Navy pump house, Little Chebeague Island, 1947Item 67320 info
National Archives at Boston The Navy used similar shipboard
firefighting trainers at schools around the world through the
Vietnam War era. An apparently insignificant relic on the shore
of a small island in Casco Bay was crucial to successful
firefighting efforts on Navy ships in World War II. In two years
of operation, the Chebeague Island school trained some 15,000
sailors. After the war, the government sold the island to a
private investor. The state purchased it in 1972.