From 1897 to 1905, his son, Charles S. Williams was first assistant, following his promotion from second assistant. During the early 1930s, Fred Batty was an assistant keeper at Boon Island. through Cohasset for just under three miles to Summer Street. Some time around 1a.m. But for an increasing number of individuals, nonprofits, and municipalities, the upkeep of the aging and often remote towers seems practically impossible against rising seas and ruthless corrosion. The need for a beacon at the ledge was not lost on lighthouse inspector I.W.P. In 2000, the GSA, the Coast Guard and the Department of the Interior passed The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, an amendment to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Sager also was a partner and the president of Gordon Brothers Group from 1985 to 2000. The new lights characteristic was fixed white, and a fog bell mounted on the gallery encircling the lantern room, was tolled once every thirty seconds as needed. Artist, writers, and poets, from Marianne Moore to James Taylor, have canonized lighthouses. In the old days, a light keeper lit the lens and hand-cranked weights to rotate the light, each sending out an identification signal or patternGravess is two white flashes every twelve secondsto guide mariners to shore, back where we came from in East Boston. The local brewery makes a Minot Light, Thoreau wrote about it, and its been used in ads for Cape Cod Cranberries and American Tobacco cigarettes. (Photo: Javaris Johnson/Snipezart). That cistern had green scum an inch thick on top of it., Despite the storms and hardships, several children and grandchildren loved their time on Boon Island. 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. At our return to the house found all our water gone and all my turnips and cabage washt away and my walls all Down. The first man offered the position refused. I had read that the government had auctioned it off in 2014 and I tracked down the new owner at his sprawling apartment suite overlooking Boston Common. Part of that is nostalgia. Sign up today. . She started in Hatteras, North Carolina, near where she grew up and moved north, toward Hull, Mass., toward my dad. The solitude and thunderous crashing of the waves drove more than one keeper insane. Nepal. Tower (1861 1874), Levi L. Creed (1874 1881), Frank F. Martin (1881 1887), Milton Reamy (1887 1915), Octavius H. Reamy (1915 1924), Per F. Tornberg (1924 1936), George H. Fitzpatrick (1936 at least 1941). He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society podcast, "Light Hearted." He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org Brides (1939 1940), Percy A. Evans (1940 1942). Hes arguably made it better. South Africa. About 100 years ago there were more than 1,000, according to the U.S. Lighthouse Society, and now 850 are still standing. This photo is from 1910. The worst storm that struck the island during Keeper Williams lengthy tenure began on January 31, 1898 and was described by Williams in a letter to The Portsmouth Herald. One promising exception is Graves Light Station, offshore from Boston, which has outlasted the Perfect Storm, among many poundings. But Waller, who has been in close touch with him because Sager was the other bidder for the Graves light, says that hes talked to him about his plans, and that, for now, hes going to leave it untouched. On a windy January afternoon, our boat covers the nine miles from Boston Harbor Shipyard & Marina to its offshore mooring in a swift 35 minutes, plunging five feet down and back up over waves that look like rolling hills in Vermont. Minots Ledge Lighthouse lost its resident keepers in 1947, when the light was electrified and automated. The only reason I ever wanted to make money was to be able to make choices. Think not that I will ever flinch from my post, though the waves should gain the mastery for which they are so incessantly striving. The underside for the placement of the fresnel lens, Graves Light. Site open; tower closed, except for those with dinner reservations. It is 25 feet in diameter at its base and 12 feet in diameter at the top. Everything gets done according to what he wants. The Lighthouse Establishment heard and responded. Sager hasnt officially said anything about what hes planning to do; hes actually been radio silent since the sale. I think thats what attracted me to Graves and to other things in my life. The present lighthouse was constructed in 1854, along with a new dwelling. At the time it was the most anyone had paid for a lighthouse. 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. I want to live the fullest possible life.. Shad Sager Overview Shad Gary Sager has been associated with one company, according to public records. Im not nearly so optimistic about the ones that are remote and inaccessible to the public, many of which will eventually face demolition by neglect., Many land-based lighthouses and the soil around them are contaminated with lead paint that must be remediated before someone saves them. Rocks weighing fifteen tons or more were moved twenty feet, and two outbuildings were swept away. Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero, California. Boon Island Light sold for second time, Paul Briand. When he ran out of money a year into the renovation, he teamed up with another original bidder who matched his million, a local businessman named Bobby Sager, who has hosted celebrities like Sting and Tom Hanks at Graves. If you apply too much logic to itlook at the cost, the resale, and the amount of workit doesnt make sense, says Waller. 