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At 9 PM all my family was forst to go to the Lighthouse and Stay until 5 next morning. Were climbing up this? I ask, as if its not obvious. Pier or Breakwater Lights in Harbors. She spent a summer visiting lights along the eastern seaboard. Since purchasing the lighthouse at a government auction seven years ago, Dave. Second Assistant: Joseph Antoine (1850 1851), Andrew W. Williams (1860 1861), William S. Taylor (1861 1865), Alden Simmons (1865 1870), Albert H. Burdick (1870 1874), Wallace Willcutt (1874 1876), Thomas J. Sheridan (1876 1877), Amiel Studley (1877 1879), Joseph B. Vinal (1879 1880), Alonzo Smith (1880 1881), Frank F. Martin (1881), Daniel M. Ryan (1881 1882), Albert H. Burdick (1881 1883), Joseph Jason, Jr. (1883), Joseph E. Frates (1883 1892), Winfield L. Creed (1892 1894), George A. Jamieson (1894 1895), Maynard F. Rush (1895 1896), Roscoe G. Lopaus (1896 1905), Charles G. Everett (1905), Levi B. Clark (1905 1909), Octavius H. Reamey (1909 1910), Vivian A. Currier (1910), Andrew Tullock (1910 1913), Henry M. Bailey (1913 1915), Otto W. Newman (1915), Charles R. Albrecht (1915 1916), Winfield S. Thompson (1916 ), John M. Scharff (at least 1917), Whitman (at least 1917), Charles A. Lyman (1919 1921), Francis R. Macy (1922), Per F. Tornberg (1922 1923), George H. Fitzpatrick (1924 1925), Pierre Nadeau (1925), Harold L. Havender (1926 1927), Samuel Perry ( 1928), Llewellyn D. Rogers (1928 1930), Stanley M. Brackett (1931), Stanley M. Brackett (1932 1933),Otis E. Walsh (at least 1936), Elton H. Hegarty (1937 1938), Gustav H. Larson (1938 1939), Patrick J. One promising exception is Graves Light Station, offshore from Boston, which has outlasted the Perfect Storm, among many poundings. Although William C. Williams remained at Boon Island longer than any other keeper, his mind was not immune from the effects of the storms that often raked the island: The 1888 Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board described the structures at the station. The solitude and thunderous crashing of the waves drove more than one keeper insane. Sign Up. One of the first lighthouses that he built of granite was the Saddleback Ledge Lighthouse, in 1837. In my winter gloves, treadless rubber boots, ski pants, and a life jacket, I climb, pausing on each step to prevent my forearms from seizing up in the cold. The General Services Administration, which likes to call itself The Nations Landlord, is in charge of selling off any federal property thats deemed irrelevant. Sitting at a table just steps away from where Hillary Clinton recently appeared at a fundraiser, Sager said hes driven by a counterintuitive impulse: a kind of altruistic selfishness. He studied economics at Brandeis and has a masters degree in management from Yale. Navigation has largely transitioned to mariner-operation systems. Renovations on Minot Light, for which he paid $222,000, begin in earnest next summer. Lighthouses arent the only kind of obsolete public buildings that we put on a pedestal I think people feel similarly about fire towers but lights hit the crosshairs of history, design, adventure, and allegory. Outside a lot. Rather than let the situation. Head: Isaac Dunham (1849 1850), John W. Bennett (1850 1851), Joshua Wilder, Jr. (1860 1861), James J. The island is a bare rock; communication with the coast is infrequent in winter, and the keepers have had to store their vegetables and provisions in the halls adjoining their bed-rooms. The same report also noted that the vibration of the slender tower had been checked by installing six iron ties with struts that were attached to the top of the lantern and anchored to the masonry 40 feet below the watch-room deck.. [4] 6 Flannan Isles Lighthouse Scotland At the mooring a few hundred feet out from the station, we hop into the dinghy, his sixththe sea took all the othersand from the stern I look at Waller, 59, in his thick-rimmed black and gray specs under a matching beanie rolled above his ears, rowing in galoshes and yellow waterproof fishing suspenders. He also envisions it as a place where representatives of societies that wage war against each other, that commit unspeakable atrocities, can sit across from each other and find common ground. He found eight dead black ducks that had smashed into the tower, and four more on the rocks below. The auction attracted seven bidders, who submitted a total of seventy bids, and ended on October 13, 2014, with a high bid of $222,000. When no interested party was found to assume ownership, Minots Ledge Lighthouse was placed on the auction block on June 25, 2014. The keepers quarters, fog bell, and a replica of the lantern room I was scared out in that placeIt was an awful life., On August 20, 1932, a newspaper printed a letter about the life of a keeper at Boon Island. 