Women who Kept the Lights

Women who Kept the Lights PDF Author: Mary Louise Clifford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Hundreds of American women have kept the lamps burning in lighthouses since Hannah Thomas tended Gurnet Point Light in Plymouth, Massachusetts, while her husband was away fighting in the War for Independence. Women Who Kept the Lights details the careers of 32 intrepid women who were official keepers of light stations on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts, on Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes, staying at their posts for periods ranging from a few years to half a century. Most of these women served in the nineteenth century, when the keeper lit a number of lamps in the tower at dusk, replenished their fuel or replaced them at midnight, and every morning polished the lamps and lanterns to keep their lights shining brightly. Several of these stalwart women were commended for their courage in remaining at their posts through severe storms and hurricanes. A few went to the rescue of seamen when ships capsized or were wrecked. Their varied stories paint a multifaceted picture of a unique profession in our maritime history.

Women who Kept the Lights

Women who Kept the Lights PDF Author: Mary Louise Clifford
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
Hundreds of American women have kept the lamps burning in lighthouses since Hannah Thomas tended Gurnet Point Light in Plymouth, Massachusetts, while her husband was away fighting in the War for Independence. Women Who Kept the Lights details the careers of 32 intrepid women who were official keepers of light stations on the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific Coasts, on Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes, staying at their posts for periods ranging from a few years to half a century. Most of these women served in the nineteenth century, when the keeper lit a number of lamps in the tower at dusk, replenished their fuel or replaced them at midnight, and every morning polished the lamps and lanterns to keep their lights shining brightly. Several of these stalwart women were commended for their courage in remaining at their posts through severe storms and hurricanes. A few went to the rescue of seamen when ships capsized or were wrecked. Their varied stories paint a multifaceted picture of a unique profession in our maritime history.

Florida Lighthouses

Florida Lighthouses PDF Author: Rick Tuers
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
ISBN: 9780764358739
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Discover the maritime and human history of Florida's 30 awe-inspiring lighthouses along the East Coast, through the Keys, and up the west coast to the Panhandle. Both modern color and historical black-and-white photographs, as well as postcards and diagrams, illustrate their role in the settlement of not only Florida, but all of America. Florida's shores have been witness to over five centuries of maritime history, including battles in the Revolutionary War, the Seminole Wars, the Civil War, and World War II. Diving into the lives of the keepers of these beacons, the Tuerses describe how the lighthouse keepers navigated not only these political conflicts, but nature's wrath, braving hurricanes and wild storms to keep the lights burning. This meticulously researched book covers the technical--such as the engineering behind the design of the towers and lenses--as well as the personal, including stories of widowed women balancing raising a family with tending the lighthouse.

Lighthouses of New York

Lighthouses of New York PDF Author: Rick Tuers
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
ISBN: 9780764326929
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Superb photographs and graphics provide a unique look at New York's colonization, settlement, and economic growth. Discover how the state's rich maritime heritage centers around 69 lighthouses, located on many different water bodies. This book details all of them, including famous lighthouses like Montauk Point, Fire Island, and Buffalo. These symbols of strength have protected mariners for over two hundred years. Fascinating historical facts, heroic rescues by lighthouse keepers, heartwarming stories about keepers and their families, engineering and construction details, lost beacons, and travel information make this a complete guide to New York State lighthouses.

Hudson River Lighthouses

Hudson River Lighthouses PDF Author: Hudson River Maritime Museum
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467103306
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
Lighthouses were built on the Hudson River in New York between 1826 to 1921 to help guide freight and passenger traffic. One of the most famous was the iconic Statue of Liberty. This fascinating history with photos will bring the time of traffic along the river alive. Set against the backdrop of purple mountains, lush hillsides, and tidal wetlands, the lighthouses of the Hudson River were built between 1826 and 1921 to improve navigational safety on a river teeming with freight and passenger traffic. Unlike the towering beacons of the seacoasts, these river lighthouses were architecturally diverse, ranging from short conical towers to elaborate Victorian houses. Operated by men and women who at times risked and lost their lives in service of safe navigation, these beacons have overseen more than a century of extraordinary technological and social change. Of the dozens of historic lighthouses and beacons that once dotted the Hudson River, just eight remain, including the iconic Statue of Liberty, New York Harbor's great monument to freedom and immigration, which served as an official lighthouse between 1886 and 1902. Hudson River Lighthouses invites readers to explore these unique icons and their fascinating stories.

