Bodies from the wreck washed up on the island for months and at least one sailor is buried somewhere on the island. One of the worst occurred in November 1861 when the square rigger Maritana broke up on rocks near the island in a snowstorm. In 1853, Harbor Pilot Albert Small proposed to the keeper’s daughter Lucy Long, at the top of the tower. Through the years, all variety of human drama has been played out on the island. ![]() When it’s cloudy or foggy, of course, the light is left on. At night, looking up from the bottom of the tower, the beams of light radiate out into the sky like bicycle spokes.ĭepending on what day it is, Dever or one of his men rise early and turn the light off 15 minutes after sunrise. There, two 1,000-watt bulbs postioned behind a five- ton Fresnel lens consisting of 336 glass prisms are bent into thin pencil beams of light that flash every 10 seconds. The island is dominated by the 89-foot lighthouse, where 76 wrought iron steps lead to the tower. It is a Boston Light tradition, according to Dever and his crew, to paint Farrah’s toenails pink. The island dog, 13 years old, is named Farrah, a holdover from a Coast Guard crew who were fans of the old ″Charlie’s Angels″ TV series, which starred Farrah Fawcett. Dever has since etched his name on a a piece of granite outside the house.ĭever named the island’s black cat, Ida Lewis, after a lighthouse keeper in Newport, R.I., who made hundreds of rescues during her 32-year tenure in the mid-1800s. After arriving at the light, he found the names of old keepers scratched in rocks all over the island. ″I feel an attachment to the old keepers,″ said Dever. There is no sign of dust or clutter in the neat, carpeted living room where bow windows overlook the pounding Atlantic and the lights of downtown Boston, 11 miles away. Ghosts, perhaps the souls of shipwreck victims or the mysterious ″Lady in Black,″ are said to stalk the island.ĭever and his crew, Dave Sandrelli and Al Ux, live in a comfortable, two- story, gabled house on one end of the island. The sunny, whitewashed buildings by day give way to often eerie nights. ![]() Coast Guard who has supervised a crew of two at Boston Light for the past 18 months, acknowledged, ″I wasn’t happy at first when I got here but then I learned to like it.″Īlthough he’s at home with his wife of five years only one week each month because of his schedule, Dever said he has come to love life at the lighthouse. Kennedy, D-Mass., has introduced legislation that would retain Boston Light as the last manned lighthouse and keep it from being automated.ĭever, a petty officer 1st class in the U.S. on Block Island in Rhode Island on Goat Island off the Maine coast and on the Kennebec River near Bath, Maine, where there are two. The lighthouses are located in Egmont Key, Fla. Only six other lighthouses in the country are still manned and they are scheduled to be automated within the next several months, according to Wayne Wheeler, of the San Francisco-based U.S. It’s sad to think that after 273 years, there won’t be a keeper here.″ ″This country was built on lighthouses, showing boats where to go. ″It’ll be the last page in a long chapter of American history,″ said Dever, the 29-year-old son of a onetime lighthouse keeper. Boston Light, one of the few remaining manned lighthouses in the country, is scheduled to be the last one automated next year. Now, it’s not tragedy, but technology that threatens to force Dever to leave his post on this rocky, picturesque islet. Benjamin Franklin wrote a poem about the tragedy. ![]() (AP) _ When lighthouse keeper Dennis Dever flicks on a switch 15 minutes before sunset, illuminating Boston Light and the surrounding harbor, he is following a tradition that began in 1716.ĭever is the last in a succession of lightkeepers that began with George Worthylake, who drowned with his family when his boat overturned on the way back to the island in November 1718.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |