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1 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. 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. A Notice of Availability, dated June 30, 2009, announced that Minots Ledge Lighthouse, deemed excess by the Coast Guard, was being offered at no cost to eligible entities, including federal, state, and local agencies, non-profit corporations, and educational organizations under the provisions of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. When John Morris was in charge of Boon Island Lighthouse in December 1945, a similar storm struck the island. Florence Idella Batty: Memories of Maines Boon Island,, Keeper of the Light Was Painter of the Light,. Sager hasnt officially said anything about what hes planning to do; hes actually been radio silent since the sale. What kind of a guy, Fine. Some of the people purchasing auctioned lighthouses feel the same as me, and theyre buying them to save them. 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. To improve the conditions described in 1888, the exterior of the stone dwelling was torn out and rearranged, and a frame upper story was added to the dwelling. Keepers at Boon Island occasionally assisted mariners who found themselves in dire circumstances near the station. The lights base, an almost invisible outcropping of rocks off Cohasset, Massachusetts, has plagued mariners for more years than the light has protected them. 7 No longer used as a main navigational aid, the lighthouse as we know it is slowly being rendered obsolete. 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. In this design, interlocking granite blocks were placed on foundation stones weighing two tons each. People named Bobby Sager. 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. Plus: lighthouses where you can spend the night. It lets the federal government give away lighthouses to qualifying local governments, non-profits, or community development organizations. It is 25 feet in diameter at its base and 12 feet in diameter at the top. It's not just the Minot's Ledge lighthouse that's changing hands. Mary Luther spent summers there with her grandfather, William C. Williams. Florence related a similar experience had by Keeper Harold Hutchins. Hes arguably made it better. 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. Local nonprofits and people in the public sector have begun exploring an ownership transfer of the historic landmark through the 2000 act. The original 1905 iron ladder, corroded in aqua that matches the sea, runs from the granite under my feet from sea level up a tight parallel against the side of his 113-foot lighthouse. Im not doing this because I was touched by an angel, or because I feel guilty about making too much money, he said. Otherwise I wouldnt do it. I thought that spending my time making more money wasnt going to make my life better, he told me. 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. Bobby Sager. Its Graves third bridgethe first one washed away in the Blizzard of 1978; the second was destroyed in the Perfect Storm (as titled in the book and movie) of 1991. Artist, writers, and poets, from Marianne Moore to James Taylor, have canonized lighthouses. Summer Street and then right on Border Street. 3rd After two more working seasons, six thousand tons of Quincy granite supported a bronze lantern nearly 100 feet in the air. 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. They always say the best government is a benevolent king because his heart is in the right place, he says. 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. Log In. Lighthouse is best seen by boat, but a distant view is possible from Cape Neddick Phone Number: (661) 296-MJKV. Shoals, Reefs, Harbor Lights, Islands in Rivers and Harbors. These were good precautions, but unfortunately they couldnt avert all danger. You realize they had it all figured out long ago, says Waller, now a pro at finding the right tools and the right people. The Blizzard of 1978 helped write the last chapter in Boon Islands history as a manned light. Maybe he just wants to be able to see it flash. 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. 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. Mahan devised a system where the flash panels in a Fresnel lens were so arranged to indicate numbers. On April 16, 1851, the fierce winds of a noreaster left the tower reeling in the pounding seas and blinding snow. Pakistan. Sager was one of the final bidders for Graves Lighthouse in 2013 and acquired Maine's Boon Island Lighthouse earlier in 2014 from its private owner. 4 Rwanda. The only reason I ever wanted to make money was to be able to make choices. A new, forty-nine-foot-tall granite tower with an octagonal wrought-iron lantern was built by Colonel Seward Merrill for $3,406.65 in 1831. Hanna soon realized the sum was insufficient and requested $450 annually. Sager grew up in Malden, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, so maybe he just has that same nostalgia-fueled fascination. In addition, a supply shed, measuring twelve by twenty feet, and a brick oil house were erected on the island. Great Lakes Lighthouses, Seacoasts, Islands, Sounds. 2 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. Here was the new iron light-house, then unfinished, in the shape of an egg-shell painted red, and placed high on iron pillars, like the ovum of a sea monster floating on the wavesWhen I passed it the next summer it was finished and two men lived in it, and a lighthouse keeper said that in a recent gale it had rocked so as to shake the plates off the table. 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. Construction wasnt easy. In 2016, Sager also purchased Michigans Grays Reef Lighthouse at auction. The interior was damp. And with that, the discussion about lighthouses and meteorites was over for the moment. To ease the burden, two assistant keepers, the stations first, were assigned to Boon Island in 1855. The inaccessibility of the station, especially during inclement weather, made the delivery of supplies difficult, and visiting the mainland sometimes impossible. That would be his last raise, even though he stayed on for twenty-three more years. A brand of on-the-ground and up-close philanthropy that assesses needs and then fashions programs to meet them. Think of making your bed thus in the crest of a breaker! Also: bikes, going places, and what the F were doing to the planet. 