The year 1897-
Nov. 11 - Keeper left station at 11 am to go to Marquette on foot being called by message to the deathbed of his only sister and remaining until after the funeral.
In 1620 the Mayflower found an island of some 60 acres on the north side of Cape Cod. It is said the plentiful bounty of fish in the area caused it to be named Billingsgate after a large fish market in London. At one time the island supported a small community, that included a trying works and the lighthouse, but it's all gone, now that the island has disappeared.
Sir William Batten, the Royal Navy Surveyor, was elected Master of the Trinity House in 1663 and took every personal advantage of his position during his time in office. In the following year he became Deputy Master to Sir George Carteret who had succeeded him as Master, which allowed him to continue to reap the rewards of his office. Batten had long wanted to obtain the grant of a patent for a lighthouse and for several years he had been looking for an appropriate location for such a light.
Block Island has been proclaimed "one of the last great places in the Western Hemisphere" by the Nature Conservancy, and the "Bermuda of the North" by tourism bureaus. Those descriptions are apt, but the pork chop-shaped island was long cursed as a stumbling block for coastal shipping traffic. The island is 14 miles from Point Judith, Rhode Island, and the same distance from Montauk Point, New York.
Block Island is situated twelve miles south of the mainland (Rhode Island) and about fifteen miles northeast of southern tip of Long Island. Block Island is roughly pear shaped on a north-south axis, with the "stem of the pear" consisting of a sandy spit (Sandy Point) and a submerged sand bar which extends over 1-1/2 miles to the north. Some 500 vessels have come to grief on this obstruction over the years.
I the Gulf of Mexico, about halfway between the Florida coastal cities of Sarasota and Fort Myers, is a small island named Gasparilla, one of that state's better kept secrets. A segment of the world's wealthy, however, know it well as it is where they come, year in and year out, to enjoy winter in the sun. In spring, when the "social season" ends, another group of visitors arrives. These are a more rowdy bunch, albeit still of means, who come to try their luck in waters known as "the world's best tarpon fishing" and to enter the annual tarpon tournament.
The 1872 Bodie Island Lighthouse joined a valued network of navigational aids that guided mariners along an otherwise featureless and tricky coastline of North Carolina. The site was significant as witnessed in efforts by the U.S. Lighthouse Service that built three towers to mark the immediate area between 1848 and 1872. The first tower Was completed in 1848 but rendered useless due to an inadequate foundation; the second tower was built in 1859 but fell victim to the War Between the States in 1861.
KEEPER: James P. Brooks
Aug. 15, 1915 High NE wind and ugly weather, storm warnings reached this place today and a number of people came to this station for shelter in the Tower in the event that water should rise to danger stage, they came about 10 p.m., but, all but a man and wife named Gallop returned to their homes in the early morning.
Boon Island was named by the fishermen, who for many years left a barrel of food and clothing on the island every fall as a "boon" to any sailor who found himself shipwrecked on the lonely island. But the barrels rarely survived the first winter storm as the high point of the low rocky islet is only 14 feet above high water. Boon Island lies 6-1/2 miles off the southern coast of Maine and about eight miles from York, the nearest port. The island measures 200 feet by 700 feet and is devoid of any vegetation.
The year was 1713 and Queen Anne was on the throne of England and for the third time in nearly two months a merchant ship had been lost in the approaches to Boston Harbor. Many citizens of Boston were dismayed to learn that once again the treacherous shoals had claimed long awaited goods and merchandise desperately needed in the growing Bay Colony.