Minot's Ledge Light, officially Minots Ledge Light, is a lighthouse on Minots Ledge, one mile offshore of the towns of Cohasset and Scituate, Massachusetts, to the southeast of Boston Harbor.The current lighthouse is the second on the site, the first having been washed away in a storm after only a few months of use.[3][4]
In 1843, lighthouse inspector I. W. P. Lewis compiled a report on Minots Ledge, showing that more than 40 vessels had been lost due to striking the ledge from 1832 to 1841, with serious loss of life and damage to property. The most dramatic incident was the sinking of a ship "St John" in October 1849[6] with ninety-nine Irish immigrants, who all drowned within sight of their new homeland. It was initially proposed to build a lighthouse similar to John Smeaton's pioneering Eddystone Lighthouse, situated off the south-west coast of England. However Captain William H. Swift, put in charge of planning the tower, believed it impossible to build such a tower on the mostly submerged ledge. Instead he successfully argued for an iron pile light, a spidery structure drilled into the rock.[7]
The first Minot's Ledge Lighthouse was built between 1847 and 1850, and was lighted for the first time on January 1, 1850. One night in April 1851, the new lighthouse was struck by a major storm that caused damage throughout the Boston area. The following day only a few bent pilings were found on the rock. The two assistant keepers who had been tending the lighthouse at the time had died at their posts.[4][8]
The current lighthouse
Until 1863 the design and construction of lighthouses was the responsibility of the Corps of Topographical Engineers; this resulted in a rivalry with the longer-established Army Corps of Engineers, which built fortifications and had responsibility, as it does today, for waterway improvements. The Chief Engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers, Joseph G. Totten, personally took charge of the project to design and construct a permanent lighthouse on Minot's Ledge.
Totten's design was as simple as it was effective. With extensive experience building fortifications, Totten fully appreciated the permanency and strength of granite constructions. He designed the lighthouse so the first 40 feet of lighthouse would be a solid granite base weighing thousands of tons. To secure the lighthouse to the ledge, he had several massive iron pins emplaced so that the lighthouse would be literally pinned to the ledge by its own weight. Working on the ledge could take place only in conditions when it was exposed at low tide and the sea was calm, so construction took years.
Work started on the current lighthouse in 1855, and it was completed and first lit on November 15, 1860. With a final cost of $300,000, it was the most expensive light house that was ever constructed in the United States to that date. The lighthouse is built of large and heavy dovetailed granite blocks, which were cut and dressed ashore in Quincy and taken to the ledge by ship. The lighthouse was equipped with a third-order Fresnel lens.
The light signal, a 1-4-3 flashing cycle adopted in 1894, is locally referred to as "I LOVE YOU" (1-4-3 being the number of letters in that phrase), and it is often cited[9] as such by romantic couples within its range.
Minots Ledge Light was automated in 1947.
Historical information
The following is taken from the Coast Guard Historian's website:
Minots Ledge is one of many groups of rocky outcroppings off the coast of Cohasset and Scituate, and has been the scene of countless shipwrecks. Between 1832 and 1841 there were 40 wrecks on this and neighboring reefs. Between 1817 and 1847, it was estimated that 40 lives and $364,000 in property had been lost in shipwrecks in the vicinity of Minots Ledge, off Cohasset, Massachusetts.
In 1843, Inspector I. W. P. Lewis, of the Lighthouse Service, emphasized the great need for a lighthouse on Minots Ledge, and his judgment was sustained by Capt. William H. Swift, of the United States Topographical Bureau, who recommended an iron-pile lighthouse as offering less resistance to the waves than a stone tower.
The ledge was barely 20 feet (6.1m) wide and was exposed at low tide, being dry only 2 or 3 hours a day. On this narrow rock construction was begun in the spring of 1847 of a 75-foot (23m) open-work iron light structure. The men could only work on very calm days when the tide was at its ebb. The work was conducted from a schooner which remained near the ledge, unless the sea was rough, with the workmen sleeping on board. If a storm threatened, the schooner put into Cohasset Harbor until it was over.
