Capt. Herbert E. Eldredge
Capt. Herbert E. Eldredge, keeper of the Chatham Station, was born in Chatham in 1863, and has been in the life-saving service for thirteen years, eight as a surfman and five as keeper, all of which have been spent at this station. Captain Eldredge began his career on the water along the Chatham shore when a boy of thirteen years, and was an expert boatman, fisherman, and wrecker before he was twenty years of age. For six years he went fishing on the rips off Chatham, one of the most perilous occupations along the coast. As a member of Capt. Joseph Bloomer’s wrecking crew, Captain Eldredge had a wide experience working on wrecked vessels along the coast, and was especially fitted for the responsible position that he now holds. He has a crew of brave and hardy life savers for whom the rips and shoals that abound along the Chatham shore have no terrors. Not a life has been lost within the province of the Chatham Station during the time that Captain Eldredge has been keeper.
He married Mary A. Nye, and is the father of two daughters and a son.