* Rhode Island
Philatelic Exhibition 27 (RIPEX)
(The History of the
Beavertail Light is follows below the personal story)
BIG SCARE OFF BEAVERTAIL
This cover brings back a lot of
memories. My father and I fished off the Beavertail rocks for
Tautog
(Blackfish) on many occasions and we also used to watch the America
Cup Races from Beavertail. My most enduring memory and a day I'll
never forget happened on a day late in October of 1959. We were
fishing off the point in my father's 18 foot lapstrake boat.
(The big codfish came in close during the
winter months.)
We had missed seeing the whole gale flag
(that was flying)
on our way out.
The wind really started to blow
hard and we decided to head in, but our old 60 horse Evenrude wouldn't
start and the wind kept getting stronger. Our anchor wasn't holding
and the wind was blowing us towards the rocks on Beavertail where the
surf was breaking about 15 to 20 feet up.
(Not a good feeling, I can tell you)
My father jumped up over the
windshield and tried to snug down the anchor, letting some more line
out in an attempt to get it to hold. (Neither
of us wanted to end up on those rocks.)
In the meantime I was fiddling
with the motor and I popped the cap on the gas tank and then replaced
it. Low and Behold - the old engine started right up; evidently the
fuel-line had gotten a vapor lock in it. Well, we beat back up the bay
and it took us over two hours in those heavy seas.
(It only took twenty-five minutes coming out.)
When we got back into the
landing at Wickford Harbor, I happened to look down at my father's
trousers and noticed that one of his pant legs was all red. He had a
hole in his thigh that must have been close to a half inch in
diameter. When he had jumped up onto the bow to try and get our anchor
to hold, he had put the cleat right through his leg and we were both
so pumped up with adrenalin that neither of us noticed until after we
were back in port and feeling safe again.
HISTORY OF BEAVERTAIL LIGHT
Beavertail Light is located on
Jamestown (Conanicut)
Island and was first established in
1749. It was the third officially sanctioned light established in the
American Colonies.
As a result of the hostilities
in Europe, the Town Council felt compelled in 1695 after the beginning
of Queen Anne's War,
to order "that there shall be a
chimney built to the watch house by the Indians belonging to this town
of Beavertail..."; and in 1712
the council proposed building a beacon. A warrant was granted
to Benedict Arnold
(Not the same Arnold of Infamy)
to look after the watch and see that it was faithfully kept.
This beacon, if used to direct
vessels, could be considered to have been the first lighthouse on the
continent. The Commerce Department, however, gives this honor to the
Little Brewster Island Light
in Boston Harbor.
The colony's leadership in 1738
proposed replacing this watch house with a formal lighthouse. The
watch house was believed to have had a stone platform upon which a
fire was maintained as a beacon. The original structure was destroyed
by the British during the Revolutionary War.
In 1838 the new light stood 98
feet above sea level and had a distance visibility of nearly 16
nautical miles. Maintenance of this lighthouse suffered under the
hands of inexperienced keepers and it was eventually destroyed by fire
in 1854.
The present structure, the third
at the site, is a square granite tower connected to a white painted
brick dwelling. The light, group stands 64 feet above sea level with a
distance visibility of fourteen nautical miles. The beacon was
automated in 1972 as part of a program which essentially ended the
profession of lighthouse keepers in the United States. The last Keeper
at Beavertail Light was Dominic
Turillo.
In 1989 the Beavertail
Lighthouse Museum was opened to the public.
Links:
Beavertail
Lighthouse Museum Association
Beavertail State Park
Jamestown and Newport Ferry Company
Jamestown, RI
Visitor Information
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