Wordless Wednesday

 

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Baby, its cold outside!!

Gay Head Light (Aquinnah Light)

This is another installment of the Romancing of Lighthouses.   This lighthouse is very close to my heart because I've been visiting it every year since I was a child.  Martha's Vineyard is one of my favorite places.  These photographs of the lighthouse and the cliff were all taken by me.

The handsome Gay Head Lighthouse stands in one of the most picturesque locations in New England, atop the 130-foot multicolored clay cliffs at the western shore of Martha's Vineyard.

 

Massachusetts State Senator Peleg Coffin of Nantucket requested a lighthouse at Gay Head in 1796 because of the heavy maritime traffic passing through Vineyard Sound. The passage between the Gay Head cliffs and the Elizabeth Islands was treacherous because of the long underwater obstruction called Devil's Bridge that extends out from Gay Head.

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton asked for, and received, $5,750 from Congress for the lighthouse. A 47-foot (57 feet to the top of the lantern), octagonal wooden lighthouse was erected on a stone base, along with a wood-frame keeper's house, barn, and oil vault. The light went into service on November 18, 1799. The initial keeper, Ebenezer Skiff, was the first white man to live in the town of Gay Head, which was populated by Wampanoag Indians.

Skiff complained that the cellar of the keeper's house was flooded much of the time, and that clay collecting on the glass made it difficult to keep the lighthouse's lantern clear. Also, to help tend the light while he was on various errands, the keeper sometimes had to hire local Indians for a dollar a day. For his troubles, President Thomas Jefferson awarded Skiff a raise in 1802, from $200 to $250 per year.

Skiff remained at Gay Head for 29 years. He served for a while as a teacher for local children, mostly Gay Head Indians. In 1829, his son, Ellis Skiff, became keeper at $350 per year, a higher salary than most keepers received at the time.

In spite of the powerful light, shipwrecks happened with regularity in the vicinity.The worst of them happened in the early morning of January 19, 1884, when the passenger steamer City of Columbus ran aground on Devil's Bridge, a treacherous ledge reaching out from the Gay Head Cliffs.

Twenty minutes later, 100 persons on board had drowned. Some managed to hold onto the rigging long enough for lighthouse keeper Horatio N. Pease to arrive with a crew of Gay Head Indians in a lifeboat.

A number of people were saved by this crew and by the crew of the Revenue Cutter Dexter, which soon arrived on the scene. The wreck of the City of Columbus remains one of New England's worst marine disasters.

William Atchison became keeper in 1890, but had to resign due to a mysterious illness a year later. His replacement, Edward Lowe, died at 44 only a year after becoming keeper. A few years later, four children of Keeper Crocker Crosby died within 15 months.

Belatedly, it was decided that the cause of all these illnesses was the extreme dampness of the keeper's house. The 1856 brick keeper's house was torn down and replaced by a wooden house in 1902. The new house was built on a much higher foundation so it would remain dry.

Charles Vanderhoop (at right, U.S. Coast Guard photo), an Aquinnah Wampanoag Indian, became one of the light's most popular keepers.

According to historian Edward Rowe Snow, Vanderhoop and his assistant, Max Attaquin, probably took one-third of a million visitors to the top of Gay Head Light between 1910 and 1933.

The wives of Vanderhoop and Attaquin each had two children during their years at the lighthouse.

Bill Grieder's father Frank was keeper from 1937 to 1948. In an interview in 2000, Grieder remembered keeping busy at the light station:

There was always some work for me. I used to polish brass. I learned to light the lighthouse, and I taught my mother to do it. There were times when my Dad was sick -- my Mum would go up to light the light or I would go up. Of course we had an assistant keeper, but if you couldn't call on him you did it yourself.

I went up to help whitewash or paint the tower, and mow the lawn of course. Lug the kerosene up in the tower. Polish the lens. It had to be cleaned and dusted all the time. We had a dust cover over that. In the wintertime we used to put glycerin on the outside of the [lantern] glass, so if you got rain it wouldn't ice up.

Another job I used to do was to take people up in the tower. My Mum used to do it too. We didn't have to do it but it was kind of a courtesy. Mostly anybody who stopped in we'd take up.

Joseph Hindley succeeded Arthur Bettencourt and would be the last keeper at Gay Head, leaving when the light was fully automated in 1956. The dwelling was razed after automation.

The best views of the lighthouse and cliffs are from a scenic lookout near the small strip of shops and restaurants at Gay Head.

The cliffs are closed to the public because of erosion concerns, but the lighthouse is opened by the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from one hour before sunset to a half hour after sunset, from the summer solstice to the fall equinox.

