September 30, 2024 • 33 mins
Best known for it's annual Christmas lighting ceremony, Cape Neddick Light, or Nubble Lighthouse, sits out of reach of visitors on a tiny island in Maine. Although it can't be visited now, Nubble Light has a rich history of tourism, including by the cat Sambo Tonkus (amazing name!).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi everyone, I'm Emily.
(00:01):
And I'm Vince.
And this is the Lighthouse Lowdown.
["The Lighthouse Lowdown Theme"]
Well hello.
Hello.
Hello.
It's my birthday yesterday, so.
Happy belated.
Yeah, we've got recording on a Friday,
we're gonna celebrate tomorrow, some fun stuff.
(00:22):
That's right.
Kick Vince's butt.
Yeah, I just blew all the secrets of what we're gonna do.
Yeah, well I need blown secrets.
I'm one of those people who needs to mentally prepare
for an outing, especially if there's other people involved.
Well it's gonna be great.
With you, I feel like I can handle whatever.
I'm like, oh, I don't know, you make me feel safe.
(00:42):
Well you're safe.
Like a lighthouse.
Lighthouses are not safe.
Always under financial turmoil.
I am like a lighthouse.
Inside you're pretty safe, but the lighthouse themselves
is not safe from anything in particular.
Tall, I'm like a lighthouse.
Yeah.
Hey, I made that joke on my Instagram.
Bright.
Okay.
Like a lighthouse.
Right?
(01:03):
Bright.
Oh.
Luminous.
Anyways.
The history buoy today kind of works into our episode
and its event.
It's called The Wreck of the Isador.
The what?
The wreck of the Isador.
The Isador?
That's what I'm saying, what's the last word?
Isador.
Isador, all right, let's hear it.
(01:24):
It leads into the lighthouse that we're covering today,
which everybody else knows because they clicked
on the title, but you don't.
That's right, I'm unaware.
Vince and I found out the other day that people thought
that he knew everything before we started recording
and just feigned surprise.
Yeah, like I'm acting the whole time.
Just acting like a dumb ass.
Just wow, I didn't know that.
(01:45):
Yeah, we do this with honor.
There's no knowing.
Sometimes he sees quickly a photo that passes across
the screen, but it's usually when I'm starting
the episode on accident.
Usually I find out when you find out.
Okay, so I'll start the episode.
So we're going all the way to other oetepa.
(02:07):
I'm sorry, what?
Other oetepa?
We are going.
Who's at the bar?
Almost to the most southern point of Maine.
So like almost into whatever state's below Maine.
I think we should do an episode on geography of lighthouses.
(02:28):
We really ought to do something.
Mostly covering the regions and what states are in them.
I genuinely have no idea what's below Maine.
Is it Delaware?
Is it New Jersey?
I see.
No, no, no, I think you're right.
It's New Hampshire.
New Hampshire.
I got half of it right.
What did I say?
The word new.
What did I say?
Delaware.
Okay.
(02:49):
Yeah.
That's not close.
You know what?
That's fine.
Nobody's asking me to be good at geography.
They're just asking me to deliver facts about lighthouses,
which I will do today.
Let's do it.
Throw down.
Okay, wow.
So down there in Maine, close to New Hampshire.
Yeah, I forgot already.
(03:10):
There's Cape Nettic.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Nope.
Okay, excellent.
There's a tiny rocky island,
which by the way is called a nubble.
Does that sound familiar?
No, I like the word though.
Okay, good.
Is there a nubble light?
At the end of the game,
but it's like less than a hundred yards away,
(03:30):
like less than a football field.
Like a nubble out there.
Of space.
It's just a little nubble.
So that's kind of the location of this wreck
that we're gonna talk about, the Isador,
which I think is how it's pronounced.
I list-
Isador.
Oh, I listened to a couple different pronunciations
(03:52):
and they were all different.
So I'm just gonna go with Isador.
Isador.
That's what I-
Do you think like Spanish?
I think so, yeah.
Okay.
This wreck of the Isador is a legend of Cape Nettic
and was why the lighthouse that we're covering today
was built in the first place, because of this wreck.
So November 1842, the Three-Masted Bark,
which is just a sailing ship.
(04:15):
I like that word bark when referring to ships.
Here's a depiction of the wreck.
It's not doing too well during this depiction.
It's in the name, so you know it doesn't survive.
I was setting sail on her maiden voyage
and got into a snowstorm.
We got into like gale force winds and wrecked,
(04:35):
which at the time they said that this storm was the worst
that anyone had seen in Maine.
So it's definitely a big deal.
The ship wrecked on the rocky baldhead cliffs in,
I think it's just north of Cape Nettic,
is where they actually wrecked,
like where this drawing is depicting.
And all 14 crew members on the ship passed away
(04:56):
because of this wreck. Oh my gosh, rip.
The reason why this is a legend
is because of some spooky circumstances
surrounding this wreck.
So we're gonna talk about those.
Okay.
A couple days before they were supposed to set sail,
a crew member, his name is Thomas King,
had a dream of a wrecked ship that resembled the Isidor
and her crew bodies washing ashore.
(05:19):
Man, that's rough.
So obviously he was totally freaked out
and pleaded with the captain
that they don't go ahead with their trip,
which was to deliver a cargo load to New Orleans
and then head to France after that.
Oh, interesting. Okay.
So the problem was Thomas King was paid a month's wage
in advance of this trip.
And so the captain was like,
there's gonna be some serious consequences
(05:40):
if you try to back out.
He's like, I've already spent it on gambling.
Yeah. What are you talking about?
He's like, I know you don't have the money to pay that back.
And so the captain was like,
we're still gonna set sail and you gotta go.
And then the night before the trip,
another crew member dreamt of seven coffins on the shore
with his own body in one of them.
And so he went to the captain and asked that they not sail,
(06:03):
but of course they're going to anyway.
Right.
But this is a time where I feel like superstition
and things would be more widely listened to.
Oh yeah.
Like if I had a crazy dream in my workplace,
I wouldn't, huh?
They thought mermaids are real.
Yeah. Yeah.
I don't know if that's true.
I just said it.
No, I think that's right.
And there's, well, no, maybe not.
(06:24):
I said it.
Depends on who you ask, but yeah.
Anyway, he was also ignored.
But this second instance of a dream
was enough to scare King off.
And he hid in the town as the ship was setting off.
Yeah.
As they left, this is when the wind picked up
(06:45):
and it started to snow leading to 20 foot waves
and the gale force winds that I was mentioning.
Obviously hard to survive a storm like that in these times.
What year we're talking?
1842.
Big storm.
Not too crazy long ago, but.
Well, a long time.
Enough.
In shipping technology.
(07:06):
Yeah.
So the next morning, the wreckage was spread
all across Cape Nettic Island
with only seven of the crew members washing ashore.
The rest lost the sea.
And one of these seven was the guy who had the dream.
Man. I know.
The dream became true.
Yeah.
The dream was like a premonition of the future.
Oh my gosh.
So kind of crazy.
Since that Thanksgiving night,
(07:27):
the East Sodor has been spotted as a phantom ship
near Boone Island and Avery Cove,
even by people who don't know the story of her wreck.
That's cool.
The Phantom Three sails.
Yeah.
It's pretty interesting.
I would like to see a phantom ship.
There's even stories of like people who are out fishing
and they see this ship like wrecked and they go to see it.
(07:48):
And as they get closer, it disappears.
That's cool.
Spooky.
That is spooky.
Cause it's spooky time of year.
Spooky.
Yeah. I guess we have Halloween and a little over a month.
Oh.
Sorry.
