Loran Station

During WWII, the U. S. Navy recognized the strategic location of the southeast quarter of Nantucket and constructed a top-secret Loran (Long Range Navigation) station at Low Beach in 1942. The facility was one of the first Loran stations in the world, ideally situated to monitor Atlantic shipping and submarine traffic. Navy personnel lived at the newly constructed Tom Nevers base. Built as part of the broader Coastal Defense network, the Loran station was enlarged in 1952 and again in 1961-1962.

WWII, the Loran Station, and a German Spy

Situated in a strategic Atlantic location,Nantucket Island played an important role during World War II, particularly at ’Sconset, where a new Coast Guard station was built south of the village in 1942. The technology in use at the Loran Station was kept secret during the war; it was not until the end of the conflict that the Long Range Navigation System was made public. Postwar ’Sconset was the hideout in 1946 of a German prisoner of war, Fred Kammerdiner, who escaped from Fort Devens and was sheltered by a sympathetic and enamored woman, Anna Hamilton, who bought a house in the village for them; although they must have thought they were well off the map, the pair was discovered by the F.B.I., and the P.O.W. was deported.

Sign: U.S. Naval Facility Tom Nevers.
c. 1950s
SC688-2-22

A digital exhibition by the Nantucket Historical Association