Nine holes were drilled into the solid rock, each 12 inches (300mm) wide and 5 feet (1.5m) deep. Eight were placed in a circle, 25 feet (7.6m) in diameter, with the ninth in the center. Iron piling, 10 inches (250mm) in diameter were then cemented into each hole. Four men worked in 20-minute shifts at the drilling from a triangle, set on heavy spars, which supported a platform high above the ledge, on which the drilling machinery was installed.
The off-duty lightkeeper's house was located in Cohasset.
All the apparatus was swept from the rock by two different storms in the summer of 1847. Workmen were swept into the sea several times, but none was drowned. Work had to be stopped for the winter in October 1847 and begun again in the spring of 1848, but by September of that year the nine holes had been drilled and the nine iron piles placed. The outer piles angled toward the center to a 14-foot (4.3m) circumference, 38 feet (12m) above the uneven surface of the ledge. These were braced horizontally by iron rods at 19-foot (5.8m) intervals. Braces planned to strengthen the lower part of the tower were omitted on the theory that they would lessen rather than increase the over-all security of the edifice. However, it was where these braces were planned to go, that the structure actually broke off later.
A cast-iron spider, or capping, weighing 5tons was secured to the top of this piling. The keeper's quarters were erected on top of this. Finally a 16-sided lantern room at the very top, housed a Fresnel lantern, with 15reflectors. The light, a fixed beacon with an arc of 210°, was first lighted January 1, 1850.
The first keeper, Isaac Dunham, was confident the light structure was not safe and wrote Washington requesting that it be strengthened. When no action resulted he resigned on October 7, 1850. Capt. John W. Bennett, who succeeded him openly scoffed at his predecessor's fears. He hired new assistants including an Englishman named Joseph Wilson and a Portuguese named Joseph Antoine. Two keepers remained at the light at all times.
The braces of the structure were soon showing signs of strain, however, and were constantly having to be removed, taken to the mainland and strengthened and straightened. A terrific northeast storm a few weeks after he took charge, changed Bennett's mind and he officially reported the tower as in danger. A committee, delegated to investigate, arrived during a perfectly calm sea and returned to Boston, deciding nothing should be done.
The "templates" on which the tower was first assembled on the mainland are just visible in the far left of this photo.
On March 16, 1851, during another terrible storm, the keepers deciding the lantern room was unsafe, retreated down into the store room, where they cowered for four days and nights, only occasionally climbing to the lantern to repair some damage done by the storm. The violent pitching and swaying of the tower almost knocked them off the rungs of the ladder, when they did. A relatively calm spell followed during which the braces were tightened.
Then easterly winds began blowing around April 8, 1851. Bennett departed for the mainland three days later, and this was the last time he saw his two assistants alive. When he sought to return next day, too heavy a sea was running at Minots Ledge to permit the attempt. The storm increased in fury and, by the 16th, was causing considerable damage ashore. At Minots Ledge, the two assistant keepers kept the bell ringing and the lamps burning, but just before midnight on the 16th they cast a bottle adrift containing a message for the outside world in case they failed to survive. The high tide at midnight sent wave after wave through the upper framework of the weakened structure. What actually happened then will never be known. Probably about 11p.m. the central support snapped off completely, leaving the top-heavy 30-ton lantern tower held only by the outside piling. Then just before 1a.m. on April 17, 1851, the great Minots Ledge Lighthouse finally slid over toward the sea. One by one the eight iron pilings broke until only three remained. The keepers, probably realizing that the end was near, began pounding furiously on the lighthouse bell. This was heard by residents of the Glades. With the tower bent over, the remaining supports now gave way and the great tower plunged into the ocean.
The body of Joseph Antoine was washed ashore later at Nantasket. Joseph Wilson managed to reach Gull Rock, probably mistaking it for the mainland. Here he apparently died of exhaustion and exposure.
Between 1851 and 1860 Minots Ledge was guarded by a lightship. Plans for a new stone edifice were meanwhile drawn up for the Lighthouse Board by Brigadier GeneralJoseph G. Totten; model makers built the proposed new structure in miniature; the same location was decided upon; and Barton S. Alexander, of the United States Engineers, started work on its construction in April 1855.
