Coast Guard Station Manomet Point United States Coast Guard Station Manomet Point was a United States Coast Guard station located in Plymouth , Massachusetts . The station was a sub - unit of Sector Southeast New England . History . Station No . 31 was built in 1874 on the west shore of Cape Cod Bay , on Manomet Point , 5 3 / 8 miles south southeast of Gurnet Light , near the site of the old Mayflower Hotel . The associated boathouse was at the bottom of the hill close to the beach . USCG Station 31 was built at the end of the Point and was opened on April 1 , 1901 with George B . Holmes in charge . The 1874 T - Type station still exists as a private home in its original location . Some changes have been made to the building but most of the structural details are still in evidence . It was decommissioned in 1947 , turned over to the General Services Administration in 1955 and ultimately dismantled . Most views of Station # 31 show the front view with the boathouse on the right . The doors to the boathouse opened to the rear . When the Station was demolished in 1955 Carl Asker moved the boathouse and attached it to his house on State Road . The structure is still visible with the doors opening onto State Road . SS Robert E . Lee disaster . Three of Station No . 31 ' s Guardsmen , Boatswain ' s Mate William Cashman and Surfmen Edward Stark and Frank Griswold , drowned after assisting the stricken passenger liner " SS Robert E . Lee . " The Boston - to - New York - bound steamer , with 273 passengers and crew , grounded on the treacherous Mary Ann Rocks just southeast of Manomet Point during a gale at about 8 p . m . on Saturday , March 9 , 1928 . Seven oarsman and Cashman tried again and again to reach the stricken ship via their oar - powered surf boat , but were held back by raging seas . ( They were unaware that passengers and crew did not appear to be in imminent danger because the captain had securely scuttled the ship on the rocks ) . The Guardsmen ultimately reached the liner on March 10 and assisted in rescue efforts . The Guardsmen were on a return trip to the station when their surf boat overturned in " an unusually ponderous sea . " Three drowned . " It was only one of the thousands of seas that the lifeboat had ridden buoyantly during the morning . But it caught her in a shoal place and it was an unusually ponderous sea . Its foot ' tripped ' on the bottom and it towered high in the air , tilting the boat ' s bow down and flinging Cashman almost above the heads of his seven oarsmen . Then the wave broke at the crest , and the boat was whirled over , the men dropping out , clutching at one another and at the great oars that were tumbling down with them . Hundreds of people were watching the boat , and a great cry went up from the crowd . People began to run down to the bowlder ( sic ) - strewn beach , helplessly enough , in their distress . " A number of young men watching from the shore secured small rowboats and rushed out to the stricken surf boat . Those rescuers were later awarded Carnegie Medals for bravery . Stark died en route to a Boston hospital ; Cashman died on the beach after lengthy resuscitation by a doctor , and Griswold ' s body eventually washed ashore about two miles away . The five others were treated at hospitals in Plymouth and Chelsea . " In memory of Boatswain ' s Mate William H . Cashman , Surfman Frank W . Griswold , Surfman Edward P . Stark , who of Station No . 31 United States Coast Guard lost their lives in the performance of their duty , March 10 , 1928 , when the Steamship Robert E . Lee stranded on the Mary Ann Rocks Southeast of this station . " Greater love hath no man than this , that a man lay down his life for his friends . " Community efforts were begun in March , 2010 to obtain formal hero status for the three fallen Coast Guardsmen from the government and military , and to improve the memorial site at the Point .