Cape Malabar House of Refuge

May 14, 2021
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Cape Malabar House of Refuge


Location:

30 miles south of Cape Canaveral; 28-03' 10"N x 80-32' 45"W

Date of Conveyance:

1884

Station Built:

1886

Fate:

Station was discontinued in 1891.  Property turned over to the War Assets Administration in 1947. 


Remarks:

According to the 1879 "Annual Report of the Life Saving Service" these houses of refuge along the east coast of Florida "contemplate no other life saving operations than affording succor to shipwrecked persons who may be cast ashore, and who, in the absence of such means of relief, would be liable to perish from hunger and thirst in that desolate region.  Crews of surfmen are not needed here, but the keepers and members of their families are required to go along the beach, in both directions, in search of castaways immediately after a storm."

Keepers:

Joseph M. Hopkins was appointed keeper on 13 MAY 1886 and was discharged on 31 DEC 1891.


Sources:

Station History File, CG Historian’s Office

Dennis L. Noble & Michael S. Raynes.  “Register of the Stations and Keepers of the U.S. Life-Saving Service.”  Unpublished manuscript, compiled circa 1977, CG Historian’s Office collection.

Ralph Shanks, Wick York & Lisa Woo Shanks.  The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard.  Petaluma, CA: Costaño Books, 1996.

U.S. Treasury Department: Coast Guard.  Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers and Cadets and Ships and Stations of the United States Coast Guard, July 1, 1941.  Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941.