3rd Growing up in Malden, a blue-collar suburb in northern Boston, Bobby Sager began his education in making money early in life. At 133-feet-tall, the new Boon Island Lighthouse, built of granite quarried in Biddeford and lined with brick, was and is the tallest in New England. As a seven year old, Moise was a soldier in the Congo. To ease the burden, two assistant keepers, the stations first, were assigned to Boon Island in 1855. After the events of 9/11 over a decade ago, without a primary need, government lighthouse maintenance funds were absorbed during the incorporation of the Coast Guard into homeland security, leaving enough only to maintain the automated lights and foghorns. The new owner is Bobby Sager, a lighthouse enthusiast and philanthropist with enough assets to fund a thorough restoration of the tower. When John Morris was in charge of Boon Island Lighthouse in December 1945, a similar storm struck the island. Some sit submerged under the waters of the Chesapeake Bay or are about to topple over in the Great Lakes. First, a little background: Sager grew up in Malden, where he met and married his high school sweetheart. Join Outside+ to get Outside magazine, access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more. The stone dwelling designed for two keepers is occupied by three, two of whom have families. The flashes within a group were two seconds apart, while the groups of flashes were separated by five seconds of darkness. The living quarters were also damaged, and boulders were swept onto the island. Third Assistant: Isaac A. Dunham (1850), Kendall Pearson (1851), Samuel Gardiner (1851), W.H. or. Ive been knocked down by it on the wharf beside the light, and opening a window to look out more than halfway [65 feet] up the tower, Ive had as much as three buckets-full dashed in my face.. And, with that, the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow was born. Early view of lighthouse and stone dwelling, Boon Island from sea note bell atop oil house, Aerial view showing two dwellings and boathouse, Boon Island Lighthouse and dwellings in 1944. Find the closest hotels to Boon Island Lighthouse, Select a photograph to view a photo gallery, Boon Island, a tiny outcropping of granite, only two football fields long and fourteen feet above sea level at its highest point, is located six-and-a-half miles off Maines southern coast. At our return to the house found all our water gone and all my turnips and cabage washt away and my walls all Down. Owner/site manager: private. The Blizzard of 1978 helped write the last chapter in Boon Islands history as a manned light. #ada-button-frame { Florence Idella Batty: Memories of Maines Boon Island,, Keeper of the Light Was Painter of the Light,. Stories about the lighthouse dovetailed with our familys history. Perhaps its best that the lighthouse has been left for the ghosts to inhabit in solitude. Add climate change to the mix, and were going to lose a significant number of lighthouses in the coming decades. At the time it was the most anyone had paid for a lighthouse. Image courtesy of The Power of the Invisible Sun, by Bobby Sager.Last week Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, hosted a concert at Carnegie Hall to benefit the Rainforest Fund, the nonprofit they . The Dalai Lama, Sting, and Bobby Sager at Sager's home in Boston in 2012. Meanwhile the numbers of lighthouses are declining. As a strong wind was blowing offshore, the men decided to continue to the tower rather than turn back, but they were swept past the lighthouse and out to sea. The lighthouse was automated in 1980. You realize they had it all figured out long ago, says Waller, now a pro at finding the right tools and the right