I can’t think of many more terrifying things than being marooned at night in a lighthouse during a raging hurricane-force storm, the structure shaking violently until it falls into the sea. That is what happened to two keepers in 1851. Many people believe their spirits still haunt the place.
Minots Ledge Light is situated on a group of dangerous rock formations, the largest of which is Minots Ledge, about a mile offshore from Cohasset and Scituate, Massachusetts. Located southeast of Boston Harbor, it was the scene of many shipwrecks. Minots Ledge was named after Boston merchant George Minot, who lost a ship there in 1754. In 1843, lighthouse inspector I. W. P. Lewis compiled a report showing that between 1832 and 1841, more than forty vessels were lost due to striking the ledge, with serious loss of life and damage to property.
It was initially proposed to build a granite tower like the Eddystone Lighthouse off the English coast, but Captain William H. Swift, who was in charge of planning, believed it would be impossible to build a tower on the mostly submerged ledge. Instead, he successfully argued for an iron pile light. The design had eight iron pilings sunk into five feet of solid rock and then cemented in place. The light and the keeper’s dwelling would sit seventy-five feet above the water in a skeleton lighthouse. This would, in theory, offer less resistance to the tide, but this turned out to be a tragic mistake.
The construction began in 1847 and took over three years. A platform was constructed for the drilling equipment, but it was wrecked twice by bad weather. The work could only be done at low tide in good weather. Only three months before construction was completed, a brig, the St. John, carrying Irish immigrants, struck the rocks and broke up. Ninety-nine men, women, and children drowned.
The construction was considered an engineering marvel, and the light was lit for the first time on January 1, 1850. During the construction, the famous writer Henry David Thoreau sailed past and wrote, “Here was the new iron light-house, then unfinished, in the shape of an eggshell painted red, and placed high on iron pillars, like the ovum of a sea monster floating on the waves. When I passed it the next summer, it was finished and two men lived in it and a lighthouse keeper said in a recent gale it had rocked to shake the plates off the table. Think of making your bed thus in the crest of a breaker.”
The first keeper, Isaac Dunham, resigned after only ten months because of the shaking. The second keeper, Capt. John W. Bennett also came to believe the structure was probably not safe. He requested it be strengthened, but nothing was ever done.
On April 11, 1851, Captain Bennett left the light on business, leaving his two assistants, an Englishman named Joseph Wilson and a Portuguese man named Joseph Antoine, in charge. Returning the following day, he was prevented from returning to the light by an easterly gale. The storm intensified over the next days, and great apprehension was felt for the men at Minots Ledge.
On the fateful night of April 17, eyewitnesses on the shore said that at about 10:00 pm, the light went out and three hours later, the light’s bell rang violently. At approximately 1:00 am, at the height of the storm, the last of the light’s iron supports snapped off and Minots Ledge Light toppled into the sea. Both keepers jumped into the surf wearing life jackets. It is believed that Joseph Wilson managed to swim to nearby Gull Island only to die of exposure, while Joseph Antoine drowned in the surf and washed ashore at Nantasket Beach.
After the storm, there was a great deal of criticism toward the government for having failed to adequately strengthen the structure, endangering the lives of the keepers. Captain William H. Swift, who had designed the first light, defended his design even though the structure lasted only a year.
The lighthouse on Minots Ledge was rebuilt and its construction took five years. This time it was built of interlocking granite blocks in the form of a tower measuring eighty-five feet high. It was first lit on November 15, 1860, and still stands today one hundred sixty-five years later. It was automated in 1947 and has withstood many storms with the largest seas causing only strong vibrations and minor damage.
The light is said to be haunted by the ghosts of assistant keepers Joseph Wilson and Joseph Antoine, who died that terrifying night. Over the years, fishermen and keepers have reported hearing cries for help, seeing figures on the iron ladder, and experiencing mysterious cleanings of the lens and windows. In 2000, a granite memorial was erected on Government Island to honor Joseph Antoine and Joseph Wilson.