Tarpaulin Cove Light - July 26, 2009

Approaching the light via dinghy

View from the beach below

The boys & I

Another angle - the boys & I

Just the boys!

On the way down...

Tarpaulin Cove light was our first family up-close visit to a lighthouse. The previous two lights we observed from the boat, so not quite as exciting! The boys loved hiking up the trail to see it - and mommy loved the fact that despite the fact Naushon Island is covered with ticks, we only managed to bring one back home with us!

While on top of the hill, Mike showed the boys the battery graveyard - something we hadn't even heard of before. He explained to us that while this Light is now solar powered, for a long time it was, like most, battery powered. When they died, it was common to just dump them nearby in what is referred to as a battery graveyard.

On a more exciting note - being anchored for the weekend nearby, the boys experienced their first glimpse into flash patterns - that is, color of the beacon and how often the beacon flashes. Tarpaulin Cove light, they learned, has a flashing white light, every six seconds.

Lighthouse History:

Under a twenty-five year license issued by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2001, the Cuttyhunk Historical Society is the caretaker for the Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse site and structure. The lighthouse, which is a registered national historical site, is considered an excellent example from the great age of lighthouse design and construction in the late 19th century.

In 1602, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold was the first Englishmen to set foot in New England after discovering the peninsula which he named Cape Cod on May 15. Naushon Island is one of ten islands within a 15-mile long archipelago named the Elizabeth Islands by Bartholomew Gosnold on May 28, 1602. The town of Gosnold, incorporated in 1864, consists of the Elizabeth Islands and Thomas Mayhew purchased the islands on Oct. 23, 1641 yet there is no existing evidence of a permanent English settlement on privately owned Naushon Island before 1691.

At first, Major General Wait Steel Winthrop developed Naushon Island as a country estate, stocking the property with deer and turkeys. Tarpaulin Cove was another pirates’ haven and renown as the last port of call for Captain Kidd (c.1645 - May 23, 1701). In 1699, Captain Kidd eluded authorities by mooring in one of Gosnold’s harbors just before he was captured for piracy.

In 1759, Zaccheus Lambert, a tavern inn-keeper, built a privately operated Lighthouse for the “public good of Whalemen and Coasters.” Tarpaulin Cove was an accessible sheltered deep-water harbor in Vineyard Sound. Nantucket merchants provided the whale oil and Zaccheus Lambert maintained and tended the Light until 1764. From 1764 to 1817, Tarpaulin Cove tavern inn-keepers also served as Lightkeepers.

In 1807, the government appropriated funds for a conventional Lighthouse yet James Bowdoin (1752-1811), owner of Naushon island, refused to sell a tract of land. A government Lighthouse was also delayed by the War of 1812.

After the War of 1812, the Sounds of Cape Cod became one of the the busiest waterway in the world again as the fisheries, the Whaling industries, and coastal trading resumed. In 1817, the federal government bought the property on Naushon Island for a government Lighthouse and a 38-feet high conical rubblestone Lighthouse with a “Bird-cage” style Lantern Room was built exhibiting a Fixed White light 71-feet above sea level illuminated by ten oil lamps and reflectors. John Hayden was appointed as the first Lightkeeper of the new Light.

In 1842, Inspector I.W.P. Lewis, Civil Engineer to the U.S. Light-house Survey, reported the “whole establishment was in a dilapidated state” and recommended constructing a new Tower. Lightkeeper Hayden complained that the leaky tower was filled with ice during the winter. Except for the refitting of the optics with a Fifth-order Fresnel lens in 1856, no repairs occurred for almost fifty years.

In 1890, a new 2-story Gothic Keeper’s house was built and the present 28-feet high white brick cylindrical Tower and workroom was built in 1891. A conventional cast-iron Lantern Room was installed on the new Lighthouse exhibiting a Flashing White light illuminated by a Fourth-order Fresnel lens. A pyramidal fog bell Tower was also constructed and a 1,200 pound fog bell with striking machinery was installed. In 1938, the Fog Signal was discontinued after the bell tower was destroyed in the Great New England Hurricane.

On March 15, 1891, a bizarre shipwreck occurred to the government salvage tug, U.S.S. Triana, entering Vineyard Sound en route to Tarpaulin Cove, Naushon Island. The Captain of the tug was misdirected by a flashing white light on the southern shore of Cuttyhunk Island and turn to what he thought was the friendly light and safe anchorage of Tarpaulin Cove. The tug became grounded atop Schooner Ledge near Canapitset Channel and heavy seas from a strong southwest wind eventually washed the bridge ashore. Ironically, Triana was responding to the aid of the U.S.S. Galena and the government tug, Nina, which had gone ashore off Gay Head, Martha’s Vineyard, on March 12.

On November 27, 1898, the 4 masted schooner, Lunet, loaded with coal entered Vineyard Sound as the Portland Gale compelled the Captain to seek refuge at Tarpaulin Cove, Naushon Island. Tarpaulin Cove was a weather hole for many vessels sailing the Sounds of Cape Cod and with winds from the southwest, the Lunet anchored near the western shore under the lee of the Lighthouse. On November 28, 1898, the wind changed direction to the northeast and the hurricane was accompanied by a blinding snowstorm. The reduced visibility prevented the schooner from sailing in the harbor and 70 mile per hour gusts with heavy seas parted the anchor chain and Lunet was shipwrecked across the reef at the southwestern entrance to the cove sinking in 60-feet of water near the Lighthouse with no survivors. The two-day Hurricane was named after the steamer Portland which sank with nearly 200 persons aboard and caused more damage to shipping in New England, than any other in history.