26.25 When we have high tides with big storms, we actually become two islands. The damage has limited public access in recent years, and at the bottom of the cliff below the lighthouse, rock-filled cages, used as protection from erosion until they were ripped out of the ground in 2018 by a storm, roll around like tumbleweedsmaking the future of Boston Light even more ominous. Local nonprofits and people in the public sector have begun exploring an ownership transfer of the historic landmark through the 2000 act. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Graves Light sits on a rocky ledge in the middle of Boston Harbor, surrounded by water. It is situated in Cape Blanco State Park, amid miles of trails. When youre out here, the whole world stops, as far as youre concerned, says Waller. A bell-buoy was placed on Boon Island Ledge, about three miles east of Boon Island, starting in 1858 to mark this navigational hazard. Mary Luther spent summers there with her grandfather, William C. Williams. The inaccessibility of the station, especially during inclement weather, made the delivery of supplies difficult, and visiting the mainland sometimes impossible. Construction wasnt easy. For the past 150 years the lighthouse has warned boaters about the shallow, shipwrecking rocks close to shore, but recently the Coast Guard decided it wasnt relevant anymore, and this fall the light became private property. 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. 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. His first renovation was his Malden home, a 10,000-square-foot Queen Anne style firehouse that had nearly burned to the ground when he and his wife, Lynn, bought it from the town for $32,500. 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. Asked Navy to reimburse us for their food; Navy refused. The Germans had been spies mapping the harbor in World War I. Grover was still keeper in 1837, earning $600 per year, and his letter-writing enemies continued their assault, branding him a profane man, uncivil to those who visit the island and alleging that he lived in great intimacy with his wifes sister (while apparently estranged from his ailing wife). One exception is the countrys actual last official lightkeeper still working for the Coast Guard: Her name is Sally Snowman, and her job and second home, Boston Light, are in jeopardy. Arriving, we balance on periwinkles and barnacles to step from the dinghy onto a jetty, tie up to a piling, and walk 40 feet on slippery rocks to the base of the lighthouse. No one bit on the original bid, and this June, they put it up again for $10,000. He even salvaged a stanchion railing from a World War II minesweeper for the mahogany deck. Dave has done such wonderful things with his lighthouse, says Snowman. 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. Great Lakes Lighthouses, Seacoasts, Islands, Sounds. 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. Once during a storm, Florence heard her daughters shrieks. Weve all stopped to take a picture of these icons, lighthouses, at some point, but in another 50 or 100 years we might not be able to. He says he didnt have any solid reason for buying it, just that same deep-seated nostalgia and a long-standing but loose family tie. Eight months pregnant with my father, my grandma pointed a skiff out into the teeth of a noreaster to tie down her boat, the Little Gull, under the flash of the light. 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. Girard was one of two bidders seriously pursuing Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse in 2010, but he dropped out of that auction after losing a coin toss to the eventual winner. Sager is now fixing up two more lighthouses (Minot's Ledge Light south of Boston and Maine's Boon Island Light) he landed at auction when they were offloaded by the Coast Guard. Writer, Editor, Skier. Were all here for such a short time. . Pakistan. 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. Bobby has created an easy way for those that would like to make a difference and a way for anyone to send a Hope Soccer Ball to underprivileged children. Eva Philbricks father was an assistant keeper on Boon Island from 1913 to 1917. There was always something to do on the island. During 1842, civil engineer I.W.P. In December 2014, just months after acquiring the lighthouse, Girard sold the property to Boon Island LLC for $119,673. Breathing the salty clean winter air, out in the middle of the harbor, we stand in front of his time machine. To see these, take Route (See this video of the Gay Head rescue.). Thats what makes me optimistic that the right entity is out there to work that kind of magic on Boston Light. She and some lighthouse preservationists hope Boston Light will go to the National Park Service, especially since the station is located within the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park Area, but theres no telling what will happen over the next year or two. The wind reached nearly 100 miles per hour and stirred up waves that dashed against the dwelling and tower, coating them in thick layers of ice. It was kind of redundant.. When John Morris was in charge of Boon Island Lighthouse in December 1945, a similar storm struck the island. The lighthouse is a three-story cast iron square structure, 45 feet in height, that rests on a cylindrical tower. The men sought refuge in the tower as the angry seas damaged the fuel tanks, helicopter pad and generator building, and destroyed the boathouse and boat launch. Joseph Wilson managed to reach Gull Rock, probably mistaking it for the mainland, where he apparently died of exhaustion and exposure. Log In. Keeper Per S. Tornberg, who was in charge of the lighthouse from 1924 to 1936, had an even closer brush with death. 