I'm gonna turn those down.
But it is interesting that it's like, it's a legend,
but it's also based on just straight up fact.
Yeah.
There's nothing.
1840s.
(08:08):
Yeah.
So after this wreck,
public outcry led to the idea for a lighthouse
on that island, but it wasn't until 1879
that the plans were underway.
And apparently it's because there was multiple,
I don't know how this works,
but there was multiple owners of the lighthouse,
of the island.
And one of them, or like a couple of them,
wanted to build a hotel on the island.
(08:29):
Interesting.
There was like this big, long drawn out battle
for like five years of trying to purchase.
I think the island was purchased for like $1,500
or something at that time, which was a lot.
So Cape Nettic Lighthouse,
affectionately called Nubble Light or Cape Neck by locals,
was built on this little island in 1879.
(08:51):
It took a little while.
Yeah. A long time.
It's almost, I mean-
Can you imagine like a really bad thing that happens?
Yeah.
And then 30 years go by-
Oh my gosh.
Before the solution is built.
The people who were probably pushing for it
didn't even live that to see the rest of it.
So here we go.
Pulled up a picture.
Classy.
(09:11):
Yeah.
I like it.
We love a red light.
So a 41 foot conical tower was built
of cast iron sections lined on the inside with red brick.
So it was just, you know, metal sheath.
And this looks very familiar.
East Coast Lighthouses.
Yes. This is like a lot of what we saw in Cape Cod.
That's right.
That's a lot like Nosset Light
and Nobska Lighthouse is very similar to this.
(09:38):
It had a 32 step cast iron spiral stairway
leading to the watch room with a ship's ladder
leading to the lantern room.
And this is pretty cool.
The gallery is surrounded by a metal railing
that has four inch lighthouse shaped,
what is it called? Finneals?
I don't know, but that's cool.
Finneals?
I have a picture.
The little ornate hand rail tops.
Yeah, like if you think of like a fence
(09:59):
and a fancy neighborhood, they have like a point.
Fix the newel post.
Yeah, newel post, but.
Not for stairs.
Yeah.
Wow. Cool.
Oh my gosh.
They've got a little hex nut on the bottom.
Hex nut.
You can like thread them on and off maybe.
Somebody said it's a replica of the lighthouse,
but I think it's just a little,
I think it's just like a very classic lighthouse depiction.
(10:20):
That's very particular whoever did that.
I know.
And it's like, you see all these brick lines and everything.
Yeah.
And they're still there.
Cool.
And they're still there.
So just fun to see the little accents,
even though they could make, of course, make it cheaper
by not adding cute little details.
No one's going to see those except for the keeper.
Yeah.
(10:40):
Especially now you can't even like get out there.
Pretty sure it's.
Oh, the island.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I didn't look.
Cause I think, I really don't think you're allowed
to step foot on the island unless you're like invited
or something.
How far out is it?
Less than a hundred yards.
Hmm.
Kayakable.
Like a soup.
Yeah, exactly.
Like a super low tide.
(11:00):
There's like a bed, like a rock bed
that you could walk across,
but it's the island itself is very rocky, like tall.
Hard to climb up.
Edges.
Yeah. It's not like walking onto a sandy beach or something.
It's all rock.
I can't believe the ship wrecked that close to shore.
Yeah.
Right as they were leaving, they're like, oh no.
The wind just kind of forced them back over.
(11:23):
That's terrible.
Yeah.
So the fixed red fourth order Fresnel lens,
see how that was hard for me to see.
That's a lot.
Was lit July 1st, 1879.
We love a red lens.
The tower was white, later painted a reddish brown
and then returned to white in 1899.
(11:44):
So it's been white for basically its entire lifetime.
So if you look at pictures of the island, let me go back.
So if you look at the island,
there's several different little buildings here.
We got it, the tower, which is connected
to the keepers house by an enclosed walkway,
which was added in 1911,
because obviously it gets pretty cold here
and you might as well be protected.
(12:06):
And you can kind of see this picture of the rocky edge too.
You can't really make it up.
It's pretty rock.
To the island.
Yeah.
I know we're the golden hour in this photo.
Yeah, true.
It's crazy to see the tunnel.
It's not the tunnel.
What is that called?
The walkway?
Yeah.
I know that's a recurring theme for lighthouses
and keepers houses.
Yeah.
And it's crazy to think how bad the weather must get
(12:28):
to where someone decides, you know what?
We need to build an enclosure for me to stay inside.
I just think that's a lot of effort.
Especially because it's never that far from the house.
But if you think about you having to run the foghorn
or for an example,
I don't know if I have a picture of it later,
this lighthouse used to have another walkway
on the other side that led to the foghorn.
(12:49):
So you'd never have to go outside in the weather.
It's like an engineering school or building.
Yeah.
Never just want us to see the sun.
Or all just pale.
Yeah, it's funny.
I was thinking about Triangle Island light.
I can't forget.
That was one of my early episodes that I covered.
Yeah.
There was stories of the storms being so crazy out there
(13:09):
and that's off the coast of Victoria Island, west coast.
But the men that were going between the buildings
were they had like cables they had run.
So they would crawl on the ground
and like belly across the ground using the cable
because otherwise they'd get lost
in the rain and wind and everything.
That's terrifying.
Couldn't hear each other at all.
(13:30):
So.
Yeah, because it was really high up, wasn't it?
Yes, that was a particularly bad spot
to build a lighthouse.
For those guys.
That was one where the roof blew off
on one of the structures.
So anyways, back to this episode.
It's nice to see those walkways, but it's curious.
It's interesting to me how they're all over the place.
Yeah, it was definitely like something
that's adopted later on over time.
(13:52):
You're like, why would I force the keepers
to go outside several times a day
when you know the weather's never very good?
There's a modern version of this still in use
in manufacturing spaces that I know about from work.
I cannot say where this is at
due to non-disclosure information,
(14:14):
but there are enclosed walkways,
even in manufacturing facilities today
where men and women are using like hand carts
to move materials because they cannot be exposed
to the outside.
Oh.
The materials themselves,
whether they can't be seen by the outside
or because of the rain.
(14:35):
So there's still like modern versions
of these little walkways being built.
Above ground too, kind of cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, I like it.
I always like to see it because it just is showing care
for the people.
Like you just care about the people who are working here.
So you're like, yeah, you might as well
just add a little walkway.
So we've also got a bright red oil house,
(14:56):
which was built in 1902.
And we also have a storage building and a boat house.
And in the past, there was a perimeter structure
with a fog bell inside.
It started off as like a skeletal A-frame sort of thing
with the bell exposed.
Then it moved on to an enclosed white tower
that was removed in 1961.
So they're not in current photos,
but I have one, an old one.
(15:19):
Interesting.
Wonder why they, oh, that's cool.
It adds to the whole architecture.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Oh yeah, there's that walkway you mentioned.
So there's the bell looks like hanging up on the right side.
For those of you not watching online,
we see the house on the left,
the lighthouse in the center,
and then on the right, this pyramidal,
pyramidal?
(15:39):
Perimidal.
Perimidal.
I don't know.
That's how I would say it.
Fog bell structure.
Pretty cool.
Yeah, brick painted white.
It's very nice.
Cool photo.
I didn't look into why it was removed.
I think it was damaged and then removed.
So, but I don't know.
It's a unique shape.
So I can imagine it'd be difficult to repair.
I've seen a couple of them though.
(16:01):
I don't know if maybe it was more resilient
when it's shaped like that.
Someone's in there smacking on a bell then.
With a hammer.
They get some automated striking mechanisms and stuff.
This bell would strike every 15 seconds in foggy weather.