people. I was thinking of that recently as I sat on a South Shore beach, listening to excitement rise in Joe Castigliones radio voice as a home-team fly ball cleared the bullpen wall at Fenway. The other occupants of the island at the time were Head Keeper Williams and his wife, and S. H. Sawyer, who was filling in for Assistant Keeper Seaward, who was ashore taking care of his wife. 1,985 Local nonprofits and people in the public sector have begun exploring an ownership transfer of the historic landmark through the 2000 act. Musician Annie Lennox and philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager arrives for the 'Power Of The Invisible Sun' photocall at the Saatchi Gallery. The identity of the new owner was soon revealed to be Bobby Sager, a Boston philanthropist and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Polaroid. Their goal? Breathing the salty clean winter air, out in the middle of the harbor, we stand in front of his time machine. High above them, Minot Lights signature 1-4-3 beacon will spread its simple message across the sea: I love you. Grounds/tower closed. Sager has agreed to share financial resources and Dave has agreed to share the lighthouse. People name churches and rehab centers after them. On August 22, 1860, the towers second-order Fresnel lens was test lighted, but the formal establishment of the light did not occur until November 15, 1960, when Minots Ledge Lightship was withdrawn. We make our way on up the tower, where Waller shows me the original blueprints of Graves, then pulls out ledgers containing 800 pages of old keepers logs, handwritten in India ink and printed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Shoals, Reefs, Harbor Lights, Islands in Rivers and Harbors. In December 2014, just months after acquiring the lighthouse, Girard sold the property to Boon Island LLC for $119,673. William H. Swift, the builder of the lighthouse, felt compelled to respond to the published reports with a letter to the editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser. Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. Instead, Swift proposed a radical new design consisting of nine, sixty-foot-long iron pilings cemented five feet into the submerged rock, atop which would perch the lantern and keepers dwelling. The lighthouse is privately owned. First Assistant: Joseph Wilson (1850 1851), Thatcher W. Ryder (1860), Andrew W. Williams (1861 1862), Thomas Bates II (1862 1864), Israel Vinal (1864 1865), Levi L. Creed (1865 1866), John A. Pratt (1866 1868), Levi L. Creed (1868 1874), Albert H. Burdick (1874 1877), Thomas J. Sheridan (1877 1880), Joseph B. Vinal (1880 1881), Alonzo Smith (1881), Nathan S. Hudson (1881), Frank W. Thomas (1881 1883), Albert H. Burdick (1883 1892), Joseph E. Frates (1892 1909), Levi B. Clark (1909 1910), Octavius H. Reamy (1910 1915), Henry M. Bailey (1915 at least 1916), Charles R. Albrecht (at least 1917), Roland F. Bassett (at least 1919 at least 1921), Francis R. Macy (1922 1923),Per F. Tornberg (1923 1924), George H. Fitzpatrick (1925 1927), Harold L. Havender (1927), Anthony Souza (at least 1935 at least 1936), Elton H. Hegarty (1938 1940), Patrick J. (See this video of the Gay Head rescue.). ARLHS USA-545. I heard a plane just now, but therell be days when theres just the rise and fall of the tide and the wind.. It offers stair-climbing tours in summer, and other months as staffing and conditions allow. The lighthouse is privately owned. Wilson climbed up the iron ladder to light the lantern, but found it impossible to descend to the living quarters. Gulls circle round in clear skies, and time slows. Go help someone.. But he acknowledges his new role, and its uncertainty. 