3.15 See Photos. During the 28 years that he's lived on Tremont Street, Bobby Sager said he loved to hear the sounds of the bell at Park Street Church. Three years later, Hanna left and was replaced by Eliphalet Grover. The company was incorporated in California twelve years ago and is no longer active. 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. And with that, the discussion about lighthouses and meteorites was over for the moment. He imagines his family gathering there on sultry summer nights, the reflection of a full moon dazzling like diamonds on the Atlantic. We cut off the cabin and converted it into a barge to haul heavy materials out to Graves, says Waller, referring to the historic lighthouse he owns. When the Coast Guard, which now owns only a small percentage of lighthouses, no longer needs a lighthouse, the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act facilitates a transfer with right of first refusal, at no cost, to a public or nonprofit organization. Background Report for Shad Gary Sager. Breakwaters, River Lights, Channel, Small Islands in Sounds. The interior was damp. 4th Think of making your bed thus in the crest of a breaker! The Fresnel lens, manufactured in Paris by F. Barbier, completed one revolution every thirty seconds atop a mercury-filled float and was placed in operation on May 1, 1894. Head: Isaac Dunham (1849 1850), John W. Bennett (1850 1851), Joshua Wilder, Jr. (1860 1861), James J. His wife Florence recalled that in lieu of indoor toilets, each of the three families would cut off the tops of five-gallon tins of kerosene oil and place them in an outhouse. In May 2000, Boon Island Lighthouse, from which a flashing white light, visible for nineteen nautical miles, is emitted every five seconds, was leased to the American Lighthouse Foundation. residents on the mainland could hear the keepers furiously ringing the fog bell. The Dalai Lama, Sting, and Bobby Sager at Sagers home in Boston in 2012. The entries range from the weather 40 degrees, light rain in the morning to more compelling matters: Captured a rowboat full of German sailors in the fog, held them until Navy picked them up three days later. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. 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. Since purchasing the lighthouse at a government auction seven years ago, Dave. Salted cod, sea fowl, and lobsters ranked high in the keepers diets, though lobster was far from being a delicacy. Keeper Williams and his assistants saved the six crewmembers, though afterward, the keepers and the crew were almost equally incapacitated by exposure. In 1919, Keeper Harry Smith and his two assistants rescued seven men aboard the schooner Hazel E. Ritcey, after it struck a rock and sank near the island. Meanwhile the numbers of lighthouses are declining. To have the waves, like a pack of hungry wolves, eyeing you always, night and day, and from time to time making a spring at you, almost sure to have you at last.. Though the government has the right to reject all bids if it believes a fair market price has not been achieved, the $78,000 bid was approved a few weeks after the auction closed, and the lighthouse was awarded to Arthur Girard a real estate developer from Portland, Maine. His globetrotting children, now 25 and 22, have learned this important lesson: Poor people are happy with almost anything. Rich people? Its finding ways to reverse 40 years of dark and dirty neglect1970s linoleum curling up over rotted wood, rusted metal walls, wilting sheets of paint. The next day, the family gave thanks to the Creator for remembering them. 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! The granite had to be cut and assembled on Government Island, attached to the mainland in Cohasset Harbor, and then pulled by oxen to a vessel that would transport the stone out to the ledge. Morris, his wife, their two-year-old son, and two coastguardsmen sought refuge in a small, sturdy structure, and a helicopter was dispatched to drop food to them after the waves subsided. Many link the name Boon Island to the wrecks of the trading vessel. God bless you all. The body of Joseph Antoine washed ashore later at Nantasket. 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. By 13 he was a paper boy, and on Saturday mornings he helped his. In December 1892, the British Schooner Gold Hunter wrecked on Boon Island with the temperature at four degrees below zero. After three years spent cutting the rock to form a foundation, the first six courses of the lighthouse were laid, dovetailed, and dowelled together in 1858. The bottom forty feet of the tower are solid granite, save for a central space that served as a cistern. I kind of feel guilty buying it, taking it, and making it mine, because it was built with public money, but it was put up for free to non-profits first and there were no takers.. Thomas Point Lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, built in 1875 , still in its original location, and still used as a navigational beacon, offers seasonal tours by boat from Annapolis, Maryland. The illuminating apparatus was changed in 1885 to burn mineral oil instead of lard oil, and then in 1894, a new second-order Fresnel lens was installed atop the lighthouse. Continue on Main Street Mahan devised a system where the flash panels in a Fresnel lens were so arranged to indicate numbers. 