There was, I wish I remember.
They deserve for me to remember,
(16:22):
but there was a storm recently we talked about.
In Maine.
In Maine.
Where a fog house, well, a fog bell house was damaged.
And I had a similar.
A pentequin point, I think.
Yeah, it was kind of similar.
It wasn't the same shape, I don't think,
but the way the bell was mounted,
where it's exposed and it had some,
(16:43):
some cover on one side for the machinery or for the people.
Kind of cool.
I assume again, that's a recurring thing.
Yeah, Pemmick Wood Point.
They also had a little pyramid.
Oh, they did.
Yeah.
Look at me.
I'll pull it up.
Memory.
Memory.
A little smaller.
So pretty, pretty common shape.
(17:04):
Although this one was connected to an actual building,
but I guess ours had a walkway,
so you didn't really need a building.
I'd be interested.
Maybe we'll put together an episode
and take some time to research on
just kind of some general themes of lighthouse architecture.
Yeah, things you see reoccurring all the time.
I don't know if I already mentioned it,
but I've done some research on,
(17:24):
I think I mentioned it in one of the episodes,
different themes for lighthouse, keepers houses.
But there's lots of information out there.
I like looking at this keepers cottage
because it looks like a gingerbread house.
It does.
What's it called?
The little texture that's under the roof line.
I don't know.
I would just call it a trim,
but I'm sure it's a style.
(17:46):
Gothic.
Yeah.
Something.
I haven't seen something like that before,
so it's kind of fun.
There also used to be an overhead tram shed,
which the tram brought supplies from the mainland.
So at first it was just like a basket
that they brought over with like a pulley system.
And then keepers would use it to get food and water.
So they would row over to the mainland
(18:07):
because it's not that far.
They would row over, put their groceries in the basket,
row back over and then pull the groceries over.
I imagine that failed at least once.
Yeah.
Someone just watched their groceries plunge into the water.
I know.
They talked about it a couple of times,
like before they did that, or if they didn't use it,
then they were like rowing with groceries and it capsizes.
(18:30):
And they were like, oh, everyone was fine,
but like our groceries took a hit.
Man.
And I was like, dang it.
That's probably why they added a basket.
And later the lighthouse was electrified in 1938.
The tram also got an upgrade and the mechanism
was in this shed until it was damaged
by a winter storm in 2013.
Oh, so recent.
Yeah.
(18:50):
So I think now it's like a zip line or something.
I couldn't really figure out what they-
It's still there?
Yeah, they added something else.
Yeah.
Cause-
But it's a private island.
Yeah, but nobody lives there.
But you can't go there legally.
I don't think so.
You could zip line there potentially.
I was thinking kayak.
I have a story of this.
I didn't make note of it.
(19:12):
Dang it.
I'll just try and tell you what it was from memory.
But there was a couple, or at least later on,
there was a keeper who,
do I have a picture of this?
I think I do.
Okay.
This guy sent his wife and child
in the basket to the island.
(19:34):
All right.
And she talked about it.
I mean, she's still alive and she's like,
it wasn't a big deal.
Like I just, it's a lot faster.
And you know, it was, we've done it a hundred times,
like the bringing something back and forth.
Yes, yeah.
And then the coast guard,
cause this was Coast Guard times,
(19:54):
the Coast Guard caught wind of this event
because they, he would send his kid back and forth
to school in the basket.
Oh my gosh.
Like just stick him in there.
And a picture of him went into the newspaper of him
in the basket.
And so then of course the Coast Guard saw it
and was like, okay.
They're like, families with school-aged children
(20:16):
are no longer allowed on this line out.
Yeah.
That is crazy.
I know.
I guess it's not that much more crazy
than sending them on a boat.
Yeah.
They're above water.
I mean, if they fall out.
Yeah. And it's got a rope underneath and like.
Safety standards are.
It's kinda crazy.
It's crazy that there's a photo.
(20:37):
I know.
So cameras were, this is not that long ago, right?
This was probably like.
1900s.
70s, 60s or 70s.
1960s.
Yeah.
People were just built different back then.
I know.
You're just like, you might as well.
Baby boomers.
Come on.
Just doing crazy things.
And you're thinking about, it was like a young boy
and they just sent him.
Go to school, Timmy.
Go to school, yeah.
Send him to the island.
(20:57):
Like, was the school close
to where he got off the basket by himself?
Yeah. You thought it was hard to walk uphill
in the snow both ways.
What about over water?
And rocks.
So like if it fell, it would not be just like.
That's the kid in the photo.
It was just like.
Just like, I've done it before.
I don't know.
No big deal.
(21:17):
So I guess that, this has always been
a family lighthouse location.
They always have families there.
So I wonder how that affected it
to have no school-aged children.
Didn't help, I bet.
So even though we're close enough to the mainland
to get supplies over by a basket,
the keepers described living here
as being in a fish bowl.
Because it's like this spectacle where.
You see it.
(21:38):
Yeah, you can see it, but you aren't allowed to go in.
And that's only like current times.
Earlier, this was like a very popular tourist spot.
And has been since the very first keeper
of this lighthouse announced in the Portsmouth paper
that visitors could be ferried to the island
for 10 cents by his son.
Nice.
Who would come out, pick you up
(21:59):
and bring you to the lighthouse.
A little side hustle.
Yeah, do tours.
And this, so this like, its entire history,
the keepers have done tours for money.
That's cool.
And they get to keep it.
So it's like they're running their own side business.
Which obviously, I can't imagine the lighthouse.
The Coast Guard lighthouse service would.
Enjoy that, yeah.
(22:19):
So in 1898, keeper Lewis was prohibited
to be taking visitors on Sundays specifically.
He told people that it was because
he was making too much money.
But the reality was that he was,
it was affecting his job.
Oh, he's too busy.
Yeah, too many people.
And they said even at one point,
there was like 200 to 300 people on the island.
What?
And like the only person running everything was his wife.
(22:41):
Oh my gosh.
So it was crazy.
They're like, you have to stop this.
Especially on Sunday when people would go out and like, oh.
Yeah, they have time.
Let's do a tour of the lighthouse.
Yeah.
Let's go see the lighthouse.
That'd be fun.
Meet me at the lighthouse.
The tourist trade brought in a lot of money for keepers.
But in 1919, keeper William Richardson was fired
for ferrying over tourists.
(23:02):
So I guess they just started to draw the line
where what was appropriate.
And it kind of just put a damper.
Ruin the fun.
Yeah.
Thanks government.
The distance to the lighthouse was also easily swimmable
proven by the lighthouse cat.
And this name is incredible.
So I'm not really sure exactly what years this cat was there.
(23:23):
I think it was in the 50s or like maybe 60s or something.
But the name, it was like a 20 pound ginger striped cat.
And his name was Sambo Tonkus.
Sambo Tonkus.
Sambo Tonkus.
That's awesome.
Do you have any photos of Sambo?
(23:43):
Wow, that's a big cat.
I know.
And a very thin man.
It's got his little white socks.
So it looks like a tabby cat, but they said it was ginger.
So he must've been some kind of like really pretty
patterned mix.
So this cat would swim in the ocean.
Swim, yeah.
It ran out of mice on the island.
Of course.
Because it did such a good job.
So it would swim to the mainland and come back
(24:04):
with like mice in its mouth.
Feed its babies.
Yeah.
So people in town knew of this cat and everybody loved him.
So that's awesome.
Sambo Tonken.
Tonkus.
Tonkus.
This is Eugene.
This picture I pulled up is Eugene Coleman,
who was the current keeper.
