This view is from the northwest. This view shows the boathouse and the ramp used to get the small boat on and off of the island. This picture was taken after a winter storm and the slip, normally boarded in on the left, was missing many planks from the severity of the storm. If you drew a vertical line from the peak of the house, which is connected to the tower it would divide the living quarters for the two families living there. It should be noted that this was a two family lightstation. The Officer in Charge lived on this side of the dwelling. Basically because he had first pick and on the east side of the station there was a large seawall blocking the windows.
The Cuckolds Lighthouse is located at the tip of Cape Newagen, Maine on the west side of Boothbay Harbor in what is considered mid-coast Maine.
Little remains of the station other than the tower containing the light. The living quarters was torn down around 1978. Some stories say it was a storm but my belief is, that when the station was automated, it just wasn’t worth it to maintain the living quarters.
Tags: Boothbay Harbor, Cuckolds LIghtstation, Maine, Newagen
My wife and I had been there a while and our son was something over a year old. Naturally as he was the only one and we were young we worried considerably about Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: accident, injury, lighthouse, travel to and from
The District Office ultimately controlled personnel for the lighthouses and other Small Coast Guard Units, which for the 1st Coast Guard district was in Boston, MA. The second link was in South Portland, ME which controlled the smaller stations from somewhere around Wells, ME to about the Boothbay Harbor area. All stations were rated by the amount of personnel attached.
The area controlled by South Portland was called Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: lighthouse
I am putting this here because of the time involved between now and when I was there. I can’t seem to get the proper chronological order. Sometime during my time on the Cuckold’s a letter was sent to Margaret Chase Smith about some of the conditions on the island.
I mentioned earlier that the outboard motor Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: coast guard, motor, problems
The Keepers Duties
The duties of the keeper included all phases of maintenance and operation of the station.
· Operate the station aids to navigation
· Maintain the station
The primary and most important reasons for the station being manned was to operate the light, foghorn, and the LORAN Beacon. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: duties, family, keeper, lighthouse, offshore
During the second winter I was there a storm was predicted to be a little worse than normal. By this time my wife and I were used to the storms on the island and didn’t concern ourselves with it and didn’t feel that it would effect our routine to any great extent.
This might have been different Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: lighthouse, norteaster, storm
On this day we had all been noticing that the weather had been slowly deteriorating. We hadn’t thought much about this as the weather constantly changed and this was just another boring day.
Again I don’t know why but for some reason I went Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: assistant, dog, lighthouse, weather
As previously mentioned we stood watch 6 hours on and 6 hours off. Being realistic about this I don’t think anyone ever stood the watches with that sort of regularity. Things were done differently with different people living on the island but because most of the time there were 4 adults, we simply did what had to be done. We always sure to be careful that someone was awake.
We all knew what to watch Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Cuckolds LIghtstation, daily routine, watches, weather
This view is from the northwest. This view shows the boathouse and the ramp used to get the small boat on and off of the island. This picture was taken after a winter storm and the slip, normally boarded in on the left, was missing many planks from the severity of the storm. If you drew a vertical line from the peak of the house, which is connected to the tower it would divide the living quarters for the two families living there. It should be noted that this was a two family lightstation. The Officer in Charge lived on this side of the dwelling. Basically because he had first pick and on the east side of the station there was a large seawall blocking the windows. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cuckold, light, lighthouse, lightstation, station
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