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When the English explorer Capt. John Smith visited the area around Cape Ann in 1614, he found an abundance of timber and a "silver stream" of cod and other fish. Smith's coat of arms depicted three Turks' heads on a shield, in commemoration of three consecutive jousting victories during a siege in Transylvania. As he traveled along Cape Ann's eastern shore, Smith encountered three prominent islands that he named the "Turks' Heads." These islands are now known as Thacher, Milk, and Straitsmouth. The area's vital granite business began in the 1820s, joining the fishing industry to put Rockport, which was then a part of Gloucester, on the map. In fact, before it was incorporated as a town in 1840, Rockport was known to many as Granitetown.
John Davis became keeper in 1841 at a yearly salary of $350. After inspecting Straitsmouth Island Light in 1842, engineer I.W.P. Lewis called the station a "specimen of contract work of the worst kind." Davis complained that the house was poorly built and leaky, and that the water cistern in the cellar was so leaky that it was useless. Davis dismantled the cistern and made many repairs on the dwelling. In his report, Lewis also pointed out that one of the original purposes of the lighthouse was to guide mariners through the narrow channel between Thacher Island and the Salvages. Unfortunately, the tower was situated about 500 feet out of position and failed to fulfill this purpose.
The lighthouse continued as an active aid to navigation, but the abandoned house went quickly downhill. In the early 1980s, a local man named Charles Costello did some renovation of the dwelling only to have his work immediately ruined by vandals. He once replaced some windows and saw them broken within days. In 1983, there was another short-lived restoration effort by four other young men who planned to live in the house. The men were a bit startled by the island's wildlife. One of them told the Gloucester Daily Times, "The first time my brother came out he yelled, 'Hey, look at the seal on the rock!' Not until I saw the tail did I know it was a rat." At the time there were two feet of rat and seagull droppings on the floor of the house.
The keeper's house in the fall of
2000
The house has continued to deteriorate. MAS' primary purpose
is to maintain Straitsmouth Island as a bird sanctuary. For the
few people that visit Straitmouth, landing is very difficult
as the boat ramp was removed years ago.
The "Perfect Storm" of October 1991 destroyed the old entryway to the tower, and the Coast Guard built a smaller entryway during the following year. The solar-powered light and an automated fog signal remain active aids to navigation. In July 2009, it was announced that ownership of the lighthouse would be conveyed to the Thacher Island Association, in accordance with the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Straitsmouth Island Light can be seen from the breakwater at the end of Bearskin Neck in Rockport, and from some of the scenic cruises in the area.
Keepers: (This list is a work in progress. If you have any information on the keepers of this lighthouse, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at nelights@gmail.com. Anyone copying this list onto another web site does so at their own risk, as the list is always subject to updates and corrections.) Benjamin Andrews (1835-1841); John Davis (1841-?); Henry F. Low (c. 1850); Nehemiah Knowlton (18?? - was keeper for 14 years); Thomas W. Newcomb (?-1913) |