Because Sambo was left behind by another keeper
who said that he just fit in so well with the lighthouse.
(24:27):
Like why would I take him away from here?
He does a good job.
So I'll leave him.
And so he stuck around.
That's awesome.
I know, so cute.
1923, the light is electrified, but not before an explosion
took out the Fresnel lens,
which was replaced with a duplicate.
I cannot find a single detail about what this explosion is,
(24:47):
even though there are several references that say
explosion takes out Fresnel lens.
But no one says why.
Nobody, what kind of explosion happened
in the lantern room?
Somebody smoking while they're filling up the kerosene
or something.
Doesn't make any sense to me.
(25:07):
And then there's no, like, you're not gonna talk about
if anybody got hurt or like,
what sparks an explosion in the lantern room?
I gotta know.
Also, Fresnel lenses are kind of fragile.
Yeah. Kind of, not really.
They're huge.
Yeah. And mostly like, if there's some damage,
you just replace the glass panels,
(25:27):
but not the entire thing.
And to replace the entire thing.
Sounds like insurance fraud.
I just wish somebody would explain.
If somebody out there knows,
tell us what happened to this Fresnel lens.
So we still have a fourth order lens.
So that's good.
Okay, nice.
It's basically the fourth order,
it's basically to protect it from the cove nearby.
(25:49):
Not really any other big ocean traffic.
So it's-
The port nearby.
Cause the fourth order is shorter range.
20 miles, maybe.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, shorter range.
So yeah, you're probably right that it's just for-
A 20 is still a lot.
What's the range?
Like a ballpark.
12?
I was gonna say 20, but like 30, I think is first order.
(26:09):
So we're around 30.
23 is first order.
What?
Oh my gosh.
So it says,
noble lighthouse facts.
The light from the noble lighthouse's Fresnel lens
is visible for 13 nautical miles in clear weather.
Okay.
I was right on the money.
13 nautical miles.
I was about 200% off.
But this is a red light.
(26:31):
So it's actually like less, the range is smaller.
Okay.
What was the question in the first place?
What's the range of first order lens?
Oh good.
Cause this is, you know, it's within sight of the main port.
Yes.
So really it's to protect the port.
So it's more like being close to the mainland.
Yeah.
Okay.
(26:51):
Rather than, you know, some islands are way out on their own
and they need first order.
Yeah.
So it's not really, okay.
Yeah, that's a good point.
It's not really deflecting away from the island
cause the island is so close to the mainland.
It's really just like,
Just don't hit this.
Yeah.
It's a point.
You're coming up on it.
So the light was automated in 1987
and historian William O. Thompson said,
(27:13):
quote, it's the biggest issue in our little town.
I can't remember people getting so upset about anything
since World War II broke out.
So obviously people cared a lot.
So the town banded together to adopt the lighthouse
through the main lights program in 1998.
Nice.
So the town owns it.
Y2K.
I think it's still the same as it was in 1990s
or almost 2000.
(27:34):
While hundreds of people have applied to live
in the Keepers cottage,
they have problems with water and sewer connections.
So nobody ever has.
So, which is a shame because that would be nice.
I would appreciate some noble lighthouse living.
Utilities are important and difficult on a light station.
Yeah.
So I guess somebody just goes out there
(27:55):
every once in a while to take care of it.
Cause it's in great shape.
They did a series of restoration starting in 2017,
which ended with a $42,000 project in 2021
to replace the back deck and windows.
So they did a whole overhaul.
So there's no visitation going on?
Like there's no tours or?
(28:16):
No, you can't step foot on it.
Are you telling me they do that and you can't tour it?
Yeah.
So something noble light's most popular for it.
I just pulled up a picture for those of us listening online,
but is the annual Christmas lighting event
where the lighthouse and surrounding buildings
are framed in lights,
but I'm not gonna talk too much about it.
(28:37):
There's a lot of good information on it,
but I'm gonna do a Christmas episode on December 23rd,
part two of last year's where I just cover
a couple of the lighthouses
that we've already covered this year
and like what they do for Christmas.
And so we have a really good lineup this year.
It's gonna be really good.
Nice, exciting.
But yeah, so they go out there, people line up.
(29:02):
I think it's York is the area that's across from it.
Okay.
They're viewing the lighting.
Yeah, they just view the lighting of the lighthouse.
And they also do one in July now
because who's going to Maine in December?
Or at least it's not really,
let's hang out on the shoreline.
(29:23):
Right, let's stay outside.
Yeah, let's get some sea breeze on our faces.
July is a little easier.
Yeah, so a lot of people are visiting in July.
So they're like, oh, we might as well do
a Christmas in July event thing.
This is gorgeous.
They've done a great job.
Really great photo.
But that's noble lighthouse or Cape Nettic lighthouse.
Yeah, I'd like to see it.
(29:44):
It's a shame we can't go to the island.
I was gonna say we talked about Maine
as one of our potential future trips.
There's lots of potentials.
But whoever's doing it, keeping it in shape.
I mean, from these photos,
it looks like it's in great shape.
Yeah, really nice.
Looks freshly painted and everything's taken care of.
So I love that little oil house.
(30:07):
The little oil house,
which is over there because it's flammable, I take it.
Yeah, let's get this as far away as possible.
Far away from everything else.
It just saved the Fresnel lands, but whatever.
Well, we've had stories of oil houses burning and exploding.
That's true.
Never good.
Yeah, learning from your mistakes.
Adding walkways, oil house far away.
(30:29):
Yeah, that's it.
Nice, well, good job and thank you.
You're welcome.
Just a short little one for you.
How many have we covered now in Maine?
A couple?
I think two or three.
Okay, we did at least one else.
Yeah.
One other.
We've done two other ones.
I just had the map pulled up one second.
Waldo isn't in Maine, is it?
Yes, West Quoddy.
(30:50):
West Quoddy House, West Quoddy Light.
And I'm thinking the one that were Forest Gump was also.
Forest Gump.
Marshall Point Lighthouse.
Nice.
That's the one.
All right.
Maine's looking strong for lighthouses.
I know, I really wanna go.
Portsmouth is also technically Maine, isn't it?
Oh no.
No.
It's just below the main line.
(31:12):
Into New Hampshire.
Hampshire.
Damn it.
New York, New England.
I don't care about geography.
When was the last time I was in a history class?
Never. 20 years ago.
How rude.
I took history in college, probably freshman year.
What history did you take in college?
(31:33):
Just like a basic history class.
Pre-Silver War, that's what it was.
Are you sure? Yeah.
What do you mean am I sure?
I did not.
Well, good for you.
Mechanical engineers don't need to know history.
We're the future.
It was one of our KU core.
Yeah, I took American studies, which was a mistake.
(31:53):
I do not recommend that to anyone listening.
I think I took women's studies during one of my summers.
I'd rather take that.
What's American studies?
I wanna talk about it.
Oh, okay.
Well, thanks everyone for joining and listening
to our podcast today.
You should follow us on Instagram at the Lighthouse Lowdown.
You can check out our website, thelighthouselowdown.com.
(32:16):
You can leave us a voicemail.
Yeah, you can leave us a voicemail there.
You can watch the YouTube videos there.
You can listen to our podcast there.
Oh, you can also leave us a review there,
which you should definitely do.
Five stars.
Five stars only. Five out of 10.
And paragraphs, you need to write a paragraph.
And I've been getting a lot of comments on YouTube.
(32:37):
Yes, so much fun.
So thank you all for that.
I appreciate it very much.
And people have been suggesting lighthouses
for us to cover, so it's really fun.
We always enjoy that.
And we are taking notes.
We have lists going.
That's right.