5th Plans for original Minots Ledge Lighthouse, Granite blocks being assembled at Cohasset in 1857, Base of tower as it appeared on July 1, 1859, two double-dwellings were built at Cohasset, Memorial plaque ready for lowering to seafloor. And with that, the discussion about lighthouses and meteorites was over for the moment. From 1897 to 1905, his son, Charles S. Williams was first assistant, following his promotion from second assistant. Second Assistant: Samuel Tobey (1855 1856), Josiah Tobey Jr. (1856 1859), John S. Baker (1859), Enos Gray (1859 1861), S. Tobey (1861 1864), George E. Bridges (1864 1865), Charles Ramsdell (1865 1868), Samuel R. McLorn (1868), Luther Amazeen (1868 1870), Nathan White, Jr. (1870 1874), Edwin J. Hobbs (1874 1876), David R. Grogan (1876 1878), George O. Leavitt (1878 1880), Paschal Fernald (1880 1881), Orrin M. Lamprey (1881 1885), William C. Williams (1885 1886), James Burke (1886 1888), Leonidas H. Sawyer (1888 1890), Charles W. Torry (1890), Walter S. Amee (1891 1893), William M. Brooks (1893), Alvah J. Toby (1893 1894), James Hawe (1894), Joseph A. Pruett (1894 1896), Charles S. Williams (1896 1897), Meshach M. Seaward (1897 1900), Merton E. Tolman (1900), Henry C. Neal (1900 1902), Frank L. Peabbles (1902), Leroy L. Myers (1902), James R. Faulkingham (1902 1903), William T. Stevens (1903 1904), Mitchell Blackwood (1905), William Henry Burns (1905 1907), Charles Whitten Allen (1907 1911), Fuller E. Larrabee (1912 1913), Charles A. Radley (1913), Albert Staples (1914 at least 1915), Roscoe M. Chandler (1916 1917), Harry M. Kelley (1917 1919), George E. Woodward (1919 1920), Arthur E. Ginn (at least 1921), Eugene L. Coleman (1923 1924), Myron L. Wilson (1924 1925), Andrew H. Kennedy (1925 1928), Fred C. Batty (1930), Frank M. Rumery (1930 ), Howard W. Gray (1932 1934), Hoyt P. Smith (1935 1936), Harry H. McClure (1936 1937), Henry S. Brown (1937 at least 1941), Calvin Dolby (1944 1945), Russell G. Carpenter (at least 1945), Clifford Gustavson (at least 1947), Charles Kendrick Capon (1951 1953), Harold L. Roberts (1956), Ron Schultz (1959). Think of making your bed thus in the crest of a breaker! Seeing the keepers predicament, the assistants in the lighthouse sprang into action and used a rope to lower Assistant Keeper Whitman to the water where he was able to seize Reamy. I want to live the fullest possible life.. Minots blinks 143, so people call it the I Love You Light, and before Ray J made it a bad R&B song, my parents would sign letters and then send texts 143. In March 1812, Thomas Hanna, grandfather of Marcus Hanna who would receive notoriety as keeper at Cape Elizabeth, agreed to man the light for $300 per year, plus a $100 advance for provisions. Sager was one of the final bidders for Graves Lighthouse in 2013 and acquired Maines Boon Island Lighthouse earlier in 2014 from its private owner. Boon Island Rocks weighing fifteen tons or more were moved twenty feet, and two outbuildings were swept away. 4 Oil Consumption Per Hour (oz.) A wreck on this fatal reef is always attended with the destruction of human life, owing to its great distance from the shore, and the tremendous sea that rolls in over the rocks when the wind is at the eastward.. They try to put them in the hands of groups that will keep them open to the public, but sometimes, like in Minots case, no public entity wants the responsibility. No longer used as a main navigational aid, the lighthouse as we know it is slowly being rendered obsolete. In 2000, hed had enough. The same guy who purchases a meteorite that fell from the heavens in Ghana and places it in a little red wagon in his living quarters. We boiled every bit of what we drank or bathed with. During 1842, civil engineer I.W.P. The film, also starring the lighthouse historian Jeremy DEntremont and Ford Reiche, who took on a similar extensive restoration of the Halfway Rock Light Station, in Casco Bay, Maine, is directed by Rob Apse, with a portion of the proceeds preserving Whaleback Lighthouse, at the mouth of the Piscatequa River in Kittery, Maine. Im not doing this because I was touched by an angel, or because I feel guilty about making too much money, he said. Some of the people purchasing auctioned lighthouses feel the same as me, and theyre buying them to save them. I dont know how far up the solid water comes. Sager hasnt officially said anything about what hes planning to do; hes actually been radio silent since the sale. 2nd Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. Keeper Per S. Tornberg, who was in charge of the lighthouse from 1924 to 1936, had an even closer brush with death. [1] Early life[ edit] Sager was raised in Malden, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. As the iron supports began to snap one by one, the bell was silenced, the beacon was extinguished, and the men were cast into the