Lighthouse of the Week: Newport Harbor Light, Rhode Island

This lighthouse is one of the easiest in Rhode Island to visit, as it's located on the grounds of Newport's Hyatt Regency Hotel. It's relatively small and unassuming, but it has a rich history.

The deep, protected harbor at Newport was the key to its development from the start. By the early 1820s, it became clear that a lighthouse was needed to help guide vessels into the harbor, and on March 23, 1823, Congress appropriated $2,500 for that purpose.

The original lighthouse exhibited a fixed white light, visible for 14 nautical miles. Keeper Samuel Watson first illuminated the multiple oil lamps in the lantern on January 1, 1824. The 20-foot octagonal freestone and brick tower was fraught with problems almost from the start.

According to a report by Lt. George M. Bache of the U.S. Navy in 1838, the tower was “in a very bad condition, owing to its faulty construction.” He also found much wrong with the six-room stone keeper’s dwelling, which he said was badly built.

A dangerous reef extended out from the northern end of the island, and vessels often went aground there. In the late 1830s a breakwater was constructed over the reef. It was planned at first that the lighthouse would be relocated to the end of the breakwater. Instead, a new 35-foot granite tower was erected on the breakwater. The Army Corps of Engineers completed the breakwater in 1842. The old lighthouse remained in use until December 18, 1842, when the new tower was lighted for the first time.

At first, the keepers continued to live in the original dwelling. The original lighthouse tower was relocated to Prudence Island in 1851 and remains in operation there today. It is the oldest surviving lighthouse in the state.

John Case spent a decade (1853–63) as keeper. The next man to take the position, John Heath, died on September 24, 1868, and his wife received the appointment to replace him. Mary Ann Heath remained keeper until 1873, when Henry Crawford succeeded her.

Having a comfortable two-story house attached to the tower certainly made life easier for the keepers and their families, but Mary Ann Heath must have had quite a scare when a tremendous storm on September 8, 1869, carried away about a third of the slate roof and damaged her boat, which parted its moorings.

In 1869, the Secretary of War authorized the U.S. Navy to take over Goat Island for a new Naval Torpedo Station. The station was an important center for experimentation with various torpedoes and mines, for training of personnel, and eventually for the manufacture of torpedoes. During World War II, the station became the largest employer in the state, with more than 12,600 employees. Eighty percent of the torpedoes used in the war were produced at Goat Island.

Charles Schoeneman would become such a fixture as keeper that locals often simply referred to the lighthouse as Schoeneman’s Light. Keeper Schoeneman spent a remarkable 39 years at the station. An article on the occasion of Schoeneman’s retirement recalled the famous Portland Gale (the steamship Portland sank during the storm, with the loss of about 200 lives) of November 26, 1898. The storm broke every window on the north side of the keeper’s house.

On November 9, 1921, the 155-foot submarine N-4 rammed the breakwater near the lighthouse, causing damage to the foundation of the keeper’s dwelling and signaling the end of the staffed light station on Goat Island. Schoeneman retired during the following year, and the keeper’s house was demolished. The light was electrified, and personnel from the torpedo station took over its operation. The light was automated in 1963.

The Coast Guard licensed the lighthouse to the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF) in 2000. Newport Harbor Light, known to most locals as Goat Island Light or simply “the Green Light,” continues as an active aid to navigation, its fixed green light 33 feet above the water.

There's more on this page and in my book, "The Lighthouses of Rhode Island."

Latest list for NHLPA

Under the National Historic Lighthouse Act of 2000, each year several lighthouses are being transferred to suitable new owners. If no qualified organizations apply, the lighthouses are auctioned to the general public. The latest list includes three very historic lighthouses in the Northeast:

Robbins Reef Light in New Jersey, longtime home to heroic lighthouse keeper Kate Walker.

Saddleback Ledge Light in Maine, a rugged and remote lighthouse designed by famed architect Alexander Parris.

Minot's Ledge Light (left), off Boston's South Shore in Massachusetts, one of the greatest of all American lighthouse engineering achievements and one of the world's great wave-swept towers.

For the rest of the lighthouses on the list, check Sue Clark's "Lighthouse News" site.

Hopefully, some qualified nonprofit organization -- or maybe a partnership or coalition of multiple groups -- will be interested in Minot's Ledge Light. To me, it would be a crime to sell one of our most historic lighthouses to the high bidder.

New England Lighthouse Events

Check out my newly revamped events calendar at www.my.calendars.net/nelights/

New Season for New England Lighthouse Tours

I'm now gearing up for a new season of New England Lighthouse Tours.

The tours are in a minivan, with no more than 5 passengers. My primary offering, a “Lighthouses of Portsmouth and Portland Tour,” includes the two lighthouses that are photographed more than any others in New England: Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and the Cape Neddick “Nubble” Light in York, Maine. At Portland Head, tour goers also explore the museum in the former keeper’s house.


The tours also include Spring Point Ledge Light and Portland Breakwater Light, both in South Portland, Maine, and Portsmouth Harbor Light in New Castle, New Hampshire. Participants get to climb to the top of Portsmouth Harbor Light to see the still-working nineteenth century lens up close, and to enjoy one of the most breathtaking views in the New Hampshire Seacoast region.

Lunch on the tours, included in the $99 per person ($59 for children) price, is at Joe’s Boathouse, located at the Spring Point Marina in South Portland. Also included is a shopping stop at Lighthouse Depot in Wells, Maine, renowned as “the world’s largest lighthouse gift store.” There are also smaller gift shops at Portland Head and Cape Neddick.

During the tours, I enjoy telling about the human history of the lighthouses and the keepers, but I try not to overwhelm people with endless facts and statistics. I find that the average person is most interested in what it was like for keepers and their families to live at these fascinating places.