Plenty of material coming your way.
Yeah.
Well, so we hope you join us next time
on the Lighthouse Lowdown.
(32:59):
Happyunting.
Hi everyone, I'm Emily.
(00:01):
And I'm Vince.
And this is the Lighthouse Lowdown.
["The Lighthouse Lowdown Theme"]
Well hello.
Hello.
Hello.
It's my birthday yesterday, so.
Happy belated.
Yeah, we've got recording on a Friday,
we're gonna celebrate tomorrow, some fun stuff.
(00:22):
That's right.
Kick Vince's butt.
Yeah, I just blew all the secrets of what we're gonna do.
Yeah, well I need blown secrets.
I'm one of those people who needs to mentally prepare
for an outing, especially if there's other people involved.
Well it's gonna be great.
With you, I feel like I can handle whatever.
I'm like, oh, I don't know, you make me feel safe.
(00:42):
Well you're safe.
Like a lighthouse.
Lighthouses are not safe.
Always under financial turmoil.
I am like a lighthouse.
Inside you're pretty safe, but the lighthouse themselves
is not safe from anything in particular.
Tall, I'm like a lighthouse.
Yeah.
Hey, I made that joke on my Instagram.
Bright.
Okay.
Like a lighthouse.
Right?
(01:03):
Bright.
Oh.
Luminous.
Anyways.
The history buoy today kind of works into our episode
and its event.
It's called The Wreck of the Isador.
The what?
The wreck of the Isador.
The Isador?
That's what I'm saying, what's the last word?
Isador.
Isador, all right, let's hear it.
(01:24):
It leads into the lighthouse that we're covering today,
which everybody else knows because they clicked
on the title, but you don't.
That's right, I'm unaware.
Vince and I found out the other day that people thought
that he knew everything before we started recording
and just feigned surprise.
Yeah, like I'm acting the whole time.
Just acting like a dumb ass.
Just wow, I didn't know that.
(01:45):
Yeah, we do this with honor.
There's no knowing.
Sometimes he sees quickly a photo that passes across
the screen, but it's usually when I'm starting
the episode on accident.
Usually I find out when you find out.
Okay, so I'll start the episode.
So we're going all the way to other oetepa.
(02:07):
I'm sorry, what?
Other oetepa?
We are going.
Who's at the bar?
Almost to the most southern point of Maine.
So like almost into whatever state's below Maine.
I think we should do an episode on geography of lighthouses.
(02:28):
We really ought to do something.
Mostly covering the regions and what states are in them.
I genuinely have no idea what's below Maine.
Is it Delaware?
Is it New Jersey?
I see.
No, no, no, I think you're right.
It's New Hampshire.
New Hampshire.
I got half of it right.
What did I say?
The word new.
What did I say?
Delaware.
Okay.
(02:49):
Yeah.
That's not close.
You know what?
That's fine.
Nobody's asking me to be good at geography.
They're just asking me to deliver facts about lighthouses,
which I will do today.
Let's do it.
Throw down.
Okay, wow.
So down there in Maine, close to New Hampshire.
Yeah, I forgot already.
(03:10):
There's Cape Nettic.
Does that sound familiar to you?
Nope.
Okay, excellent.
There's a tiny rocky island,
which by the way is called a nubble.
Does that sound familiar?
No, I like the word though.
Okay, good.
Is there a nubble light?
At the end of the game,
but it's like less than a hundred yards away,
(03:30):
like less than a football field.
Like a nubble out there.
Of space.
It's just a little nubble.
So that's kind of the location of this wreck
that we're gonna talk about, the Isador,
which I think is how it's pronounced.
I list-
Isador.
Oh, I listened to a couple different pronunciations
(03:52):
and they were all different.
So I'm just gonna go with Isador.
Isador.
That's what I-
Do you think like Spanish?
I think so, yeah.
Okay.
This wreck of the Isador is a legend of Cape Nettic
and was why the lighthouse that we're covering today
was built in the first place, because of this wreck.
So November 1842, the Three-Masted Bark,
which is just a sailing ship.
(04:15):
I like that word bark when referring to ships.
Here's a depiction of the wreck.
It's not doing too well during this depiction.
It's in the name, so you know it doesn't survive.
I was setting sail on her maiden voyage
and got into a snowstorm.
We got into like gale force winds and wrecked,
(04:35):
which at the time they said that this storm was the worst
that anyone had seen in Maine.
So it's definitely a big deal.
The ship wrecked on the rocky baldhead cliffs in,
I think it's just north of Cape Nettic,
is where they actually wrecked,
like where this drawing is depicting.
And all 14 crew members on the ship passed away
(04:56):
because of this wreck. Oh my gosh, rip.
The reason why this is a legend
is because of some spooky circumstances
surrounding this wreck.
So we're gonna talk about those.
Okay.
A couple days before they were supposed to set sail,
a crew member, his name is Thomas King,
had a dream of a wrecked ship that resembled the Isidor
and her crew bodies washing ashore.
(05:19):
Man, that's rough.
So obviously he was totally freaked out
and pleaded with the captain
that they don't go ahead with their trip,
which was to deliver a cargo load to New Orleans
and then head to France after that.
Oh, interesting. Okay.
So the problem was Thomas King was paid a month's wage
in advance of this trip.
And so the captain was like,
there's gonna be some serious consequences
(05:40):
if you try to back out.
He's like, I've already spent it on gambling.
Yeah. What are you talking about?
He's like, I know you don't have the money to pay that back.
And so the captain was like,
we're still gonna set sail and you gotta go.
And then the night before the trip,
another crew member dreamt of seven coffins on the shore
with his own body in one of them.
And so he went to the captain and asked that they not sail,
(06:03):
but of course they're going to anyway.
Right.
But this is a time where I feel like superstition
and things would be more widely listened to.
Oh yeah.
Like if I had a crazy dream in my workplace,
I wouldn't, huh?
They thought mermaids are real.
Yeah. Yeah.
I don't know if that's true.
I just said it.
No, I think that's right.
And there's, well, no, maybe not.
(06:24):
I said it.
Depends on who you ask, but yeah.
Anyway, he was also ignored.
But this second instance of a dream
was enough to scare King off.
And he hid in the town as the ship was setting off.
Yeah.
As they left, this is when the wind picked up
(06:45):
and it started to snow leading to 20 foot waves
and the gale force winds that I was mentioning.
Obviously hard to survive a storm like that in these times.
What year we're talking?
1842.
Big storm.
Not too crazy long ago, but.
Well, a long time.
Enough.
In shipping technology.
(07:06):
Yeah.
So the next morning, the wreckage was spread
all across Cape Nettic Island
with only seven of the crew members washing ashore.
The rest lost the sea.
And one of these seven was the guy who had the dream.
Man. I know.
The dream became true.
Yeah.
The dream was like a premonition of the future.
Oh my gosh.
So kind of crazy.
Since that Thanksgiving night,
(07:27):
the East Sodor has been spotted as a phantom ship
near Boone Island and Avery Cove,
even by people who don't know the story of her wreck.
That's cool.
The Phantom Three sails.
Yeah.
It's pretty interesting.
I would like to see a phantom ship.
There's even stories of like people who are out fishing
and they see this ship like wrecked and they go to see it.
(07:48):
And as they get closer, it disappears.
That's cool.
Spooky.
That is spooky.
Cause it's spooky time of year.
Spooky.
Yeah. I guess we have Halloween and a little over a month.
Oh.
Sorry.
I'm gonna turn those down.
But it is interesting that it's like, it's a legend,
but it's also based on just straight up fact.
Yeah.
There's nothing.
1840s.
