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Some lights clouded in mystery
There are tales told of some Maine lighthouses; tales of things that go bump in the night, catch fire at night, or in the case of one lighthouse that play piano at night. There is also the light at Matinicus Rock which is steeped in real-life history.
A macabre legend with a happy ending, and the story of a four-legged lightkeeper, are associated with the Owls Head Light, located at the southern entrance to Rockland Harbor.
During a storm in December 1850, a small schooner from Massachusetts broke loose from its mooring at Jameson Point and headed across Penboscot Bay toward Owls Head. The captain was ashore, leaving the mate, a seaman and a passenger aboard. As the storm intensified, the vessel smashed into the rocky ledges south of the lighthouse; the three on board huddled together, wrapped in blankets against the freezing surf. As the schooner broke apart, the seaman managed to get ashore and reached the road to the lighthouse. The keeper happened to be driving by in a sleigh, took the dazed man to his house and learned of the others still at sea.
A rescue party found the schooner, and the mate and passenger who were enveloped in a block of ice. After bringing the block ashore, carefully chipping away the ice and slowly warming the victims, both were revived. The mate, Richard Ingraham and passenger Lydia Dyer were later married. The seaman died soon after the wreck.
In the 1890s, a springer spaniel, Spot, who lived at Owls Head learned to pull the fog bell rope with his teeth when he saw an approaching vessel. Boats would answer with a whistle or bell and Spot would bark a reply.
One stormy night, the mail boat from Matinicus was headed toward Owls Head. The fog bell rope was buried in the snow, but Spot’s constant barking warned the captain in time to guide his vessel around the peninsula, clear the rocks and sound a whistle to acknowledge safe passage.
The spaniel is buried on the hillside near the former location of the fog bell. The Owls Head Light keeper’s house remains a residence for Coast Guard personnel and the surrounding grounds are now a state park.
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Seguin Island Light is among those reported to be haunted.
Located in the mouth of the heavily traveled Kennebec River, Seguin Island Light is situated on a rocky jut of island 186 feet above sea level. Fitted with a first-order Fresnel lens, Seguin holds the record as the foggiest location of any light in the United States.
Legend has it that a 19th century keeper’s wife played the same tune on the piano, over and over. The keeper was driven insane by the repetition, and took an ax to the piano, then killed his wife and himself. Some say the piano tune can still be heard drifting from the island on calm nights.
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Matinicus Rock Light and Whitehead Light, both located on islands off the Rockland coast, were home to Abbie Burgess, best-known heroine of the lights. Her story is arguably foremost among lighthouse legends; she is credited with saving her sisters and mother during a violent storm on Matinicus Rock in January 1856.
As a 14-year old, Abbie learned to tend the lamps, and by age 17 was regularly looking after the lights while her father went lobster fishing to augment the family income. In January 1856, her father left to buy provisions on the mainland, and soon afterwards a violent storm developed. Abbie took her invalid mother and siblings into the base of the lighthouse for safekeeping as the storm swept away the keeper’s house. While rough seas kept her father away for a month, Abbie tended the lights and cared for her family. She later married Issac Grant, son of the lightkeeper who eventually replaced her father, and Abbie was appointed assistant keeper at Matinicus Rock.
Abbie, her husband and four children were transferred to the Whitehead Light station in 1875 where they served for 15 years. In 1892, Abbie Grant died at the age of 53. Her tombstone is a small replica of a lighthouse, located in Forest Hill Cemetery (off Route 73 between South Thomaston and St. George).
Matinicus Rock is now home to a nesting colony of Atlantic Puffins, terns and other sea birds. The lighthouse, located 25 miles offshore of Rockland, can be viewed by air or sea. Whitehead Light is located on a small island near Tenants Harbor, is also best seen by boat.
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Tales associated with Whitehead Light include that of two shipwrecked sailors who froze to death on Whitehead in 1805; their gaves remain on the island. Another involves the first lighthouse keeper, Ellis Dolph, who initiated a side business by selling the whale oil intended for the light. As the orders for oil steadily increased, officials became suspicious. An investigation revealed that storekeepers in nearby Thomaston had been buying entire barrels of oil from the keeper. Dolph’s duties were summarily terminated.
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Standing on a small, rocky, barren island about 6.5 miles southeast of Cape Neddick, the Boon Island Light is clearly one of the most isolated. Severe storms, typical of this area, have swept away numerous light towers on this ledge. Tales and legends involving the island are numerous but the most well-known incident was the wreck of the British ship Nottingham Galley in December 1710. Survivors struggled to stay alive for three weeks, finally resorting to cannibalism.
It’s said that after this disaster local fishermen began leaving barrels of provisions (a “boon”) in case of future wrecks.
Legends also tell of a keeper’s wife driven mad after her husband’s death on the island, of a keeper who left the island for food, later found wandering aimlessly hundreds of miles away and of marooned keepers saved by a the crew of a passing schooner who retrieved their plea for help set adrift in a bottle.
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Ram Island Light can be found off Ocean Point on the eastern side of Boothbay Harbor.
The original aid to navigation on Ram Island was a lantern in the bow of a fisherman’s anchored dory. Custom dictated that the last fisherman into the harbor each day would light the lantern, but this routine ended when the dory was wrecked in a storm. Another fisherman then moved the lantern to the island and tended the light. Shipwrecks continued however, as this light was not bright enough to warn vessels away from the rocks.
For some years thereafter, Ram Island had no light and locals talked of ghosts guiding ships to safe passage. Tales include a sounding fog whistle (there was no signal on the island), a burning boat at night, gone without trace the following day, and a woman in white waving a lighted torch.