.

An 1885 annual report of the service, previously cited by author Dennis L. Noble, describes the storm warriors as “poor, simple men” who “took their lives in their own hands and, at the utmost risk, crossed the stormy sea … and all for what? That others may live to see their homes and friends.”