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Special Dispatch to the Sunday Telegram
Linekin’s Neck, August 3 – One of the “show places” for summer visitors here is the Ram Island [Ledge] Light, close to Fisherman’s Island. The genesis of this coast light is interesting. Before it was established, a lobsterman on Fisherman’s Island many years ago, having narrowly escape shipwreck on the reefs of the ragged Ram Island, philanthropically maintained a lantern signal which he lighted each night, tying it down so the winds would not overturn it.
Its rays shot but a little ways out, but a young man named Aldis McKay, returning from his lobster pots late in the evening, was caught in the fog and darkness. He lost his bearings and would have been in trouble, when he spied the tiny beam on Ram Island and instantly anew his position. He was so grateful that he made it his business to assume the duties of light keeper.
The First Lighthouse
Out of a big dry goods box he built an enclosure with windows for the lantern. Every night as he came from his traps he would “light-up.” Sometimes the wind blew out the tiny flame, but McKay stuck to his task until he moved west and entered upon ranch life. The need for a permanent light on Ram Island became more and more apparent.
A sailor saw a vision on the rock – a woman in white holding a lighted lamp over her head. A fisherman said he steered away from the reefs because he saw the ghost of a burning ship. Still another would have crashed on the teeth of the black reefs had not a lightning flash showed Ram Island just in time. These things were all taken as “omens” that there should be a real lighthouse at this point.
Someone moored a dory off the island with a lighted lantern suspended from a short mast. This proved ineffective, however, because heavy easterlies swamped the frail craft, or caused it to drag its mooring so it more often misled than guided the mariners who depended upon it.
Hailstorm Breaks Beacon
Eventually, Uncle Sam placed a light there. Almost the first night it burned, a heavy hailstorm broke the glass and put out the beacon. All Night the keeper tried to shield the flame with newspapers and keep the lamp burning. Another time he found the kerosene had leaked from this early crude lamp and he rowed in to Boothbay in a storm for a new supply. Darkness shut down just as he got back to Ram Island, but he was able to stop the leak, refill the lamp, and light up as usual.
Saved Schooner’s Crew
Notwithstanding the light there were many wrecks in this vicinity during the early years of its installation. The keepers made many gallant rescues. Once a dismasted schooner was dashed against the outer reefs. The keeper’s own boat had been torn from its moorings and swept away. Undaunted, he tied a line around his waist, and tossing a big plank over, paddled out near enough to the wreck to cast his line aboard. The he and the sailors, by help of the light to shore, were able to haul themselves to Ram Island and all their lives were saved.
Tossed Up By Sea
Following a fierce storm one of the keepers awoke in the morning to find a man in dripping rags, crazed by shipwreck, fright and exposure, staggering across the reefs to the light tower. He could neither tell his name nor what had happened. After kindly ministrations and rest he was set ashore by the keeper for proper medical advice. It is said he fully recovered although his name, like the names of others mentioned in these early Ram Island incidents are missing from the records. Today, there is a modern light visible many miles distant and no serious wrecks have occurred here for many years.
This story appeared in the
Sep/Oct 2024 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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