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It is always a pleasure to hear firsthand what it was like to serve as a lighthouse keeper, especially at a station as historic as Boston Light on Little Brewster Island, Massachusetts. Such opportunities are rare, but when they present themselves, it is a must-attend event. That’s exactly what the public did once the Southwest Harbor Historical Society, Mount Desert Island, Maine, announced that their guest speaker for a July 24, 2024 program would be former U.S. Coast Guard lighthouse keeper Dennis Dever. The program, which was held at the Society’s Manset Meetinghouse, attracted a full-house – and Dever did not disappoint those in attendance with his one-of-a-kind presentation.
Rather than delving right into his time as a lighthouse keeper, Dever started out his presentation by explaining to the audience the importance of history. “History is one of the things that holds us together. I always thought that was important,” he said.
Dever also stated that though a few lighthouse keepers were lauded by the Government and news reports more than many others for their dedication and valor, essentially, “any keeper did the same stuff, but they just did not get recognized.”
From heroines such as Abbie Burgess and Ida Lewis to the tragedies that befell Boston Light’s first keeper – George Worthylake and the two keepers (Joseph Wilson and Joseph Antoine) who lost their lives when the original Minots Ledge Lighthouse fell over during an 1851 storm, Dever shared stories from a bygone way of life.
Later, Dever focused his presentation on the venerable Boston Light – a place he called home for about two years. The first lighthouse was built on Little Brewster Island in 1716, and as Dever noted, “You can imagine the history” that occurred at this storied location. Dever also touched on the remoteness of Boston Light, and how “I’ve always been an independent person, but you learn a lot about yourself and how to be truly independent” while at an offshore lighthouse.
It was in 1988 when Boatswain’s Mate First Class (BM1) Dennis Dever was appointed as the 60th lighthouse keeper to serve at Boston Light. Dever was also the station’s Officer-in-Charge – a responsibility he held until January 1990 when he departed the lighthouse. In all, Dever served nearly three decades as a Coastguardsman.
The program contained dozens of photos taken by Dever while he served at Boston Light. Yet not all the photos and stories that Dever shared related to the lighthouse, station duty and weather that the keepers experienced. He also shared a number of human interest stories, including those of pets – a canine (German Shepard / Doberman mix) named Farrah and a black cat named Ida Lewis.
“We brought Ida out there to the island because there were a lot of rats out on these islands – and they were big,” said Dever. “They only got in the house once that we noticed. In the winter, it was really cool because you’d see these little holes in the snow all over the island with frost around them – it was the breath from the rats. They weren’t a problem, really, but we did not want them in the house and stuff, so we brought Ida out to maybe get some of these rats, and that didn’t work. Ida didn’t touch them – they were about her size.”
Dennis Dever touched on a powerful summer thunderstorm that he experienced while on the island. “It was a dark cloud over Boston,” he recalled, before the storm swept out over the waters of Boston Harbor. “When the storm got to the lighthouse, it all broke loose. It just started roaring. I saw something big and white fly by the living room windows – it was a picnic table!”
The light station’s flag pole was the victim of damage from many a storm events on the island. As Dever noted, “There was always an ordeal with the flag pole.”
Boston Light possesses a gorgeous second order Fresnel lens – a treasure that Dever enjoyed keeping clean while also marveling at its mysteries, including the spectacular spectrums of light that would occur when sunlight passed through the prisms of the lens. “It was one of those neat little things how prisms made a rainbow effect,” Dever said. “The colors were so vivid.”
Speaking of Fresnel lenses, Dever explained how the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury – Stephen Pleasonton, who managed America’s lighthouses from 1820 to 1852, resisted purchasing Fresnel lenses during his tenure due to their expense.
In the meantime, the effectiveness of our nation’s lighthouses lagged behind other countries in the world who did embrace the revolutionary technology. When Mr. Pleasonton was replaced by the U.S. Lighthouse Board in 1852, this all changed. Over the subsequent decade-plus, nearly every lighthouse in America possessed a Fresnel lens in its lantern. As Dever noted, “We went from the bottom of the lighthouse heap to the top.”
After leaving Boston Light, Dennis Dever would eventually reconnect with lighthouses and their rich history. Rather than being a lightkeeper, Dever would go on to serve as the Officer-in-Charge at two United States Coast Guard aids to navigation teams – Miami, Florida and Cape May, New Jersey. Both tours of duty provided Dever an opportunity to “tend” lighthouses as a keeper of lights.
In a 2003 story that appeared in Lighthouse Digest magazine, he said, “There is a definite parallel between the modern crews and past keepers, and much of the job and entertainment remains the same – albeit with some modern twists.”
Before ending his program, Dever shared with the audience the fact that Boston Light was a different world. “It was not much of an austere military environment out there,” he said. “You could not tell if it was 1716 or 1990. The character of the station had not changed.”
And this is one of the many reasons people love lighthouses and their history – for the timelessness of the sentinels and their keepers. Long may the lights shine!
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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