A California Keeper's Memories

About ten years ago, Jim Gibbs, maritime author extraordinaire, gifted me several metal file boxes and an old leather zipper briefcase of his notes and research on West Coast lighthouses. He had retired with no plans to write any more books or articles for the public. As Jim put it, he was content to write letters  (and he sent many to me!) and jot down memories in his journal. He kindly commented that he knew I would do good things with his materials.

Jim and I having a laugh and conversation at his home in Yachats, Oregon about 2006.

Jim Gibbs passed away quietly in his home a few years after the photo above was taken by my daughter, Jessica. He is greatly missed by those of us who love lighthouses. As I sift through the files he gave me, I find lots of jewels. I think Jim would want me to share as much of his information as possible.

Below is a letter written to Jim Gibbs by Radford Franz Franke, a one-time lightship sailor and lighthouse keeper. Franke vividly and candidly recalled life at these assignments. Some of these recollections appeared in Jim Gibb's books.

Franke is gone now, but his memories live on, at least in this letter. There's no date on it, but I estimate it was written in the 1960s. I love that it's so conversational, as if Franke is sitting across from you telling his stories. My favorite part of his letter talks about World War II and the Franke being sent on a cutter to extinguish buoys in Los Angeles Harbor. Enjoy! click on each scanned page to make it bigger.

Ano Nuevo Light Station. The square building beside the framework lighthouse held the beacon in Franke's day.

Ballast Point Light Station in 1933. Coast Guard Photo

You can download a live interview with Franke from this website--
http://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb1673507x

Message in a Bottle

Drawing of the original Smalls Lighthouse after completion. From Trinity House

On this day, February 1st in 1777, the workmen building the Smalls Lighthouse off the coast of Wales sent an urgent message ashore via a bottle place inside a wooden cask and thrown into the sea. They were superintended by a gentleman named H. Whiteside and were mostly coal miners hired for the temporary work of building a lighthouse tower on this stretch of dangerous Pembrookshire shore at the westernmost extremity of Wales. A storm on January 23rd had left them in dire straits. Their boat had broken loose and drifted away, leaving them marooned 21-miles from the nearest land. Desperate, they wrote on the message:

Finding ourselves at the moment in the most critical and dangerous condition, we hope that Providence will guide this letter to you, and that you will come immediately to our succor. Send to seek for us before spring or we will perish, I fear; our supply of wood and water is almost exhausted, and our house is in the most sad state. We do not doubt that you would come to seek us as promptly as possible. We can be reached at high tide in about any weather. I have no need to tell you more, you will comprehend out distress, and I remain your humble servant — H. Whiteside

The bottle was picked up on a beach some days later by a fisherman and relief was sent to the workers.King Neptune's postal service saved the men!

Old and new Smalls Lighthouses from Thousands Islands Expeditions

Ooops!

Over the years, I've collected a number of ads, images, and memorabilia that make me chuckle. Unpacking my lighthouse mug collection recently, reminded me of the many errors I've seen. I think the urge to use a lighthouse image--any lighthouse image--is sometimes overwhelming, even if it is the wrong one. Take a look at some of these humorous mistakes.

There's no lighthouse in California that looks like this! The Cape Hatteras misplacement is rampant. So is the St. Augustine one. See for yourself in the next few images.

Neah Bay, Washington? There's not a red-striped lighthouse or a black striped one there. Just Cape Flattery Light, a white tower (that needs a serious cleaning and paint job these days).

Biloxi Lighthouse? Nope.

Is this lighthouse in Bermuda? Absolutely not.

A friend brought back this magnet for me from Puerto Rico. I haven't been there, but I'm 99.999999% sure there's no lighthouse in PR that looks like Portland Head Lighthouse.

Cape Cod has many pretty lighthouses, but none of them look like this. Assateague Lighthouse in Virginia looks like this one, and it's many miles from Cape Cod.

I've never seen a Maine lighthouse like this one, but then I guess this is kind of a metaphor. I lived in Maine in the early 1970s and never found shells like these on the beaches either. And while I'm grousing, it should be Portland Head Light, not Headlight. Headlights are on cars.

I'm still searching for a NYC area lighthouse that looks like this one. I think someone in the PR dept. clipped a drawing of England's Eddystone Light and pasted it into this collage.

I know this is a cartoon, and that the shark is the big draw. But there's no lighthouse with red spiral stripes on Martha's Vineyard, except perhaps on someone's lawn or a sign for a gift shop.

Westport, Washington has its own pretty lighthouse at Grays Harbor. There's no reason to appropriate Sequim's New Dungeness Lighthouse.

Check out the lovely and original Florida Keys handbag with Maine's Cape Neddick "Nubble" lighthouse on it...or maybe that's Nobska Light in Massachusetts.

And speaking of Maine....a pink and white lighthouse? Maine has so many beautiful lighthouses. You'd think the artist would have chosen an authentic image.