(08:08):
Yeah.
So after this wreck,
public outcry led to the idea for a lighthouse
on that island, but it wasn't until 1879
that the plans were underway.
And apparently it's because there was multiple,
I don't know how this works,
but there was multiple owners of the lighthouse,
of the island.
And one of them, or like a couple of them,
wanted to build a hotel on the island.
(08:29):
Interesting.
There was like this big, long drawn out battle
for like five years of trying to purchase.
I think the island was purchased for like $1,500
or something at that time, which was a lot.
So Cape Nettic Lighthouse,
affectionately called Nubble Light or Cape Neck by locals,
was built on this little island in 1879.
(08:51):
It took a little while.
Yeah. A long time.
It's almost, I mean-
Can you imagine like a really bad thing that happens?
Yeah.
And then 30 years go by-
Oh my gosh.
Before the solution is built.
The people who were probably pushing for it
didn't even live that to see the rest of it.
So here we go.
Pulled up a picture.
Classy.
(09:11):
Yeah.
I like it.
We love a red light.
So a 41 foot conical tower was built
of cast iron sections lined on the inside with red brick.
So it was just, you know, metal sheath.
And this looks very familiar.
East Coast Lighthouses.
Yes. This is like a lot of what we saw in Cape Cod.
That's right.
That's a lot like Nosset Light
and Nobska Lighthouse is very similar to this.
(09:38):
It had a 32 step cast iron spiral stairway
leading to the watch room with a ship's ladder
leading to the lantern room.
And this is pretty cool.
The gallery is surrounded by a metal railing
that has four inch lighthouse shaped,
what is it called? Finneals?
I don't know, but that's cool.
Finneals?
I have a picture.
The little ornate hand rail tops.
Yeah, like if you think of like a fence
(09:59):
and a fancy neighborhood, they have like a point.
Fix the newel post.
Yeah, newel post, but.
Not for stairs.
Yeah.
Wow. Cool.
Oh my gosh.
They've got a little hex nut on the bottom.
Hex nut.
You can like thread them on and off maybe.
Somebody said it's a replica of the lighthouse,
but I think it's just a little,
I think it's just like a very classic lighthouse depiction.
(10:20):
That's very particular whoever did that.
I know.
And it's like, you see all these brick lines and everything.
Yeah.
And they're still there.
Cool.
And they're still there.
So just fun to see the little accents,
even though they could make, of course, make it cheaper
by not adding cute little details.
No one's going to see those except for the keeper.
Yeah.
(10:40):
Especially now you can't even like get out there.
Pretty sure it's.
Oh, the island.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I didn't look.
Cause I think, I really don't think you're allowed
to step foot on the island unless you're like invited
or something.
How far out is it?
Less than a hundred yards.
Hmm.
Kayakable.
Like a soup.
Yeah, exactly.
Like a super low tide.
(11:00):
There's like a bed, like a rock bed
that you could walk across,
but it's the island itself is very rocky, like tall.
Hard to climb up.
Edges.
Yeah. It's not like walking onto a sandy beach or something.
It's all rock.
I can't believe the ship wrecked that close to shore.
Yeah.
Right as they were leaving, they're like, oh no.
The wind just kind of forced them back over.
(11:23):
That's terrible.
Yeah.
So the fixed red fourth order Fresnel lens,
see how that was hard for me to see.
That's a lot.
Was lit July 1st, 1879.
We love a red lens.
The tower was white, later painted a reddish brown
and then returned to white in 1899.
(11:44):
So it's been white for basically its entire lifetime.
So if you look at pictures of the island, let me go back.
So if you look at the island,
there's several different little buildings here.
We got it, the tower, which is connected
to the keepers house by an enclosed walkway,
which was added in 1911,
because obviously it gets pretty cold here
and you might as well be protected.
(12:06):
And you can kind of see this picture of the rocky edge too.
You can't really make it up.
It's pretty rock.
To the island.
Yeah.
I know we're the golden hour in this photo.
Yeah, true.
It's crazy to see the tunnel.
It's not the tunnel.
What is that called?
The walkway?
Yeah.
I know that's a recurring theme for lighthouses
and keepers houses.
Yeah.
And it's crazy to think how bad the weather must get
(12:28):
to where someone decides, you know what?
We need to build an enclosure for me to stay inside.
I just think that's a lot of effort.
Especially because it's never that far from the house.
But if you think about you having to run the foghorn
or for an example,
I don't know if I have a picture of it later,
this lighthouse used to have another walkway
on the other side that led to the foghorn.
(12:49):
So you'd never have to go outside in the weather.
It's like an engineering school or building.
Yeah.
Never just want us to see the sun.
Or all just pale.
Yeah, it's funny.
I was thinking about Triangle Island light.
I can't forget.
That was one of my early episodes that I covered.
Yeah.
There was stories of the storms being so crazy out there
(13:09):
and that's off the coast of Victoria Island, west coast.
But the men that were going between the buildings
were they had like cables they had run.
So they would crawl on the ground
and like belly across the ground using the cable
because otherwise they'd get lost
in the rain and wind and everything.
That's terrifying.
Couldn't hear each other at all.
(13:30):
So.
Yeah, because it was really high up, wasn't it?
Yes, that was a particularly bad spot
to build a lighthouse.
For those guys.
That was one where the roof blew off
on one of the structures.
So anyways, back to this episode.
It's nice to see those walkways, but it's curious.
It's interesting to me how they're all over the place.
Yeah, it was definitely like something
that's adopted later on over time.
(13:52):
You're like, why would I force the keepers
to go outside several times a day
when you know the weather's never very good?
There's a modern version of this still in use
in manufacturing spaces that I know about from work.
I cannot say where this is at
due to non-disclosure information,
(14:14):
but there are enclosed walkways,
even in manufacturing facilities today
where men and women are using like hand carts
to move materials because they cannot be exposed
to the outside.
Oh.
The materials themselves,
whether they can't be seen by the outside
or because of the rain.
(14:35):
So there's still like modern versions
of these little walkways being built.
Above ground too, kind of cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, I like it.
I always like to see it because it just is showing care
for the people.
Like you just care about the people who are working here.
So you're like, yeah, you might as well
just add a little walkway.
So we've also got a bright red oil house,
(14:56):
which was built in 1902.
And we also have a storage building and a boat house.
And in the past, there was a perimeter structure
with a fog bell inside.
It started off as like a skeletal A-frame sort of thing
with the bell exposed.
Then it moved on to an enclosed white tower
that was removed in 1961.
So they're not in current photos,
but I have one, an old one.
(15:19):
Interesting.
Wonder why they, oh, that's cool.
It adds to the whole architecture.
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Oh yeah, there's that walkway you mentioned.
So there's the bell looks like hanging up on the right side.
For those of you not watching online,
we see the house on the left,
the lighthouse in the center,
and then on the right, this pyramidal,
pyramidal?
(15:39):
Perimidal.
Perimidal.
I don't know.
That's how I would say it.
Fog bell structure.
Pretty cool.
Yeah, brick painted white.
It's very nice.
Cool photo.
I didn't look into why it was removed.
I think it was damaged and then removed.
So, but I don't know.
It's a unique shape.
So I can imagine it'd be difficult to repair.
I've seen a couple of them though.
(16:01):
I don't know if maybe it was more resilient
when it's shaped like that.
Someone's in there smacking on a bell then.
With a hammer.
They get some automated striking mechanisms and stuff.
This bell would strike every 15 seconds in foggy weather.
There was, I wish I remember.
They deserve for me to remember,
(16:22):
but there was a storm recently we talked about.
In Maine.