raging sea. A few years ago, the mooring was ripped out of the ocean floor by a gale, and a breaker dragged Dave Wallers boat, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter he bought used, into the shoal below the lighthouse. Two years into the construction, a ship named The New Empire wrecked on the rocks and destroyed the iron scaffolding erected on the ledge and injured the rock itself. Lives in Kenbridge, Virginia. The tragedy that earned the area its name happened in 1754, when a prominent Boston merchant named George Minot lost a valuable ship there; henceforth it was called Minots Ledge. Great Lakes Lighthouses, Seacoasts, Islands, Sounds. Their website is full of Black Hawk helicopters and former cop cars. The present lighthouse was constructed in 1854, along with a new dwelling. It is old and its interior is in bad condition, needing thorough renovation. Log In. 2 Naval Museum in Kittery, Maine where it may be viewed by the public. This lens was one of two lenses, built using the Mahan system, that were displayed at the Columbian Exposition held at Chicago in 1893. Established in 1873, Yaquina Head Lighthouse, in Newport, Oregon, is the states tallest at 93 feet. 6th On October 13th, Bobby Sager, Polaroid's chairman, won the auction and bought the lighthouse for $222,000. For the Graves lighthouse, Waller dove in again, pinching pennies. It means tracking down plumbing to shoot water 96 feet up to the kitchen, and replacing rusting cast-iron stove burners with noncorrosive brass because the salt air rusts everything, even inside. Part of that is nostalgia. And, unless a lighthouse is decommissioned, the Coast Guard must be granted access to keep all the automated lights shining for those few mariners still looking for a guiding light. About 100 years ago there were more than 1,000, according to the U.S. Lighthouse Society, and now 850 are still standing. Yes. After two more working seasons, six thousand tons of Quincy granite supported a bronze lantern nearly 100 feet in the air. Current Address: KVFV Alaminos Dr, Santa Clarita, CA. Since the act passed, theyve transferred ownership of 68 lighthouses to non-profits and historical commissions for free, and sold 39. which houses part of a third-order Fresnel lens used in the lighthouse can be seen at Government Island in Cohasset. Eventually, they will probably divest of almost every lighthouse property, with a few exceptions., DEntremont predicts that in 50 years only a small number of lighthouses, if any, will still be used for any navigation. White Shoal Light. He can be reached at, the government had auctioned it off in 2014. View Bobby Sager results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. No one in my family lives in the Scituate harbor anymore, and its morphed from a fishing town to a summer vacation spot for people from Boston. The 2000 National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act was established to maintain these historic structures, saving many, including Graves. Bobby Sager. A little while after thatsame storm, Hutch put the teapot on the stove to get the tea hot, and he got up to go to the bathroom andthe sea took bathroom and all and took it all out back on the high rocksI was glad to get off that place. He plans to knock down one ceiling to combine two floors into one, transforming it into a panoramic conference room sort of a majestic aquatic meeting space. If you look out into the Atlantic, past the Scituate, Massachusetts, harbor you can see Minots Ledge Light blinking 114 feet above the swell. Im not sure if its the romance, or the ghosts, but its always drummed up a kind of fascination. On April 16, 1851, the fierce winds of a noreaster left the tower reeling in the pounding seas and blinding snow. Once during a storm, Florence heard her daughters shrieks. Lighthouse is best seen by boat, but a distant view is possible from Cape Neddick The dory was leaking so badly, that one man had to bale while the other manned the oars. . Otherwise I wouldnt do it. William C. Williams signed on as second assistant on August 5, 1885, earning $450 annually. As one keeper here recently said, I thought all one had to know how to do out here was to clean, paint, and polish brass, but I have found out that one has to be doctor, painter, steeplejack, glazier, boatman, gasoline engineer, electrician, stonecutter and even a cook when the women folks leave us in the fall., Miriam (Dolby) Hammel, wife of a coastguardsman stationed on the island during World War II to watch for German U-boats, had fonder memories of Boon Island. In the case of the lens built for Minots Ledge, the number 143 was produced by eight flash panels that created three groups of flashes: the first showing one flash, the next four flashes, and the last three flashes. Past Addresses: See available information. 