Port Orford Lifeboat Station
Museum hours:
April through October - Thursday through Monday - 10 am - 3:30 pm
Other times throughout the year by appointment
Admission is free
    Sample displays
Museum Wall
The former operations area (and dining room) features photographs and exhibits
US Coast Guard ensign

A U.S. Coast Guard ensign from the Lifeboat Station

In 1799, Congress authorized cutters and boats to be "distinguished from other vessels by an ensign and pennant."  In August of that year, Treasury Secretary Wolcott prescribed that the "ensign and pennant’’ should consist of "sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the union of the ensign to be the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field."  There were sixteen states in the Union at that time.
Shipwrecks
One of detailed hand-built models of the Warren Hulbert collection

Lyle gun - used to shoot lines to ships in distress

Shipwrecks and Rescues
"Shipwrecks and Rescues"

Life rings from SS Cottoneva and SS Willapa, whose crews were rescued by Port Orford Lifeboat Station crews, with a Lyle gun and a salvaged piece of the wrecked Willapa


Display case and Japanese attack story

"Coastie" bedroom
Pharmacy Items
Part of the Malasky collection of pharmacy items
Dog Tag Maker
Vintage Dog Tag Maker
Japanese Mine Detonator - WW II
Japanese Type 93 Mine Detonator (WW II)
Husun Sextant

Husun Sextant number 50489, manufactured by Henry Hughes and Sons, London, dated 10-28-46.  This is a world-class item, in working condition with original documentation, made by one of the premier nautical instrument makers. 

Port Orford Post

Original Port Orford Post dated December 30, 1880

 

Nautical Books

  • American Practical Navigator-Bowditch (1938)
  • American Practical Navigator-Bowditch (1958)
  • Piloting Seamanship and Small Boat Handling (1943)
  • The Arts of the Sailor (1953)

 

Navigation Instruments

Stainless steel parallel rule and divider, manufactured by Lilley and Sons, London