Massachusetts

Monomoy point off Cape Cod is the visible product of the tidal conflicts between the ragged Atlantic Ocean and the gentler Nantucket Sound. What land is carved from Chatham or Nauset,often in large chunks during a winter nor'easter, becomes part of Monomoy, stretching for over eight miles south from Chatham. Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, who named Cape Cod for the fish he caught there in great profusion, visited this sand spit in 1602. Four years later Champlain arrived, ran afoul of both the Indians and the shoals, and named the point Cap Mallebarre.

The back or east side of Cape Cod I was as dangerous to shipping in the age of sail as was Cape Hatteras. In 1798 the Cape Cod Light Station, at Highland, was established to warn ships of the Cape and to mark the route to Boston. Ten years later Cape Cod's second light station at Chatam was constructed. This station, about 23 miles south of the Cape Cod lighthouse, was a dual tower station. Each tower displayed a fixed white light, distinguishing this lighthouse from the Cape Cod light with its single white beam.

Brant Point Lighthouse, marking the entrance to the harbor of Nantucket, on the island of the same name, and the second oldest light station in the State of Massachusetts, as well as in the United States, is unique among United States lighthouses in several respects. It was the first and also among the very few lighthouses erected and maintained at the expense of a township. Probably no other light in this country has been shown from so many different structures, or has been moved about so much, for no less than seven successive lighthouses have been built on Brant Point.

The history of Cape Cod's second lighthouse is (as was with the first at Highland) that of encroaching seas. Since 1808 its position has twice retreated before winter storm induced erosion. The next logical location for a lighthouse on Cape Cod, after the Cape Cod station at Highland, was along the Chatham shore. A light at this location would assist mariners make the passage from Nantucket Sound around the cape.

From my house in Dennis on Cape Cod, when the weather is clear, I can see the flash of the Cape Cod Lighthouse at Highland (often referred to as the Highand Light) on the back shore of the Cape, 19 miles across the bay. It's a comforting sight for any sailor who has wandered the world's oceans. In fact those who go "in peril on the seas" have owed their lives to the faithful keepers of lighthouses.

Historical records of the United States Lighthouse Service contain many accounts of peril and heroism associated with collisions, sinkings, and other disastrous events that befell some of our lightships. One of the more interesting and unusual cases concerns the loss of Light Vessel No. 58 (LV 58) on Nantucket Shoals in December 1905; a story involving superb seamanship and devotion to duty that led to rescue of the lightship crew under severe weather conditions. After the incident, some peculiar happenings caused a public reaction from coast to coast.