In Maine.
Where a fog house, well, a fog bell house was damaged.
And I had a similar.
A pentequin point, I think.
Yeah, it was kind of similar.
It wasn't the same shape, I don't think,
but the way the bell was mounted,
where it's exposed and it had some,
(16:43):
some cover on one side for the machinery or for the people.
Kind of cool.
I assume again, that's a recurring thing.
Yeah, Pemmick Wood Point.
They also had a little pyramid.
Oh, they did.
Yeah.
Look at me.
I'll pull it up.
Memory.
Memory.
A little smaller.
So pretty, pretty common shape.
(17:04):
Although this one was connected to an actual building,
but I guess ours had a walkway,
so you didn't really need a building.
I'd be interested.
Maybe we'll put together an episode
and take some time to research on
just kind of some general themes of lighthouse architecture.
Yeah, things you see reoccurring all the time.
I don't know if I already mentioned it,
but I've done some research on,
(17:24):
I think I mentioned it in one of the episodes,
different themes for lighthouse, keepers houses.
But there's lots of information out there.
I like looking at this keepers cottage
because it looks like a gingerbread house.
It does.
What's it called?
The little texture that's under the roof line.
I don't know.
I would just call it a trim,
but I'm sure it's a style.
(17:46):
Gothic.
Yeah.
Something.
I haven't seen something like that before,
so it's kind of fun.
There also used to be an overhead tram shed,
which the tram brought supplies from the mainland.
So at first it was just like a basket
that they brought over with like a pulley system.
And then keepers would use it to get food and water.
So they would row over to the mainland
(18:07):
because it's not that far.
They would row over, put their groceries in the basket,
row back over and then pull the groceries over.
I imagine that failed at least once.
Yeah.
Someone just watched their groceries plunge into the water.
I know.
They talked about it a couple of times,
like before they did that, or if they didn't use it,
then they were like rowing with groceries and it capsizes.
(18:30):
And they were like, oh, everyone was fine,
but like our groceries took a hit.
Man.
And I was like, dang it.
That's probably why they added a basket.
And later the lighthouse was electrified in 1938.
The tram also got an upgrade and the mechanism
was in this shed until it was damaged
by a winter storm in 2013.
Oh, so recent.
Yeah.
(18:50):
So I think now it's like a zip line or something.
I couldn't really figure out what they-
It's still there?
Yeah, they added something else.
Yeah.
Cause-
But it's a private island.
Yeah, but nobody lives there.
But you can't go there legally.
I don't think so.
You could zip line there potentially.
I was thinking kayak.
I have a story of this.
I didn't make note of it.
(19:12):
Dang it.
I'll just try and tell you what it was from memory.
But there was a couple, or at least later on,
there was a keeper who,
do I have a picture of this?
I think I do.
Okay.
This guy sent his wife and child
in the basket to the island.
(19:34):
All right.
And she talked about it.
I mean, she's still alive and she's like,
it wasn't a big deal.
Like I just, it's a lot faster.
And you know, it was, we've done it a hundred times,
like the bringing something back and forth.
Yes, yeah.
And then the coast guard,
cause this was Coast Guard times,
(19:54):
the Coast Guard caught wind of this event
because they, he would send his kid back and forth
to school in the basket.
Oh my gosh.
Like just stick him in there.
And a picture of him went into the newspaper of him
in the basket.
And so then of course the Coast Guard saw it
and was like, okay.
They're like, families with school-aged children
(20:16):
are no longer allowed on this line out.
Yeah.
That is crazy.
I know.
I guess it's not that much more crazy
than sending them on a boat.
Yeah.
They're above water.
I mean, if they fall out.
Yeah. And it's got a rope underneath and like.
Safety standards are.
It's kinda crazy.
It's crazy that there's a photo.
(20:37):
I know.
So cameras were, this is not that long ago, right?
This was probably like.
1900s.
70s, 60s or 70s.
1960s.
Yeah.
People were just built different back then.
I know.
You're just like, you might as well.
Baby boomers.
Come on.
Just doing crazy things.
And you're thinking about, it was like a young boy
and they just sent him.
Go to school, Timmy.
Go to school, yeah.
Send him to the island.
(20:57):
Like, was the school close
to where he got off the basket by himself?
Yeah. You thought it was hard to walk uphill
in the snow both ways.
What about over water?
And rocks.
So like if it fell, it would not be just like.
That's the kid in the photo.
It was just like.
Just like, I've done it before.
I don't know.
No big deal.
(21:17):
So I guess that, this has always been
a family lighthouse location.
They always have families there.
So I wonder how that affected it
to have no school-aged children.
Didn't help, I bet.
So even though we're close enough to the mainland
to get supplies over by a basket,
the keepers described living here
as being in a fish bowl.
Because it's like this spectacle where.
You see it.
(21:38):
Yeah, you can see it, but you aren't allowed to go in.
And that's only like current times.
Earlier, this was like a very popular tourist spot.
And has been since the very first keeper
of this lighthouse announced in the Portsmouth paper
that visitors could be ferried to the island
for 10 cents by his son.
Nice.
Who would come out, pick you up
(21:59):
and bring you to the lighthouse.
A little side hustle.
Yeah, do tours.
And this, so this like, its entire history,
the keepers have done tours for money.
That's cool.
And they get to keep it.
So it's like they're running their own side business.
Which obviously, I can't imagine the lighthouse.
The Coast Guard lighthouse service would.
Enjoy that, yeah.
(22:19):
So in 1898, keeper Lewis was prohibited
to be taking visitors on Sundays specifically.
He told people that it was because
he was making too much money.
But the reality was that he was,
it was affecting his job.
Oh, he's too busy.
Yeah, too many people.
And they said even at one point,
there was like 200 to 300 people on the island.
What?
And like the only person running everything was his wife.
(22:41):
Oh my gosh.
So it was crazy.
They're like, you have to stop this.
Especially on Sunday when people would go out and like, oh.
Yeah, they have time.
Let's do a tour of the lighthouse.
Yeah.
Let's go see the lighthouse.
That'd be fun.
Meet me at the lighthouse.
The tourist trade brought in a lot of money for keepers.
But in 1919, keeper William Richardson was fired
for ferrying over tourists.
(23:02):
So I guess they just started to draw the line
where what was appropriate.
And it kind of just put a damper.
Ruin the fun.
Yeah.
Thanks government.
The distance to the lighthouse was also easily swimmable
proven by the lighthouse cat.
And this name is incredible.
So I'm not really sure exactly what years this cat was there.
(23:23):
I think it was in the 50s or like maybe 60s or something.
But the name, it was like a 20 pound ginger striped cat.
And his name was Sambo Tonkus.
Sambo Tonkus.
Sambo Tonkus.
That's awesome.
Do you have any photos of Sambo?
(23:43):
Wow, that's a big cat.
I know.
And a very thin man.
It's got his little white socks.
So it looks like a tabby cat, but they said it was ginger.
So he must've been some kind of like really pretty
patterned mix.
So this cat would swim in the ocean.
Swim, yeah.
It ran out of mice on the island.
Of course.
Because it did such a good job.
So it would swim to the mainland and come back
(24:04):
with like mice in its mouth.
Feed its babies.
Yeah.
So people in town knew of this cat and everybody loved him.
So that's awesome.
Sambo Tonken.
Tonkus.
Tonkus.
This is Eugene.
This picture I pulled up is Eugene Coleman,
who was the current keeper.
Because Sambo was left behind by another keeper
who said that he just fit in so well with the lighthouse.
(24:27):
Like why would I take him away from here?
He does a good job.
So I'll leave him.
