De Wire - The lightkeepers menagerie: stories of animals at lighthouses

The Lightkeepers Menagerie

Dear Lord, on this Christmas Day, we are far from the mainstream of life, down here at a lonely lighthouse on the coast of Maine, but we are happy here, and happy that you are around us. We havent a stable of animals, such as He was born in, but we have a good dog, Bosun, that helps me light up and put out; a parrot, Bill, that was given us by our good friends; Mother Cat, who keeps us free of mice; and Bess, our good mare who lives in the Barn with Mother Cat. We thank you for all that we have this day.

Amen.

Christmas Prayer of Lightkeeper Zebediah Strout

Portland Head Lighthouse, Maine

Circa 1910

Lightkeeper P. N. Christiansen and his wife and collie at Mukilteo Lighthouse about 1912. (Art Losvar)

The Lightkeepers Menagerie

Stories of Animals at Lighthouses

Elinor De Wire

Pineapple Press, Inc.

Sarasota, Florida

Dedicated to my four-footed office helper, Lighthouse Kitty

Copyright 2007 by Elinor De Wire

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Inquiries should be addressed to:

Pineapple Press, Inc.

P.O. Box 3889

Sarasota, Florida 34230

www.pineapplepress.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

De Wire, Elinor, 1953

The lightkeepers menagerie : stories of animals at lighthouses / Elinor De Wire.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-56164-390-5 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-56164-391-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Lighthouses. I. Title.

VK1013.D48 2007

387.580973--dc22

2006035254

First Edition

Hb: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Pb: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Design by Sh Hicks

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the following people, organizations, and institutions for information, assistance, and photos: Dr. Robert Browning and the staff of the Coast Guard Archives; Capt. Gene Davis of the Coast Guard Museum Northwest; Colin McKenzie of the Nautical Research Center; Charles at National Archives Record Group 26; the National Park Service; the World Lighthouse Society; Leading Lights; Lighthouses of Australia, Inc.; Great Lakes Lightkeepers Association; Hawaii Maritime Center; the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society; Jeff Gales, Melissa Eck, and Dolores Thacher of the U.S. Lighthouse Society; Tim Harrison, Kathy Finnegan, Dee Leveille, and Bob Trapani of the American Lighthouse Foundation; U.S. Coast Guard Lightship Sailors; the Florida State Archives; the Library & Archives of Canada; the Lighthouse Company of South Africa; Rip Erwin and Chris Mills of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society; and the Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary. My thanks also go to Michel Forand, Klaus Huelse, Jeremy DEntremont, Angeli Perow, Fred Stone, Judy Orcutt, Jeano Campanaro, Barb Kachel, Charlotte Johnson, Chris Owens, Charles Nicklin, Marise Sykes, Jan Norwine, Pat Morris, Don Terras, Donna Shinney, the late Jack Eckert, Jim Crowley, Dennis Dever, Sally Snowman, Ron Drummond, Doug Bingham, Ralph Shanks, Sandy Clunies, the late Ken Black, Jim Gibbs, Sandra Shanklin, Dorothy Snow-Bicknell, John & Karyn Terry, the late Connie Snow, Bruce Robie, Nadine Tugel, Geene Miller, Ginny Rorby, Gaylyn Bradley, the late Harold Jennings, Kathy Fleming, the late Tom Taylor, Guy Towers, Manfred Leiter, Jim Bergquist, Carol Ericsson, Bob Muller, the late Ted Pedersen, the late Love Dean, Phyllis Steeves, I. C. R. Prasad, Dolores Reyes-Pergioudakis, Richard DeAngelis, Jean Guichard, Richard Dodds, the late Donald Graham, Carol ONeill, Alan Martin-Buss, Lois Melville, Ila Albee Lee, John Fasulo, Stephen Jones, Shirin Pagels, Norman McCanch, Cheryl Baduini, Barbara Kezer, Albert Glausiuss, Dennis Wasko, Robert Reed, Barnaby Madgett, the late Andrew Staab, Dennis Rose, Andy Lightfoot, William Tinsley, Hib Casselberry, Denise Wilks, Grace Gimena. Ellen Henry, Herb VonGoerres, John Mobbs, Mike Sullivan, Eduardo Furtado, Betty Gallant, Diane Gardetto. I am grateful to David and June Cussen, Helena Berg, Sh Heaton, and the rest of the staff of Pineapple Press for their continued interest in my work and their cheerful help during the production of this book. As always, I send my love and appreciation to my husband Jonathan and to our kidsJessica, Scott, Kristin, and Rebeccafor their continued support.

Elinor De Wire

Seabeck, Washington

2007

Prologue

Lighthouse Tails

Caesar, the friendly pet of the site manager at Tibbetts Point Lighthouse Hostel in the late 1980s, was a one-dog publicity show. He posed proudly in front of his lighthouse. (Elinor De Wire)

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.

Samuel Butler

T ibbetts Point Lighthouse stands watch at Cape Vincent, New York, casting its lustrous beams over the slate-gray waters of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Seaway, the major artery from the Atlantic Ocean to the busy shipping lanes of the Great Lakes. At 58 feet tall, its not a particularly majestic structure; no singular architectural feature sets it apart from its sister sentries. The cylindrical tower is clean and simple, a completely functional building absent of ornament and unfettered by the showpiece celebrity of other, more famous lighthouses. One thing Tibbetts Point Light does share with all lighthouses is purpose. Its beacon and fog signal provide direction and ensure safety for the many vessels that pass it each day, everything from small recreational boats to huge tankers and bulk carriers. The light has shone over American and Canadian waters for more than 175 yearsan impressive 5,300 nightsthrough driving snow and pea-soup fog, under a canopy of brooding clouds or a vault of flickering stars, in the best of times and the worst of times. Its a wholly humanitarian edifice, and for the people of the sleepy town of Cape Vincent, its the village icon. The stations one superlative is its fourth-order classical optic, an aggregate of shimmering prisms and brass that bills itself as the only original Fresnel lens operating on Lake Ontario. In this high-tech age of satellite navigation, ships entering and exiting the seaway still take comfort in the lighthouses guiding rays and the groan of its ancient foghorn. However, Tibbetts Point Light is anything but archaic. In addition to its continued work as a navigational aid, it doubles as a low-cost hostel for travelers. I visited the station in 1989 on my way to a week-long vacation at a fish camp in Canada. It was a hot July day as I turned southwest from the small village of Cape Vincent, population seven hundred, onto rural Tibbetts Point Road. The air was hazy and stagnant over upstate New York, but the lake had exhaled a fresh, moist breath over the point. Grasshoppers buzzed from the ditches on either side of the road, and heat mirages danced over the macadam in the distance. I turned off the cars air conditioner, wound down all the windows, and drew the fresh odor of lake water into my lungs. As I pulled into the lighthouse compound and parked, a handsome red dog came bounding down the driveway to greet me. Hello there! I called to this effusive tail-wagging welcome committee. Before I could open my door and properly introduce myself, he leaped into my car through an open window and sat down on the seat beside me, drooling and panting, as if to say: Im so happy to see you! His tongue lolled a good six inches over his jaw, and a shaggy red tail thumped wildly on the seat. He placed one paw on my right thigh and planted a slobbery dog kiss on my cheek.