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Lighthouse Explorer Database ... Boon Island Light

05/16/05 6:29 AM




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Name: Boon Island Light

Also known as: Boone Island Light

Nearest Town or City:
York, Maine, United States

Location: About nine miles off the coast of York.


Click to enlarge: 39Kb   
Photo: Jeremy D'Entremont
Related Photos

Managing Organization:
American Lighthouse Foundation

Telephone: 207-646-0245

Website: http://www.lighthousefoundation.org

Contact Address Information:
P.O. Box 889
Wells
Maine, 04090, United States

Notes:
Considered one of the most remote and lonely lighthouse stations in New England. A British ship, the Nottingham Galley, was wrecked at Boon Island in 1710; the shipwreck story became the basis of a novel by Kenneth Roberts called "Boon Island." The lighthouse was leased by the Coast Guard to the American Lighthouse Foundation in 2000.

Tower Height: 133

Height of Focal Plane: 137

Characteristic and Range: Flashing white every 5 seconds, visible for 19 nautical miles.

Description of Tower: Cylindrical granite tower.

This light is operational

Other Buildings?
Storage building.

Earlier Towers?
1799: wooden tower; 1805: stone tower; 1811: new tower, 32 feet above water; 1832: new tower.

Date Established: 1799

Date Present Tower Built: 1852-54 (activated 1/1/1855)

Date Automated: 1980

Optics: 1855: Second order Fresnel lens; 1993: solar powered VEGA VRB-25. Original Fresnel lens is now on display at the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum, Rogers Road, (207) 439-3080.

Fog Signal: 1890: Hand-rung fog bell on roof of oil house; now automated fog horn with one blast every 10 seconds. A fog bell from Boon Island is now at the South Shore Baptist Church in Hingham, Massachusetts.

Current Use: Active aid to navigation.

Open To Public? No.

Directions:
Can be seen distantly from Cape Neddick and Long Sands Beach in York. The Isles of Shoals Steamship Co. in Portsmouth, NH, offers occasional lighthouse cruises with views of Boon Island Light. Call (800) 441-4620 or (603) 431-5500 for information. The Friends of Flying Santa, based in Massachusetts, may offer occasional cruises past Boon Island; see www.flyingsanta.org for information.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Keepers: David Oliver (c. 1811); Thomas Hanna (c. 1811-1816); Eliphalet Grover (1816-1839); Mark Dennet (1840-1841); John Thompson (1841-1843); Morgan Trafton (1842, assistant keeper, lost in boating accident); John Kennard (1843-1846); Nathaniel Baker (1849); John Thompson (1846-1849); Hiram Tobey (1853); Caleb S. Gould (1853-1854); George Bowden (1854-1855); Josiah Tobey Jr. (assistant, 1855); Samuel S. Tobey (assistant, 1856); Christopher Littlefield (1854); Sam Philbrick (1854); Charles H. Tobey (assistant 1850, keeper1856); Charles E. Thompson (1858); John S. Baker (assistant, 1858); Nathaniel Baker (1859); William L. Baker (assistant, 1859); Cabin (?) Gray (1861); George B. Wallace (June 1861-1866); Benjamin Bridges (1861); George E. Bridges (1864); Richard C. Yeaton (1864); Charles Ramsdell (assistant 1865); Joshua K. Card (1867-1874); George H. Yeaton (assistant 1867); Samuel Meloon (assistant, 1868); Nathan White Jr. (assistant 1870); Alfred J. Leavitt (1874-1886?); Leander White (1st assistant, 1874); Edwin J. Hobbs (assistant, 1874-1876); David R. Grogan (assistant, 1876, keeper 1879); George O. Leavitt (assistant, 1878); Walter S. Amee (Ames?) (2nd assistant, 1878); John Kennard (1884); William C. Williams (1st assistant 1885, then keeper 1885-1911); James Burke (2nd assistant, 1886-1887, 1st assistant 1887-1890); Orrin M. Lamprey (1886); Meshach M. Seaward (2nd assistant, 1886-1900); Leonidas H. Sawyer (2nd assistant, 1889. keeper 1889); Charles W. Allen (2nd assistant, 1907-1911, first assistant 1911-?); Mitchell Blackwood (c. 1911); Harold Hutchins (c. 1923-1933); Fred C. Batty (assistant, c. early 1930s); Clinton Dalzell (assistant c. 1934); George Woodward (assistant?, c. 1920s); C. A. Tracy (c. 1935); Hoyt P. Smith (c. 1935); E. Stockbridge, assistant (c. 1935); Charles U. Gardner (Coast Guard relief keeper, c, 1942-1943); John H. Morris (Coast Guard, c. 1945); Ted Guice (Coast Guard assistant, c. 1945); Kendrick Capon (Coast Guard, c. 1950s); Harold L. Roberts (Coast Guard, 1956); "Moon" Mullens (Coast Guard, c.1956); Charles Allen (1st assistant, c. 1957, served 6 years); Robert Brann (c. 1958); Dave Wells (Coast Guard, 1966); August "Gus" Pfister (Coast Guard, 1967-1968); Bob Roberts (Coast Guard, 1970s);

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