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Ram Island, in Fisherman Island
Passage at the entrance to Boothbay Harbor, has a fascinating
history complete with ghosts and shipwrecks. The island's light
station has been rescued in recent years from the brink of extinction.
The history of aids to navigation on Ram Island began in the
mid-1800s when a fisherman, after narrowly escaping the dangerous
rocks near the island, began hanging a lantern at night for the
benefit of local mariners. The fisherman left the area after
a number of years and the lantern was kept by a second keeper,
then a third.
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- Ram Island Light in the late 19th
century. U.S. Coast Guard photo
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The third lantern keeper anchored a dory and rigged the lamp
in its bow. It became the custom for the last fisherman coming
into the harbor each day to light the lantern. This ended when
the dory was smashed in a storm.
For a time, the lone resident of Fisherman's Island maintained
a lantern. Apparently the light he displayed was too weak, causing
an increase in wrecks. Once when a schooner was in danger of
coming up on the rocks the fisherman got a line to the vessel
and the crew managed to escape to the shore. Soon there was another
wreck in which most of the crew were killed.
For some years after this, there was no light on Ram Island.
Locals talked of ghosts that warned vessels away from the dangerous
rocks. Robert Thayer Sterling, in his book Lighthouses of
the Maine Coast and the Men Who Keep Them, tells several
eerie stories of Ram Island. One captain swore he was warned
by a fog whistle at Ram Island during a snowstorm, which was
impossible since there was no such signal there. Another fisherman
was in danger of running into the rocks when he saw a burning
boat and changed his direction. The next day he saw no trace
of the mysterious vessel.
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On another unusually dark night, a sailor was approaching
Ram when he saw a woman in white waving a lighted torch over
her head. The sailor veered off just in time to avoid being dashed
on the rocks. Finally, a schooner helmsman claimed that a bolt
of lightning illuminated the area moments before the vessel would
have struck the ledges.
Congress finally appropriated $25,000 for a lighthouse in
1882. The light went into service on November 5, 1883. Soon after
that, a severe hailstorm broke the lantern glass and the lamp
was blown out by the wind. The keeper tried to keep the light
going through the night by shielding it with newspapers.
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- Part of the plans for Ram Island
Light (U.S. Coast Guard)
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- Ram Island Light c. 1900
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The brick lighthouse, with a granite base, is very similar
to the towers at Marshall Point and Isle au Haut. The tower was
erected some yards offshore and a wooden walkway connected it
to the island.
The 1886 book All Among the Lighthouses described a
visit to Ram Island Light:
The keeper's house was near the top of the island. The
lighthouse was some distance away, its heavy granite foundation
on a level with the water, and washed constantly by the swell
as it rolled in round the island, from the sea, -- for this lighthouse
is not built upon the outer side of the island, but on the inner
side, looking toward the shore, and is intended to light the
entrance to Boothbay. As the keeper's house is some little distance
above the shore, the connection between it and the lighthouse
is made by a bridge, which joins the lighthouse about half-way
up. The bridge is built of wood, resting on iron pillars securely
mortised into the solid rock below, and gives a very easy mode
of access to the lighthouse tower.
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A Victorian keeper's house was also built in 1883; a fog bell
and bell tower were added to the station in 1897. In 1903 a vessel
ran into the walkway to the lighthouse and destroyed it. It was
soon rebuilt.
The first keeper was Samuel John Cavanor, a native of Halifax,
Nova Scotia, who stayed at the light until he died in 1913. He
lived on Ram Island with his wife, May, and their five daughters,
who attended school in Boothbay. Cavanor had a wooden leg. He
had been on the crew of a lighthouse tender, and a buoy raised
by a derrick swung and crushed his leg. He had served as an assistant
keeper at Seguin Island before going to Ram Island.
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- A fog bell can be seen in this photo
from the 1930s
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Almon Mitchell was keeper from 1913 to 1925. He and his wife
Emily Maria Mitchell had five children during their stay at Ram
Island, between 1913 and 1923. Mitchell died on the island on
May 4, 1925 at the age of 68.
- Keeper Almon Mitchell at Ram Island
Light. Courtesy of the Colby family.
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- Keeper Almon Mitchell with his wife
and five children at Ram Island Light. Courtesy of the Colby
family.
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The light was automated in 1965 and the Coast Guard keepers
were removed. The station soon fell victim to vandals. The house
was damaged, and in 1975 the fourth-order Fresnel lens was stolen.
The lens was eventually recovered, and it's now at the museum
of the Boothbay Region Historical Society.
In 1977, the Coast Guard repaired the lighthouse for $44,000
and removed the walkway, which had fallen into disrepair. During
this renovation, 14,000 bricks were replaced in the tower and
the masonry base was repointed. The cast-iron lantern was removed
and renovated.
The boathouse was destroyed in the great blizzard of February
6-7, 1978.
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The oil house
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The light station was offered to the town of Boothbay, but
the high maintenance costs convinced town officials to decline
the offer. In 1983, the keeper's house was slated to be destroyed
when the Grand Banks
Schooner Museum Trust, associated with the Boothbay Railway
Museum, stepped in and leased the station except for the tower.
Under the Maine Lights Program, the property was transferred
to the Grand Banks
Schooner Museum Trust in 1998.
- The new walkway, photo courtesy of
Grand Banks Schooner Museum Trust.
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The Ram Island Preservation Society, part of the Grand
Banks Schooner Museum Trust, has restored the house.
In late 2002, they reconstructed the walkway from the shore to
the lighthouse tower.
Ram Island Light can also be seen from many of the tour boats
out of Boothbay Harbor and Bath.
For more information contact:
Ram Island Preservation Society
P.O. Box 123
Boothbay, Maine 04537
(207) 633-4727
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Keepers: Samuel John Cavanor (Cavenor) (1883-1913);
O. G. Reed (1913); Almon Mitchell (1913-1925); Alonzo A. Conors
(1925-?); C. N. Robinson (c. 1930s), Merrill Poor (1944); Ralph
Norwood (1945-1950)
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