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). But almost no one navigates just by visual markers these days, which is why in 2009, the Coast Guard decided that they didnt need to hold on to Minots Ledge Light anymore. The sea washd the small rocks from under the Lighthouse and Dwelling house; the island was all under water for 4 hours., On May 10, 1839, the complaints about Keeper Grover must have finally hit their mark, as the keeper wrote in his log: Turnd of[f] of Boon Island after Serving as Lighthouse Keeper 22 years and 10 months and 20 Day Without Cause.. Rather than let the situation. Lighthouse fanatics have reached out to tell him theyre glad hes renovating it, and that they can see the good parts of private ownership. 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. Order We went all in, he says. Thirteen bidders participated in the auction, which closed on August 17 with a high bid of $78,000. Two lighthouse keepers were killed when it went down and theyre said to haunt the new house. Hes rechinked the granite blocks to make it watertight, and put in running water and electricity. 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. Fort Point Lighthouse was completed in 1853, shortly after its twin lighthouse at Alcatraz Island, San Francisco Bay, California. Head: Benjamin Wane (1811), David Oliver (1811 1812), Thomas Hanna (1812 1816), Eliphalet Grover (1816 1839), Joseph P. Junkins (1839 1840), Mark Dennet (1840 1841), John S. Thompson (1841 1843), John Kennard (1843 1844), Isidore S. Thompson (1844), John Kennard (1844 1846), Nathaniel Baker (1846 1849), John S. Thompson (1849 1853), Hiram Tobey (1853), Caleb L. Goold (1853 1854), George Bowden (1854 1855), Josiah Tobey (1855 1859), Nathaniel Baker (1859), Joseph H. Hart (1859 1861), George B. Wallace (1861), Benjamin Bridges (1861 1864), R.C. Next summer Waller, who has been awarded by the American Lighthouse Foundation for his work in preservation, will finally finish the near unimaginable with the installation of a rare antique first-order Fresnel lens with the refracting glass once commonly used to intensify light for mariners. In 2013, the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum announced it was having difficulty paying the premium on the $800,000 insurance policy for the Boon Island lens. The storm washed huge rocks up on the island, demolishing the keepers house and a couple of small outbuildings. 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. 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. Florence related a similar experience had by Keeper Harold Hutchins. In winter, ice covered the stone buildings, even capping the chimney of the dwelling on one occasion. It hits deeper, because it draws back to when you could get lost in the ocean, when you needed a beacon to bring you home. 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. Christopher Sager, Age 41. aka Chris Sager. The catch? And, with that, the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow was born. 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. Fanad Lighthouse is a historic working lighthouse at the mouth of Lough Swilly, Ireland, that offers overnight stays. In 2016, Sager also purchased Michigans Grays Reef Lighthouse at auction. [4] 6 Flannan Isles Lighthouse Scotland Snowman is the only female in history among the 69 others to keep Boston Light. He asserted that the area was annually the scene of the most heart-rending disasters. Lewis concluded his report on Minots Ledge with the following: A light-house on this reef is more required than on any part of the seaboard of New England. Use 265 to 440 When there are no takers in this phase, private owners like Waller go to bid on lighthouses through public auctions. At 9 PM all my family was forst to go to the Lighthouse and Stay until 5 next morning. 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. That summer, they posted a notice of availability. Lighthouses across the country are crumbling amid worsening storms and dwindling funds. Includes Age, Location, Address History for Shad Gary Sager . He can be reached at, the government had auctioned it off in 2014. After a year on the island, Keeper Hanna wrote the following threat: unless the Government provides for me and my family as agreed, I shall on the first day of April leave this place. Hannas request was forwarded to Secretary of Treasury Albert Gallatin with the following notation, it has been difficult to get anyone who would consent to accept the appointment as keeper for the compensation allowed. Bobby Sager. Be selfish. She is shaking a good three feet each way as I write. Keepers were by-the-book, sober, carefully chosen men. Hanna soon realized the sum was insufficient and requested $450 annually. Grounds/tower closed. On October 13th, Bobby Sager, Polaroids chairman, won the auction and bought the lighthouse for $222,000. Musician Annie Lennox and philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager arrives for the 'Power Of The Invisible Sun' photocall at the Saatchi Gallery.
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