While most of the people who have taken the tours so far have been from other parts of the country, I'm hoping this year’s tours might attract more local people. This is a great way to have a fun day out, visiting some of the most beautiful locations in the Northeast while letting someone else worry about the driving. A number of people have given my tours as birthday or anniversary presents, which I think is a wonderful idea.

The tours begin and end at the parking garage on Hanover Street in downtown Portsmouth. I've scheduled about 50 tour dates between late May and late October. You can read more at www.newenglandlighthousetours.com or you can call (603) 431-9155.

A Dive from Minot's Light

MNOT2, originally uploaded by nelights.

This clip shows Edward Rowe Snow (1902-1982), the popular New England maritime historian and "Flying Santa" to lighthouse keepers, diving from Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, off Boston's South Shore, in 1962. For more on the Flying Santa, see www.flyingsanta.org. For more on Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, see www.lighthouse.cc/minots/

Lighthouse of the Week: Crabtree Ledge Light, Maine

Maine has been luckier than many coastal states; only a handful of its 65+ lighthouses have been lost over the years. One of the most prominent of Maine’s lost lights was Crabtree Ledge Light, which stood offshore at the entrance to Sullivan Harbor from 1890 to 1950. Named for a prominent local family, Crabtree Ledge Lighthouse is still fondly remembered by older residents of the vicinity.

The following is a condensed version of the chapter on Crabtree Ledge Light from my new book, The Lighthouses of Maine (2009, Commonweath Editions). I’ve also added some new material from an article recently sent to me by lighthouse historian Ted Panayotoff. The article by Donna Gronros concerns the memories of her Aunt Dot, whose grandfather was the first keeper at Crabtree Ledge.

By 1886, various steamers were making 15 to 20 runs daily in summer between Sullivan Harbor and the popular resort of Bar Harbor. There were also many vessels carrying lumber and granite passing through the area. Crabtree Ledge, a dangerous obstruction about a mile from Hancock Point at the entrance to Sullivan Harbor from Frenchman Bay, suddenly assumed new importance. Funds for a light and fog signal at the ledge were appropriated by Congress on August 4, 1886.

Work began in 1889, when a cast-iron cylindrical caisson, 25 feet in diameter and 32 feet tall, was put into position on the ledge, in a spot 15 feet below sea level. After the caisson was filled with concrete, it was surmounted by the cast-iron lighthouse superstructure, 37 feet tall from the base to the center of the light. A fifth-order Fresnel lens showing a fixed white light, interrupted by a more intense flash every two minutes, went into service on January 15, 1890. A 1,200-pound bell and striking machinery were installed in 1891.

The first keeper was Charles Chester, a native of Philadelphia who had been a cabin boy at age 11 and the captain of his own ship at 19. He and his wife, Mary (Blake), eventually had 11 children, the last five of whom were born in a house at Hancock Point. Chester remained in charge at Crabtree Ledge until 1908. One of the Chesters’ granddaughters, Dot, who was born in 1903, later described her memories of the lighthouse:

As the lighthouse was a cylinder, all the rooms were round. The kitchen and living room were on the second level. The third level was the bedroom. Above that was the lantern deck. The lowest deck was the basement, where rainwater from the roof was caught in a cistern and provided the water supply. Coal was also stored there.

Most of Grandpa’s nights were spent in the lighthouse, although the house on the mainland was located so the bedroom window faced the light so he could see that all was well. If the light went out, as it sometimes did, Grandpa would dress quickly, rush down to the little boat and row out to the light. If there was a smokeout, everything would be all covered with soot and it would take all day to clean it up.

(LEFT: Keeper Charles Franklin Chester and his wife, Mary Ellen Chester, courtesy of Charles Libby. Chester was keeper at Crabtree Ledge 1890-1908.)

Chester Brinkworth of Hancock Point served as an assistant keeper beginning in 1914. In the fall of 1916, Chester’s younger brother, Leon, filled in as a temporary assistant while the principal keeper, Jerome Peaseley, was on shore recovering from pneumonia.

In late September, 18-year-old Leon Brinkworth returned from a trip to shore. According to some accounts, as he climbed the ladder on the side of the lighthouse with provisions in his arms, he slipped and plunged into the water. Other accounts report that the younger brother’s boat capsized. In either case, Chester, 35 years old, quickly dove into the water in a valiant but vain attempt to save his brother.

Both of the Brinkworth brothers drowned in the lighthouse’s worst tragedy. A reporter for the Kennebec Journal wrote of the Brinkworths, “Both were bright, able, and highly esteemed young men and their tragic death has brought shock and grief to friends and associates.” Another assistant keeper, Joseph Whitmore, also drowned just six months later.

The lighthouse was discontinued in 1933, the same year local ferry service ended. The father of Newbold Noyes, editor of the Washington Star, subsequently bought the lighthouse for a reported $115. Noyes gave the lighthouse to his three sons as a gift. The sons sold the lighthouse in 1937 to a friend, Fritz Allis, who summered at Hancock Point. Allis and some friends moved a reed organ into the lighthouse.

When Allis married Tiense Gummere, the two spent their honeymoon at the lighthouse; they were subsequently marooned there for several days during stormy weather. He never returned after that, and the lighthouse fell into poor condition until it finally collapsed into the bay in a winter storm in February 1950.

National Lighthouse Stewardship Act Update

I recently let you know about Senate Bill 715, the National Lighthouse Stewardship Act introduced in the Senate by Senator Levin of Michigan and several colleagues. The bill is currently in the hands of the Energy Subcommittee. Sue Clark, on her excellent Lighthouse News site, has listed the members of that committee on this page. PLEASE contact these senators and let them know that you support the bill.

Click here to read the bill and follow its progress.