Light Years

Light Years PDF Author: Caroline Woodward
Publisher: Harbour Publishing
ISBN: 1550177281
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In 2007, Caroline Woodward was itching for a change. With an established career in book-selling and promotion, four books of her own and having raised a son with her husband, Jeff, she yearned for adventure and to re-ignite her passion for writing. Jeff was tired of piecing together low-paying part-time jobs and, with Caroline’s encouragement, applied for a position as a relief lightkeeper on a remote North Pacific island. They endured lonely months of living apart, but the way of life rejuvenated Jeff and inspired Caroline to contemplate serious shifts in order to accompany him. When a permanent position for a lighthouse keeper became available, Caroline quit her job and joined Jeff on the lights. Caroline soon learned that the lighthouse-keeping life does not consist of long, empty hours in which to write. The reality is hard physical labour, long stretches of isolation and the constant threat of de-staffing. Beginning with a 3:30 a.m. weather report, the days are filled with maintaining the light station buildings, sea sampling, radio communication, beach cleanup, wildlife encounters and everything in between. As for dangerous rescue missions or dramatic shipwrecks—that kind of excitement is rare. “So far the only life I know I’ve saved is my own,” she says, with her trademark dry wit. Yet Caroline is exhilarated by the scenic coastline with its drizzle and fog, seabirds and whales, and finds time to grow a garden and, as anticipated, write. Told with eloquent introspection and an eye for detail, Light Years is the personal account of a lighthouse keeper in twenty-first century British Columbia—an account that details Caroline’s endurance of extreme climatic, interpersonal and medical challenges, as well as the practical and psychological aspects of living a happy, healthy, useful and creative life in isolation.

The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse PDF Author: Keith McCloskey
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0750957417
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
On 26 December 1900, the vessel Hesperus arrived at Eilean Mor in the remote Outer Hebrides with a relief lighthouseman and fresh provisions. The lighthouse had been in operation for a year, but it had been noted that no light had been seen from Eilean Mor for several days. The relief keeper, Joseph Moore, found the lighthouse to be completely deserted, and a subsequent search of the island failed to reveal any sign of what had happened to the three keepers. The last entry in the logbook had been made on 15 December and contained a number of strange and distressing clues as to the mental states of the men. One was reported to have been crying, while another had become 'very quiet'. When it was revealed that the men's oilskin coats were missing and the clock in the lighthouse had stopped, theories surrounding the keepers' fates inevitably proliferated. These included a giant wave washing them away, murder or suicide. Others favoured more esoteric explanations – Eilean Mor was believed to have mystical properties. In The Lighthouse, Keith McCloskey explores this mysterious and chilling story in depth for the first time and reveals a shocking conclusion.

Keepers of the Light

Keepers of the Light PDF Author: Donald Graham
Publisher: Madeira Park, B.C. : Harbour Pub.
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A BC classic hailed by the Vancouver Sun as A moving, very human story.

The Last Lighthouse Keeper

The Last Lighthouse Keeper PDF Author: John Cook
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 1760874612
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
John Cook's ripping life story exposes Tasmania's old kero-fuelled lighthouses: relentless physically and emotionally demanding labour, done under the often cruel vagaries of nature. Noble work that can ultimately redeem a lost soul. Or break them.' MATTHEW EVANS I loved the life of the island, because I knew my body was more alive than it was on the mainland. People asked how we stood the isolation and boredom, but in some ways, it was more stimulating to have your senses turned up. In Tasmania, John Cook is known as 'The Keeper of the Flame'. As one of Australia's longest-serving lighthouse keepers, John spent 26 years tending Tasmania's well-known kerosene 'lights' at Tasman Island, Maatsuyker Island and Bruny Island. From sleepless nights keeping the lights alive, battling the wind and sea as they ripped at gutters and flooded stores, raising a joey, tending sheep and keeping ducks and chickens, the life of a keeper was one of unexpected joy and heartbreak. But for John, nothing was more heartbreaking than the introduction of electric lights, and the lighthouses that were left empty forever. Evocatively told, The Last Lighthouse Keeper is a love story between a man and a dying way of life, as well as a celebration of wilderness and solitude.

Haunted Lighthouses

Haunted Lighthouses PDF Author: Ray Jones
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0762766425
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Lighthouses and ghosts are two popular passions. Melded together by master storyteller and lighthouse expert Ray Jones, these tales of spirited lights are guaranteed to grab the attention of all readers. As an added bonus, practical information is given for those who wish to visit the featured lighthouses for themselves . . . if they dare.

Lighthouses of America

Lighthouses of America PDF Author: Tom Beard
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
ISBN: 1599621401
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
A spectacular collection of America’s most iconic and stunning lighthouses. Through gorgeous photography, this book celebrates these unique and magnificent beacons and their history. The construction of lighthouses began as this new nation’s first public-works project in 1789 and established the United States as a maritime world power by making ports safe for navigation. These structures—many still active and serving their original purpose even in the era of global positioning systems—are living museums, yet they often prove difficult to access for visitors due to their necessary remoteness. From Maine’s West Quoddy Head on the easternmost headlands to the iconic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and the West Coast lighthouses from New Point Loma to New Dungeness and Michigan’s Grand Haven Pier Lighthouse, the images here will delight both the armchair traveler and those who have taken the back roads or trekked across sandy beaches to visit these special and often artful buildings. This is a great gift for lovers of lighthouses, boaters, and those who live or dream of living on the seashore.