Keepers: Ebenezer Skiff (1799-1828); Ellis Skiff (1828-1845); Samuel Flanders (1845-1849 and 1853-1861); Henry Robinson (1849-1853); Ichabod Norton Luce (1861-1864); Calvin C. Adams (1864-1869); Horatio N. T. Pease (assistant 1863-1869, principal keeper 1869-1890); Frederick Poole (assistant, c. 1884); Calvin M. Adams (assistant c. 1872-?); Frederick H. Lambert (assistant, c. 1870s); Edward P. Lowe (1891-1892); Crosby L. Crocker (1892-1920); Charles W. Vanderhoop (1920-1933); James E. Dolby (1933-1937); Frank A. Grieder (1937-1948); Sam Fuller (assistant, c. 1940s); Arthur Bettencourt (1948-?); Joseph Hindley (?-1956)

Thanks to New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide where I got all this information. http://www.lighthouse.cc/
Lots more information is available in Jeremy D'Entremont book, "The Lighthouses of Massachusetts."

NEW YEARS EVE 2008 STORM

I thought this was going to be a wordless Wednesday but since we are having a huge New Years Eve storm, I wanted to show a few of my photographs from my ride home from work.  This is where I work at Harrington Brothers, or as I like to call it, Harrington Sisters.

As you can see our cars are full of snow and this started about 10am and this was at 1pm.  Below is the ride home.

Below is coming down my street. The first photograph you can't even see the car in front of me.

Well its 2:30pm on New Years Eve day and its still coming down strong.  As I look out my window there's a white out.  The weather report says it should stop about 6pm tonight..........Hopefully my guests will be able to make it over to my home so we can celebrate the new year together and I hope everyone has a safe and healthy New year.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year to all my Friends and Family

Wordless Wednesday

 

Mysteries of Lighthouses part 2

The romancing of lighthouse is continuing as promised. I'm am truly enjoying this series because when I photograph these lighthouses, sometimes I just stare at them and fantasize about living there years and years ago.

My next lighthouse is Nobska Point Lighthouse. This lighthouse is located in Falmouth Mass. I was absolutely shocked when I looked up this lighthouse address as I have passed by this street for the last 20 years of my life never knowing there was a lighthouse off the street.

Woods Hole, with its deep harbor, developed a substantial whaling fleet in the early years of the nineteenth century. Besides the local maritime traffic, Nobska Point was passed by a stream of vessels crossing through Vineyard Sound, bordered by Falmouth and the Elizabeth Islands to the north, and Martha's Vineyard to the south. In 1829, the year the lighthouse was established, it was reported that more than 10,000 vessels passed through the area.

Through much of the nineteenth century, the keepers had to count the vessels that passed the light. On one day alone in 1864, Keeper Frederick Ray counted 188 vessels -- including 175 schooners -- passing the point.

Oliver A. Nickerson had the longest stay of any keeper in the station's history, from 1874 to 1911. A 1908 article described the duties of the keeper's daughter, Florence Nickerson. For the previous seven years, she had been the official "observer" at Nobska, keeping track of all the vessels passing by in daylight hours. "She is shrewd and kindly," said the article, "one of those Yankee girls who fear nothing and take life cheerfully." Besides her observational duties, Florence kept house at the station and tended a flock of chickens.

In August 1935, Keeper John M. Scharff and Assistant Keeper Waldo Leighton rescued a man who had fallen overboard from his sailboat in a squall.

The Coast Guard took over the management of lighthouses in 1939, but civilian keepers remained at Nobska Point Light until November 1973.

Osborne Hallett was in charge from 1955 to 1968, and Joseph Hindley was his assistant. Hindley took over as keeper in 1968. When he retired in 1973, Hindley was believed to be the last civilian lighthouse keeper in New England. His career in the Lighthouse Service dated back to 1927, when he was an assistant at Whale Rock Light in Rhode Island.

The light was automated and the Coast Guard keepers were removed in 1985. The last officer in charge was Charles Tebo, who lived at the lighthouse with his wife, Gina, and their two young children. After automation, the station became the home for the commander of U.S. Coast Guard Group Woods Hole, which was renamed in 2006 as Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England.

The lighthouse has been "adopted" by the members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 11-02, and there are occasional public open houses in season.

Keepers: Peter Daggett (?-1849); William Davis (1849-1853); William Ferguson Jr. (1853-1861); Frederick Ray (1861-1874); Oliver A. Nickerson (1874-1911); George I. Cameron (assistant 1910-1911, principal keeper 1911-?); John M. Scharff (1925-1955); Waldo Leighton, assistant (c. 1935); George T. Gustavus (assistant 1911-?, prinicpal keeper1939-1941); Joseph G. Hindley, Jr. (assistant, c. 1956-1968, keeper 1968-1972); Osborne E. Hallett (1955-1968)

Thanks to New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide where I got all this information. http://www.lighthouse.cc/
Lots more information is available in Jeremy D'Entremont book, "The Lighthouses of Massachusetts."