I'll close with this old postcard showing a life-line drill at Sandy Hook, New Jersey. I love it, except that the lighthouse on the left is not Sandy Hook Light. Who did the research for this postcard?

I have scads more of these lighthouse-in-error images. I'm still collecting, so if you have any, I'd love to see them. It's kind of fun to pontificate once in a while. We lighthouse aficionados don't usually do that, so I'll ask forgiveness.

A 1927 Story from My Collection

I bought this old issue of The Mentor some years ago. It gives a nice glimpse at lighthouse in the 1920s.

Memories of Maine's Wood Island Lighthouse

Maine's Wood Island Lighthouse, though built offshore on a small island, was a popular one years ago due to its accessibility for recreational boaters and fishermen. The families who tended it were much-loved and remembered on holidays with gifts. Visitors frequented the lighthouse too. The old postcard above shows what the station looked like about 1900. The pointed, pyramidal structure was the bellhouse that housed the 1,315-pound fogbell. It was added to the light station in 1873 and had its own striking mechanism. The bell became famous after Keeper Thomas Orcutt taught his dog Sailor how to tug on the bell clapper and ring the bell. Sailor is pictured below. Later, in the late 1960s after electricity came to the island, the bell was replaced by a foghorn.Today, the bell is on display at Vines Landing on the mainland.

Photo courtesy of Judy Orcutt

There are many poignant, humorous, and tragic stories about life on Wood Island Light Station. Kraig Anderson of Lighthouse Friends, relates this one in his profile of the lighthouse--


Not all was idyllic on Wood Island during Keeper Orcutt’s tenure. Late in the afternoon of June 1, 1896, Howard Hobbs, a fisherman living in a shack on the opposite end of the island, arrived at the lighthouse and told Keeper Orcutt that he has just shot his landlord and neighbor, Frederick Milliken. Hobbs was delinquent in his rent, and when Milliken requested to speak with him, he showed up at Milliken’s place with a gun. Milliken attempted to ascertain whether the weapon was loaded, but Hobbs, who had been on the mainland drinking earlier that day, promptly fired a round into Milliken’s abdomen. Hobbs was immediately remorseful and tried to help Mrs. Milliken attend to her husband, but shortly after returning to the scene of the shooting with Keeper Orcutt, Mr. Milliken passed away. Hobbs retired to his shack, where he quickly penned a letter and then took his own life with a shot to his head. Due primarily to this event, Wood Island is considered by some to be haunted, and in 2005 the New England Ghost Project investigated the island for paranormal activity.    

Below are several stories and recollections of Wood Island lightkeeping featured in The Boston Globe in the 1920s. (Clipping below courtesy of Lighthouse Digest, February 1993)

Wood Island Light Station in recent years, courtesy of Bob Trapani, American Lighthouse Foundation. The Foundation has done a great deal of good work to restore the light station and provide public access to it.

For more information on the light station visit Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse.

Another great source of information is Jeremy D'Entremont's profile of Wood Island Lighthouse.

The Twelve Days of Lighthouse Christmas

©Elinor DeWire

SING IT!!!!!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                A Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

           Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

               Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                  Four groaning foghorns

    Three French lenses

              Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                    Five golden vent-balls!

             Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                   Six geese on the railing

           Five golden vent-balls!

            Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                 Seven boats a-rowing

                    Six geese on the railing

            Five golden vent-balls!

             Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                         Eight bulls-eyes a-flashing

                 Seven boats a-rowing

                    Six geese on the railing

           Five golden vent-balls!

            Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                         Nine lady-keepers dancing

                 Eight bulls-eyes a-flashing

                 Seven boats a-rowing

                    Six geese on the railing

            Five golden vent-balls!

             Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave me to me

                 Ten refracting prisms

                          Nine lady-keepers dancing

                  Eight bulls-eyes a-flashing

                  Seven boats a-rowing

                     Six geese on the railing

             Five golden vent-balls!

              Four groaning foghorns

       Three French lenses

                 Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                  Eleven nice inspectors

                Ten refracting prisms

                         Nine lady-keepers dancing

                 Eight bulls-eyes a-flashing

                 Seven boats a-rowing

                    Six geese on the railing

           Five golden vent-balls!

            Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me

                       Twelve life-saving medals

                  Eleven nice inspectors

                Ten refracting prisms

                         Nine lady-keepers dancing

                 Eight bulls-eyes a-flashing

                 Seven boats a-rowing

                    Six geese on the railing

            Five golden vent-balls!

             Four groaning foghorns

      Three French lenses

                Two oil cans of brass

                And a Partridge Island Lighthouse figurine.

Image Credits

Pinterest

Kenosha News

1stDibs.com

Lighthouse Preservation Society

Old World Distributors, Inc.

Stanford.edu

Bruce Robie

De-Zuid-Afrikaan

U.S. Lighthouse Society

Geni.com