Coast Guard station and crew

Coast Guard station and crew

Image of the crew of the Hunnewell's Beach Life Saving Station, Popham Beach, Maine. Visible in image: The Hunnewell's Beach Life Saving Station crew pose around their surf boat, hands on gunwale, on the station's launch ramp. The man standing behind the boat in a dark uniform is probably the station's keeper, John H. Spinney, who served from 1891 until his death in 1909. The man to his left resembled James E. Perkins, although that would leave in question the identity of the photographer. The rightmost of the boat's crew resembles Augustus Hodgkins, although the man's identity is not established. At the head of the ramp, at the station's other door, stands a man wearing a toque and a striped apron. A lapstrake skiff rests on the launch ramp, propped level with stones, and a family of duck decoys rest on the ramp's edge at bottom center. The Hunnewell's Beach Life Saving Station was established in 1883 at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The building was moved up-river to its current location near Popham Village in 1889, and was expanded and repaired in 1921. The U.S. Life Saving Service was merged into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, and the Popham Beach Coast Guard Station closed in 1971.