The ledge had to be cut down to receive the foundation stones and space was not available for a regular cofferdam. In June the old stumps of the first tower were removed. Meanwhile cutting and assembling of the granite was done on Government Island in Cohasset, where the lightkeeper's house is. Seven granite blocks were to form the foundation. Permanent iron shafts, 20 feet (6.1m) high, were set in eight of the holes in which the old lighthouse piling had been, while the ninth or central hole was left open, to form a cavity for the base circle. Later a well for drinking water was built up from this cavity through the middle of the new tower.
The framework structure disappeared during a severe storm on January 19, 1857, when the barqueNew Empire, which later went ashore at White Head, struck the temporary tower and demolished the iron scaffolding. So in the spring of 1857 the work had to be started all over again.
The first stone was finally laid July 9, 1857. Temporary cofferdams were constructed from sand bags, so that the foundation blocks, laid more than 2 feet (0.61m) under the surface of the lowest tide, could be cemented to the rock face of the ledge. Strap iron between the courses kept the 2-ton stones apart while the cement was hardening.
The total appropriation of $330,000 was all spent, except a small surplus, in the construction. By the end of 1859, the thirty-second course, 62 feet (19m) above low water had been reached, and 377 actual crew working hours had been consumed. The final stone was laid June 29, 1860, the whole granite structure having thus taken five years to complete, lacking one day. The new lighthouse was finished by mid-August 1860 and the light first exhibited August 22, 1860. The light was not regularly shone, however, until November 15, 1860, when Joshua Wheeler, the new keeper, and two assistants entered upon their duties.
The new stone tower has withstood every subsequent gale. The strongest waves cause nothing but a strong vibration. On some occasions the seas have actually swept over the top of the 97-foot (30m) structure with no more damage than that caused by a few leaky windows or a cracked lamp or two.
On May 1, 1894, a new flashing lantern was installed, with the characteristic of a one-four-three flash, which lovers on shore soon found contained the same numerical count as the words "I love you." Minots Ledge has thus become known up and down the coast as the "Lover's Light."
The light was made automatic in 1947. Today its 45,000 candela light, 85 feet (26m) above water, can be seen for 15 miles (24km).[4]
Minot's Ledge Lighthouse keepers in 1940: George H. Fitzpatrick, Perc A. Evans, Patrick J. Bridy[10]
Minots Ledge Light as seen from a passing sailing vessel
Officially, it is Minots Ledge Light,[3] but the National Register listing calls it Minot's Ledge Light.[2]
There is a replica of the top section of the lighthouse, located on the shores of Cohasset Harbor. The replica can be viewed just outside the Cohasset Sailing Club. The replica on shore is not a replica, but instead is made from the stone and steel remnants of the original upper portion of the lighthouse including the lamp chamber, which was wholly rebuilt in the late twentieth century, the copper dome is in fact a replica.[citation needed]. It is located about one mile off of the coast of Scituate Neck.[14]
In Popular Culture
An image of Minot's Ledge Light has featured prominently on the label of Cohasset Punch, a brand of liqueur popular in Chicago, from 1899 until its discontinuation in the late-1980s.[15] The brand was revived in 2024 and features a new illustration of Minot's Ledge Light.[16]
The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles (14 km) south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss.
Scituate is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 19,063 at the 2020 census.
The Bishop Rock is a skerry off the British coast in the northern Atlantic Ocean known for its lighthouse. It is in the westernmost part of the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago 45 kilometres off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The Guinness Book of Records lists it as the world's smallest island with a building on it.
Smeaton's Tower is a redundant lighthouse, now a memorial to civil engineer John Smeaton, designer of the third and most notable Eddystone Lighthouse. A major step forward in lighthouse design, Smeaton's structure was in use from 1759 to 1877, until erosion of the ledge it was built upon forced new construction. The tower was largely dismantled and rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe in Plymouth, Devon, where it stands today.
