There is little more romantic and tragic as the life of a lighthouse keeper. It was a lonely isolated business that involved long hours with nothing more than the pounding of water on the rocks and cries of seagulls for company. In that very isolation, a sort of cabin fever syndrome could create some pretty tragic outcomes. Let's have a look at the life of a lighthouse keeper of the past.
NEW LONDON LEDGE LIGHTHOUSE
New London Ledge Lighthouse in Connecticut was established in 1909 and designed to fit in with the homes on shore so residents wouldn't have to look out an out of place building offshore. The legends built around the active haunting in the building involved a man named Ernie who supposedly slit his throat at the top of the lighthouse and his body fell to the sea below, never to be found. To this day, Coast Guard staff have reported odd happenings in there, attributing it to Ernie.
Boston Light, Massachusetts
The Boston Light, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts was the first lighthouse in the New World. At first, in the 1600s, locals lit fire on the land there, but in 1715, a lighthouse was erected.
The daughter of the first lighthouse keeper stood on shore waiting for her father to take a canoe out to a ship and bring family and friends ashore, when it capsized and she watched them all drown. The next lighthouse keeper drowned within days of taking on the job. The lighthouse saw much damage during the Revolutionary War and rebuilding.
Bird Rock Lighthouse,
Crooked Island, Bahamas
Crooked Island, Bahamas
Built in 1876, the Bird Rock Lighthouse in the Bahamas was a gorgeous design for its time. In the late 1800s, two lighthouse keepers were assigned and they coincidentally were married to childhood best friends. The two couples embarked from England to the Bahamas to begin their stint. They found out that, because of the rocks around the island and its precarious situation, supplies could only be brought to them twice a year.
The excited couples arrived, finding a woman in a wheelchair, the widow of the lighthouse keeper who was struck by lightning, and a man hobbling about, a lighthousekeeper who had rheumatism. The third person that was there was a woman who was exhausted, having to take care of the other two nonstop for months and months on end.
At first, they lived in contentment, fishing, killing birds for food and the women attempted gardening and fixed up their lighthouse home. Over time, however, it became very monotonous. At one point, on exploring the store rooms, they found a coffin with weights. It had a message that if someone should die while on the island, to put them in the weighted coffin and drop them to sea.
At the six-month point, supplies came with magazines and fresh foods and everyone perked up again.
Then, one wife became sick and, even with medicines and instructions, her husband could not save her. They had to lower her coffin to the sea. The widower became quiet and stoic and, over time, the other couple worried about him.
At one point, the only woman left decided to toss the flowers from the flower box into the sea where her friend had been lowered. The widower went into hysterics because the woman had a premonition dream when they found the coffin that one of the women would be in it. She had caused it - he threatened!
The couple had to hide away the firearms and stay ever vigilant as the widower now had a knife he constantly sharpened.
At night, the widower pounded on the couple's door, ranted and raved. At times, the husband considered shooting the widower just so they could have peace and safety.
One day, after a few days of quiet, the husband saw the widower sitting on a rock out on the island where they had lowered the man's wife to the sea. He decided to take a chance and light the beacon. He had his wife lock the door after he left the room and raced up the tower.
Not too long after the husband left, the wife became anxious. She grabbed up a gun and started up the spiral staircase for her husband.
Unfortunately, as she reached the top, the widower had been lying in wait and had pounced on her husband, a struggle ensuing. Pregnant and awkward, she raced to try and help, pointing the gun, but the men were wrestling and they went over the railing to the dark sea below.
The wife fainted to the floor. When she came-to and realized what had happened, she looked over the railing, considering jumping and joining them, but she could hear her husband's voice in her mind telling her to live for their child.
She spent lonely and depressed days after that, alone on the island.
As the wife went into labor all alone, unable to light the light for the ships, a ship crashed. One man managed to pull himself out to the rocks below.
He scrambled through the lighthouse, thinking he was alone until he found the wife and baby in bed, the wife's face pale, and she was unresponsive. He shook her awake and she said she didn't want to live, but he told her she had a child to live for. The man had lost his wife in childbirth and memories flooded him.
The wife and baby strengthened as the man took care of them and a relief ship came, taking them back to England and the couple married.
This is a wonderfully romantic tale that was published in a small publication long ago.
- Movies with lighthouses -
Half Light
Rachel Carlson, a successful novelist moves to a small Scottish village to move on with her life after the death of her son. Strange things start to happen when she is haunted by ghosts and real life terror.
The Fog
Legend says that Antonio Bay was built in 1880 with blood money obtained from shipwrecked lepers but no one believes it. On the eve of the town's centennial many plan to attend the celebrations, including the murdered lepers.
The Phantom Light
A lighthouse keeper has been murdered in mysterious circumstances and, during the ensuing investigation a Phantom Light keeps appearing at the scene of his death.
The Lighthouse Keepers
The Lighthouse Keepers is a silent, black and white short, shot as a 1920s style horror melodrama. It tells the dramatic story of a pair of lighthouse keepers, a father and son, who meet a sorry fate in isolation, while carrying out their duty. The Lighthouse Keepers was filmed on location in an historic lighthouse on a dramatically placed Northern Irish island. Using silent film techniques the story unfolds with minimal dialogue and makes use of expression, music, and inter titles to tell the story. The high drama of the situation lends itself well to this means of filming and the melodrama leaves space for innovative use of the live music and sound effects accompaniment that is central to live screenings of the film.
The Ring
A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it.
Shutter Island
A U.S Marshal investigates the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane.
The Light at the Edge of the World
Pirates take over a lighthouse on a rocky island. They then execute a devious plan to cause ships to run aground, pillaging their wrecks. A lone member of the lighthouse crew survives, and he deperately fights their plot. A shipwrecked maiden that avoids the pirates slaughter soon complicates the situation.
Lighthouse
A prison ship on its way to a remote island prison runs aground on rocks and sinks. Mixed survivors of cons and prison guards struggle ashore, only to discover to their horror that another survivor has made it ashore before them. Murderous psychotic, Leo Rook, who not only had a hand in the ship's sinking but has decapitated all but one of the island's lighthouse crew. Stranded, with no means of escape or call for help, the survivors must face a night of terror as they know that since they've learned that Leo survived going down with the ship he can't let any of them live and is hellbent on adding their severed heads to his collection.
South Solitary
Set in 1928, Meredith is a 35 year-old unmarried woman who arrives at a remote lighthouse island with her uncle, the new head keeper.
**Tomorrow's Post is "Sea Monsters"**
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