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. Oil Consumption Per Hour (oz.) In 2000, hed had enough. The island is now owned by philanthropist and lighthouse enthusiast Bobby Sager. But who owns the thing? 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. Brides (1940 at least 1942) . 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. But, ultimately hes turning it into a vacation house. The lighthouse is privately owned. Its peaceful. [4] 6 Flannan Isles Lighthouse Scotland Breakwaters, River Lights, Channel, Small Islands in Sounds. Its 36 degrees out, and the sweeping waves splashing up make the scene even more surreal. 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. Only three months into his tenure as keeper, sitting in the living quarters atop the tower and supposedly out of reach of the waves, Isaac Dunham wrote The wind E. blowing very hard with an ugly sea which makes the light reel like a Drunken ManI hope God will in mercy still the raging seaor we must perishGod only knows what the end will be. By October 1850, Dunham quit, and John Bennett took his place, only to despair soon afterwards at his perilous situation in storms. Current Address: KVFV Alaminos Dr, Santa Clarita, CA. At the bridge, I can finally move laterally, my soles sinking into the planks, and I tell Waller, with only 13 feet left, I dont like heights. We cross the bridge to the former oil room he turned into a guest house. [1] Early life[ edit] Sager was raised in Malden, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. In the near distance, like a stony sentinel a mile off Cohasset, Minots Ledge Light rises out of the Atlantic, beaming its famous sequence one flash (pause), four flashes (pause), three flashes (pause) charmingly decoded as I love you.. Join Outside+ to get Outside magazine, access to exclusive content, 1,000s of training plans, and more. Everything gets done according to what he wants. But who owns the thing? 5th I sincerely hope Sally will play a role in its next chapter, says Waller of his longtime neighbor. Philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager, founder of the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow, met Moise in 2005. 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. Every year storms seem to do more damage. The glacier land (called drumlins) under both the tower and the keepers house, where Snowman, 71, lived half the year for almost 20 years maintaining the place and giving tours, is shrinking. 4th Dave has done such wonderful things with his lighthouse, says Snowman. Two lighthouse keepers were killed when it went down and theyre said to haunt the new house. The act sets a high bar for ongoing and pricey preservation and education. through Cohasset for just under three miles to Summer Street. 2 Shad Sager Overview Shad Gary Sager has been associated with one company, according to public records. Keeper Williams account of the storm included the following: It was the hardest night we ever passed, and no one slept on the island during the entire night. 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.. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, North Carolina, is traditionally open for climbing the stairs, though closed periodically in recent years for restoration. Exactly 40 feet overhead, like something from a dizzying Escher painting, is the maroon door to his second home, Graves Light Station. The present lighthouse was constructed in 1854, along with a new dwelling. After crossing the bridge, take (Photo: Javaris Johnson/Snipezart). In December 1892, the British Schooner Gold Hunter wrecked on Boon Island with the temperature at four degrees below zero. It was kind of redundant.. But what happens when the king dies? He and his partner made their fortune by transforming a small Boston jewelry liquidator into a worldwide financial advisory company. 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. Donovan (1895), Charles G. Everett (1895 1905), Ernest H. Small (1905 1909), Vivian A. Currier (1909 1910), Eugene N. Larsen (1910 1911), Fred M. Pease (1911 at least 1912), Percy A. Evans (at least 1939 1940). 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. For Waller, who owns a special effects company in Boston, restoring the lighthouse and its artifacts is a continuum of problem-solving. Charles Williams, who served as first assistant to his father, had recently married and was celebrating his honeymoon on the island with his new bride. On the third day of the expedition, remnants of iron beams, believed to be support legs for the fallen lighthouse, were located with the assistance of a remote-operated vehicle. 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. 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. Although the area is no longer populated by Indians who believe in the evil spirit of Hobomock, for years tales have abounded of strange moaning, tapping, and even mysterious polishing of the lens by ghostly hands. After explaining exactly how the lighthouse was constructed, Swift concluded by justifying the choice of a pile lighthouse instead of a stone lighthouse: Time didnt wait long to rule on the matter. Along the way, hes fostered micro-lending in Third World countries, befriended the Dalai Lama (A great sense of humor), sat with Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa, and replaced the ragtag soccer balls used by African children with brand-new indestructible yellow ones. Sometimes nothing makes them happy. It was above being a captain of a ship, because you were the guardian of all the ships, he adds. She is shaking a good three feet each way as I write. Lewis, nephew of Winslow Lewis was asked to report on the conditions of the many of the lighthouses along the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. From the top deck of Graves tower, Waller points two miles south to Little Brewster Island, home only to Boston Light, the first lighthouse in the United States, built in 1716.