Race Rock Light is a lighthouse on Race Rock Reef, a dangerous set of rocks on Long Island Sound southwest of Fishers Island, New York and the site of many shipwrecks. It is currently owned and maintained by the New London Maritime Society as part of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act program.
Wood Island Light is an active lighthouse on the eastern edge of Wood Island in Saco Bay, on the southern coast of Maine. The light is just outside the entrance to Biddeford Pool and the end of the Saco River. The lighthouse is a 47-foot (14 m) conical white tower of granite rubble. The light itself sits 71 feet (22 m) above mean high water. Its automated beacon alternates between green and white every 10 seconds.
Matinicus Rock Light is a lighthouse on Matinicus Rock, a windswept rock 25 miles (40 km) off the coast of Maine. It is one of eleven seacoast lights off the coast of Maine. First established in 1827, the present surviving structures date to 1857. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Matinicus Rock Light Station on March 14, 1988.
Goat Island Light is a lighthouse located off Cape Porpoise near Kennebunkport in southern Maine. Goat Island Light was established in 1835 to guard the entrance to Cape Porpoise Harbor. The original station was upgraded in 1859 to the current brick tower with a fifth order Fresnel lens. Keeper's quarters were added to the island in 1860. The light station was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1990 and is currently active. The keepers dwellings and tower are leased to the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust. Goat Island Light can be seen from shore in Cape Porpoise Harbor just off State Route 9 north of Kennebunkport or is viewable by boat. The island is currently closed to the public except by special arrangement.
Brant Point Light is a lighthouse located on Nantucket Island. The station was established in 1746, automated in 1965, and is still in operation. The current tower was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 28, 1987; it has the distinction of being the tenth light on the point, in addition to several range lights. Four of the others burned or blew down, two were condemned, two were unsatisfactory, and the remaining one stands unused.
Old Scituate Light also known simply as Scituate Light is a historic lighthouse located on Cedar Point in Scituate, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as Scituate Light.
Eagle Harbor Light is an operational lighthouse at Eagle Harbor, in Keweenaw County in the state of Michigan. It sits on the rocky entrance to Eagle Harbor and is one of several light stations that guide mariners on Lake Superior across the northern edge of the Keweenaw Peninsula. The original lighthouse, built in 1851, was replaced in 1871 by the present red brick structure, which is a Michigan State Historic Site and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Greens Ledge Lighthouse is a historic offshore lighthouse in the western Long Island Sound near Norwalk, Connecticut and Darien, Connecticut. It is one of 33 sparkplug lighthouses still in existence in the United States and remains an active aid to navigation. It sits in ten feet of water on the west end of Greens Ledge, a shallow underwater reef that runs a mile west of Sheffield Island and is roughly a mile south of the entrance to Five Mile River at Rowayton. Completed in 1902 by the Philadelphia Construction Company, the cast-iron structure is approximately 90 feet tall including roughly 15 feet of the submerged caisson. In 1933, more than 30,000 tons of rocks from the excavation of Radio City Music Hall were added to the riprap foundation. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Greens Ledge Lighthouse on May 29, 1990.
Cape Charles Lighthouse is an octagonal cast iron skeleton tower lighthouse at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on Smith Island which was officially removed from service in 2019. It is the tallest lighthouse in Virginia and the second tallest in the United States. This particular tower is the third lighthouse at this location. The first lighthouse at Cape Charles was a 55-foot (17 m) masonry tower completed in 1828. It was quickly deemed inadequate for its important seacoast location due to its low height and poor visibility at sea. It was soon threatened by erosion so in 1864 it was replaced by a 150-foot (46 m) masonry tower built further inland. Located a little more than a mile southwest of the old tower and 600 feet from the shoreline, the impressive 150-foot-tall conical brick tower was similar in appearance to the 1857 Cape May Lighthouse, painted white and topped with a dark brown lantern room. In 1892, a twenty-five-foot red band was painted around the white tower's midsection, about sixty feet up from the base, to make it more visible during the day. By the 1890s, it too was threatened by beach erosion which jetties built to protect it failed to halt, and with the lighthouse now only 300 feet from the ocean and the shoreline eroding at a rate of 37 feet per year it was decided that a third lighthouse needed to be built three quarters of a mile inland.