In 1941, the Lighthouse was automated and the Keeper’s house was abandoned. The government razed all condemned severely deteriorated ancillary buildings in 1962 and the Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern optic.

Today, Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse is a U.S. Coast Guard active aid to navigation managed by the Cuttyhunk Historical Society (leased from the Coast Guard in 2001). During the 19th century, Tarpaulin Cove was a favorite weather haven for both privateers and whalers and continues to be popular destination for sailing, sea kayaking, and diving at shipwreck sites.

For more information, visit:


Cuttyhunk Historical Society

23 Tower Hill Road

Cuttyhunk, MA 02713

(508) 984-4611

Palmer's Island LIghthouse, June 28, 2009

Six-acre Palmer's Island, in the Acushnet River on the west side of the entrance to New Bedford Harbor, has been the scene of great heroism and tragedy, and its lighthouse was once considered one of New England's most picturesque. For years the lighthouse and the island itself were sad victims of neglect and vandalism, but thanks to concerned citizens and officials of the city of New Bedford, the lighthouse is shining once again.

The island got its name from one of the first settlers of Dartmouth, William Palmer. Like Boston Harbor's Deer Island, Palmer's Island was used as an internment camp for Indians during King Philip's War in 1675-76. Most of these Indians were later sold into slavery in the West Indies.

New Bedford was the whaling capital of the nation in the mid-nineteenth century. The whaling industry reached its peak in the 1850s, when New Bedford had a fleet of 239 ships. In his 1843 survey of the lighthouses along the coast, inspector I.W.P. Lewis pointed out the need for a lighthouse on Palmer's Island

This island lies directly within the entrance to New Bedford Harbor. A single lamp beacon place upon it would add materially to the facilities requires on entering this important harbor.

Palmer Island Light with its first "birdcage" style lantern room (U.S. Coast Guard)

The lighthouse on the northern point of Palmer's Island was first lighted on August 30, 1849 by William Sherman (sometimes spelled Shearman), the first keeper. The 24-foot tower was built of rubblestone, with wooden windows and floors. A walkway connected the lighthouse to the higher part of the island.

An 1850 inspection reported:

Tower of the light-house built of stone, and tight; dwelling is of wood and somewhat leaky; lantern is a good one, and the whole taken together is a fair piece of work... Found the apparatus clean; but the dome of the lantern, whih was painted white, was just as black as could be -- casued by burning Mr. Rodman's lamp with whale oil. Swelling is too small and needs a porch.

Keeper Sherman left to become the toll collector on the Fairhaven Bridge in 1853. Charles D. Tuell, who remained keeper until 1861, replaced him. Joseph B. C. Tuell was born at the lighthouse to the keeper and his wife in 1858. When Joseph Tuell died in 1935, his ashes were spread over the island from an airplane.

You can read much more about this lighthouse in the book The Lighthouses of Massachusetts by Jeremy D'Entremont.

Butler Flats Light June 27, 2009

Located in New Bedford harbor this lighthouse is built in shallow water without rock for a foundation. It is made of iron with brick on top, which gives it its "spark plug" appearance. It has stood for many years at the entrance to New Bedford harbor in southeastern Mass.. New Bedford is an old mill city and was once the whaling capitol of the world. It is also famous for having been mentioned in Moby Dick. The lighthouse is not open to the public, but is easily visible from the shore along East Rodney French Boulevard in New Bedford as well as other points along the city's waterfront. Built originally in 1898, this lighthouse was automated in 1978.

In 1960 the Coast Guard announced that it was replacing certain lightships with fixed offshore structures. The structures they noted, would provide more efficient optics and would provide greater luminous range than was possible with lightships.

The first lightship to be replaced was the Buzzards Bay Lightship located in Buzzards Bay approximately five miles south of Gooseberry Neck, Mass., in 61 feet (19 m) of water. The station was commissioned on November 1, 1961.

The underwater portion of the structure is a framework consisting of four 33-inch (840 mm) steel pipe members cross braced with 16-inch (410 mm) and 18-inch (460 mm) diameter steel pipe horizontally and diagonally. Through each of the 33-inch (840 mm) main pipe members, 30 inch cylindrical steel piles were driven and seated to bed rock at a depth of 268 feet (82 m) below mean low water. A portion of the piles is filled with concrete.

The platform above water rises 66 feet (20 m) above mean low water. The platform is two decks high, the lower deck housing fuel and water tanks and the upper deck consisting of quarters for the five Coast Guardsmen who man the station. The structure is equipped with a helicopter landing deck.

The light at the station is 101 feet (31 m) above water. A light of 5,000,000 candlepower is shown during periods of low visibility while a 400,000 candlepower light is normally in operation. The light can be seen for 16 miles (26 km). The station is also equipped with a radiobeacon and a fog horn. The piles are floodlighted from sunset to sunrise.

Since this first offshore structure, the Coast Guard has placed five more lights of this type in operation

The inception of our project...

Recognizing the fascination the boys have with the lighthouses we sometimes get to see along our summers on the water, I had this brainstorm recently to start a Lighthouse Project. Sounds alot more fascinating than it really is I suppose, it's a diary of all the lighthouses we get to see - either via boat or, hopefully, up front and personal. With there being SO many Lighthouses across the country, I thought it would be great to find out information on them before we visit, and then report our findings back here. Of course along they way we'll learn all about how they work, their origins, etc. Ideally, in a few years, when the boys are able, I'd like THEM to do take over the blog, posting about their adventures themselves.  For now we'll take it a step at a time - and see where it takes us - literally!