17.5 Yuck! The next day, the family gave thanks to the Creator for remembering them. Last year, in Boston Harbor, just north of Scituate, Dave Waller bought Graves Island Light, which is a direct design copy of Minots, for $933,888. Two days later a Gloucester fisherman found a bottle containing a final message from the doomed keepers: The beacon cannot last any longer. Minots has a good story, but its not the only one thats been celebrated. You cant determine those things, theyre unknown. As a whole, theyre basically obsolete theyre only designed to do one thing but theyre also historically significant, so the feds dont just want to flatten them. The Late Gale at Minots Rock Light, John W. Bennett, 1851. During a brief lull at the outset of the storm, Keeper Bennett had rowed to the mainland to see about purchasing a new boat for the station, but his two assistant keepers, Joseph Wilson and Joseph Antoine, were in the tower fearing for their lives. He even salvaged a stanchion railing from a World War II minesweeper for the mahogany deck. Three years later, Hanna left and was replaced by Eliphalet Grover. until it becomes Main Street. I have made a calculation and find that what would make me comfortable, Oliver wrote, would amount to nearly five hundred dollars [per year]also the wages of a Man and Boy would be thirty dollars a month. The GSA says theyre a symbol of the strength and longevity of our countrys trading practices and communal spirit. In less governmenty terms theyre markers of a kind of simplicity and purposeful adventure, which is now all but obsolete. Follow him on Twitter @FarragherTom. I have been hear 13 years and 4 months 28 days and never see such a time before. Stay up-to-date with important news developments, delivered right to your inbox. . Its peaceful. I feel irrationally possessive of Minots light, even though Ive never been in the tower. Be selfish. of Lamp Wicks Hanna later returned to the service as keeper at Franklin Island. In addition, a supply shed, measuring twelve by twenty feet, and a brick oil house were erected on the island. Otis Walsh, an assistant at the lighthouse waiting for Tornberg to relieve him, was watching the men approach and radioed for help when he knew they were in trouble. 12,800 The catch? When I accepted the post, I closed my ears against the reports of the former keeper, treating them (as I now find) too lightly, and here I shall remain so long as a vestige of the lighthouse remains; but the truth must be told. He imagines his family gathering there on sultry summer nights, the reflection of a full moon dazzling like diamonds on the Atlantic. . The inaccessibility of the station, especially during inclement weather, made the delivery of supplies difficult, and visiting the mainland sometimes impossible. When a whale went by, spouting, Id make believe that was my submarine. And Harold Hutchins daughter Shirley Kelley said: As a kid, it was my idea of Paradise! On November 11, 1818, Keeper Grover sent a letter to Collector Dearborn that included the following: I have just been informed that I am dead, but I am yet alive and hope to live to see those people brought to justice for making the report; one of the three is the man that has sent you his recommendation. Summer Street and then right on Border Street. What kind of a guy, Fine. Were all here for such a short time. To see these, take Route His own piece of the Big Bang sits near the Harley-Davidson motorcycle that music legend Sting gave him as a gift, not far from a bathroom ripped from a Boeing 747 and reconstructed high above Tremont Street. He and his partner made their fortune by transforming a small Boston jewelry liquidator into a worldwide financial advisory company.