And so he stuck around.
That's awesome.
I know, so cute.
1923, the light is electrified, but not before an explosion
took out the Fresnel lens,
which was replaced with a duplicate.
I cannot find a single detail about what this explosion is,
(24:47):
even though there are several references that say
explosion takes out Fresnel lens.
But no one says why.
Nobody, what kind of explosion happened
in the lantern room?
Somebody smoking while they're filling up the kerosene
or something.
Doesn't make any sense to me.
(25:07):
And then there's no, like, you're not gonna talk about
if anybody got hurt or like,
what sparks an explosion in the lantern room?
I gotta know.
Also, Fresnel lenses are kind of fragile.
Yeah. Kind of, not really.
They're huge.
Yeah. And mostly like, if there's some damage,
you just replace the glass panels,
(25:27):
but not the entire thing.
And to replace the entire thing.
Sounds like insurance fraud.
I just wish somebody would explain.
If somebody out there knows,
tell us what happened to this Fresnel lens.
So we still have a fourth order lens.
So that's good.
Okay, nice.
It's basically the fourth order,
it's basically to protect it from the cove nearby.
(25:49):
Not really any other big ocean traffic.
So it's-
The port nearby.
Cause the fourth order is shorter range.
20 miles, maybe.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, shorter range.
So yeah, you're probably right that it's just for-
A 20 is still a lot.
What's the range?
Like a ballpark.
12?
I was gonna say 20, but like 30, I think is first order.
(26:09):
So we're around 30.
23 is first order.
What?
Oh my gosh.
So it says,
noble lighthouse facts.
The light from the noble lighthouse's Fresnel lens
is visible for 13 nautical miles in clear weather.
Okay.
I was right on the money.
13 nautical miles.
I was about 200% off.
But this is a red light.
(26:31):
So it's actually like less, the range is smaller.
Okay.
What was the question in the first place?
What's the range of first order lens?
Oh good.
Cause this is, you know, it's within sight of the main port.
Yes.
So really it's to protect the port.
So it's more like being close to the mainland.
Yeah.
Okay.
(26:51):
Rather than, you know, some islands are way out on their own
and they need first order.
Yeah.
So it's not really, okay.
Yeah, that's a good point.
It's not really deflecting away from the island
cause the island is so close to the mainland.
It's really just like,
Just don't hit this.
Yeah.
It's a point.
You're coming up on it.
So the light was automated in 1987
and historian William O. Thompson said,
(27:13):
quote, it's the biggest issue in our little town.
I can't remember people getting so upset about anything
since World War II broke out.
So obviously people cared a lot.
So the town banded together to adopt the lighthouse
through the main lights program in 1998.
Nice.
So the town owns it.
Y2K.
I think it's still the same as it was in 1990s
or almost 2000.
(27:34):
While hundreds of people have applied to live
in the Keepers cottage,
they have problems with water and sewer connections.
So nobody ever has.
So, which is a shame because that would be nice.
I would appreciate some noble lighthouse living.
Utilities are important and difficult on a light station.
Yeah.
So I guess somebody just goes out there
(27:55):
every once in a while to take care of it.
Cause it's in great shape.
They did a series of restoration starting in 2017,
which ended with a $42,000 project in 2021
to replace the back deck and windows.
So they did a whole overhaul.
So there's no visitation going on?
Like there's no tours or?
(28:16):
No, you can't step foot on it.
Are you telling me they do that and you can't tour it?
Yeah.
So something noble light's most popular for it.
I just pulled up a picture for those of us listening online,
but is the annual Christmas lighting event
where the lighthouse and surrounding buildings
are framed in lights,
but I'm not gonna talk too much about it.
(28:37):
There's a lot of good information on it,
but I'm gonna do a Christmas episode on December 23rd,
part two of last year's where I just cover
a couple of the lighthouses
that we've already covered this year
and like what they do for Christmas.
And so we have a really good lineup this year.
It's gonna be really good.
Nice, exciting.
But yeah, so they go out there, people line up.
(29:02):
I think it's York is the area that's across from it.
Okay.
They're viewing the lighting.
Yeah, they just view the lighting of the lighthouse.
And they also do one in July now
because who's going to Maine in December?
Or at least it's not really,
let's hang out on the shoreline.
(29:23):
Right, let's stay outside.
Yeah, let's get some sea breeze on our faces.
July is a little easier.
Yeah, so a lot of people are visiting in July.
So they're like, oh, we might as well do
a Christmas in July event thing.
This is gorgeous.
They've done a great job.
Really great photo.
But that's noble lighthouse or Cape Nettic lighthouse.
Yeah, I'd like to see it.
(29:44):
It's a shame we can't go to the island.
I was gonna say we talked about Maine
as one of our potential future trips.
There's lots of potentials.
But whoever's doing it, keeping it in shape.
I mean, from these photos,
it looks like it's in great shape.
Yeah, really nice.
Looks freshly painted and everything's taken care of.
So I love that little oil house.
(30:07):
The little oil house,
which is over there because it's flammable, I take it.
Yeah, let's get this as far away as possible.
Far away from everything else.
It just saved the Fresnel lands, but whatever.
Well, we've had stories of oil houses burning and exploding.
That's true.
Never good.
Yeah, learning from your mistakes.
Adding walkways, oil house far away.
(30:29):
Yeah, that's it.
Nice, well, good job and thank you.
You're welcome.
Just a short little one for you.
How many have we covered now in Maine?
A couple?
I think two or three.
Okay, we did at least one else.
Yeah.
One other.
We've done two other ones.
I just had the map pulled up one second.
Waldo isn't in Maine, is it?
Yes, West Quoddy.
(30:50):
West Quoddy House, West Quoddy Light.
And I'm thinking the one that were Forest Gump was also.
Forest Gump.
Marshall Point Lighthouse.
Nice.
That's the one.
All right.
Maine's looking strong for lighthouses.
I know, I really wanna go.
Portsmouth is also technically Maine, isn't it?
Oh no.
No.
It's just below the main line.
(31:12):
Into New Hampshire.
Hampshire.
Damn it.
New York, New England.
I don't care about geography.
When was the last time I was in a history class?
Never. 20 years ago.
How rude.
I took history in college, probably freshman year.
What history did you take in college?
(31:33):
Just like a basic history class.
Pre-Silver War, that's what it was.
Are you sure? Yeah.
What do you mean am I sure?
I did not.
Well, good for you.
Mechanical engineers don't need to know history.
We're the future.
It was one of our KU core.
Yeah, I took American studies, which was a mistake.
(31:53):
I do not recommend that to anyone listening.
I think I took women's studies during one of my summers.
I'd rather take that.
What's American studies?
I wanna talk about it.
Oh, okay.
Well, thanks everyone for joining and listening
to our podcast today.
You should follow us on Instagram at the Lighthouse Lowdown.
You can check out our website, thelighthouselowdown.com.
(32:16):
You can leave us a voicemail.
Yeah, you can leave us a voicemail there.
You can watch the YouTube videos there.
You can listen to our podcast there.
Oh, you can also leave us a review there,
which you should definitely do.
Five stars.
Five stars only. Five out of 10.
And paragraphs, you need to write a paragraph.
And I've been getting a lot of comments on YouTube.
(32:37):
Yes, so much fun.
So thank you all for that.
I appreciate it very much.
And people have been suggesting lighthouses
for us to cover, so it's really fun.
We always enjoy that.
And we are taking notes.
We have lists going.
That's right.
Plenty of material coming your way.
Yeah.
Well, so we hope you join us next time
on the Lighthouse Lowdown.
(32:59):
Happyunting.
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