Barton Stone Alexander was a Union Army lieutenant colonel, engineer regiment commander and chief engineer for the defenses of Washington during the American Civil War. In recognition of his service, in 1866, he was appointed to the brevet rank of brigadier general in the regular army, to rank from March 13, 1865. He was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and served in the United States Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers, which at times was both a part of and separate from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. After graduating from West Point as a second lieutenant in the Class of 1842, he served in the Mexican–American War, building fortifications to protect American supply lines in the advance on Mexico City. After the end of the war, he was stationed in Washington, D.C., where he served as architect for the Scott Building and Quarters Buildings at the U.S. Soldiers' Home and took over the completion of the Smithsonian Institution Building after dissatisfaction with the pace of the first architect caused him to be dismissed.
Minot's Ledge, also known as the Cohasset Rocks, is a reef off the harbor of Cohasset, Massachusetts, 15 miles southeast of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the site of the Minot's Ledge Light, completed in 1860 and considered one of the most significant American engineering achievements of the 19th century. It was constructed by installing pins through tons of granite blocks into the rocks beneath to form the 40-foot base of the tower. The lighthouse is still operating. It is located within the Town of Scituate, in Plymouth County.
Spectacle Reef Light is a lighthouse 11 miles (18 km) east of the Straits of Mackinac and is located at the northern end of Lake Huron, Michigan. It was designed and built by Colonel Orlando Metcalfe Poe and Major Godfrey Weitzel, and was the most expensive lighthouse ever built on the Great Lakes.
Petit Manan Light is a lighthouse on Petit Manan Island, Maine. The island is at the end of a series of ledges extending out from Petit Manan Point, between Dyer Bay and Pigeon Hill Bay, that projects into the Gulf of Maine.
Saddleback Ledge Light is a lighthouse on Saddleback Ledge, an islet lying between Isle au Haut and Vinalhaven, Maine, in the middle of the southeastern entrance to Penobscot Bay. The station was established and the current structure, designed by Alexander Parris, was built in 1839. One of Maine's oldest lighthouses, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Saddleback Ledge Light Station on March 14, 1988.
The Ship Shoal Light is a screw-pile lighthouse located in the Gulf of Mexico southwest of the Isles Dernieres off the coast of Louisiana. It is currently abandoned.
The South Pass Light, also known as the Port Eads LighthouseSouth Point Light, or Gordon's Island Light, are a pair of lighthouses located on Gordon's Island at South Pass, in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana (USA), one of the primary entrances to the Mississippi River Delta from the Gulf of Mexico. The light station was established in 1831 and is still active.
↑ Pletcher, Larry (2017). "Keepers Warned of Danger; No One Listened: Collapse of Minot's Ledge Lighthouse (1851)". Massachusetts Disasters: True Stories of Tragedy and Survival. With additional stories by David J. Krajicek. Guilford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot. pp.13–19. ISBN978-1-4930-2876-4.
↑ U.S. Trademark 60,035,924 Mixed Spiritous Beverages. Williams & Newman, Chicago, Ill. Essential feature—The pictoral representation of a lighthouse scene. Used since January, 1899. (filed January 15, 1900) (published February 19, 1901)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
![Commons to Wikidata QuickStatements.svg](./Https://quickstatements.toolforge.org/#/v1=Q6869325|P31|Q39715||Q6869325|P625|@42.26971/-70.75914|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P571|+1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/9|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P729|+1860-00-00T00:00:00Z/9|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P730|+1851-00-00T00:00:00Z/9|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P793|Q24410992|P585|+1947-00-00T00:00:00Z/9|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P2048|87U11573|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P2923|85U11573|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P2929|10_nmiU93318|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P1030|"[[File:Minots_Ledge_Light.gif|25px]]<br>_Flashing_white_(1+4+3)_45s"|S143|Q328||Q6869325|P18|"Minot_light.gif"|S143|Q328|P2096|en:"Minots_Light_in_a_storm"){kind=small}
