The Lightship Overfalls, more properly known as the LV-118 or the WAL 539, was the last lightship built under the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Built in East Boothbay, Maine, in 1938, the 116-foot-long vessel incorporated the latest features of lightship design at the time. The LV-118 saw duty in several locations in its active career. From… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 298 – John Bolster, Lightship Overfalls, Delaware
This is part two of a two-part interview with Henry Gonzalez, who became the president of the U.S. Lighthouse Society this past spring after 25 years in a vice presidential role. Henry has lighthouses in his blood. He’s the great-great-grandson of a lighthouse keeper who served on the north coast of Spain from 1863 to… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 297 – U.S. Lighthouse Society President Henry Gonzalez, pt 2 of 2
This week’s guest, Henry Gonzalez, was the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s Vice President for East Coast Operations from 1999 until 2006. He assumed a broader role as the Society’s sole Vice President until March 2024, when he began a four-year term as president. Henry also served two terms as President of the Chesapeake Chapter of the… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 296 – U.S. Lighthouse Society President Henry Gonzalez, part 1 of 2
The three interviews heard in this episode date back to the summer of 1988, when Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont traveled up the Maine coast to visit lighthouses. The first interview is with Maurice Babcock Jr., at his home in Lubec, Maine. His father, Maurice Babcock Sr., was the last civilian keeper at Boston Light.… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 295 – From 1988: Maurice Babcock Jr. (Boston Light, MA); Larry Baum (Fort Point,ME); Malcolm Rouse (Owls Head, ME)
Christian Taber is a 17-year-old high school student and athlete living in Upstate New York. Christian is a speaker, author, and entrepeneur. A passion for lighthouses has figured heavily in his work. Christian has written for the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s journal “The Keeper’s Log” and for our news blog. As the founder and CEO of… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 294 – Christian Taber, “Be Your Own Navigator”
Three-acre Cedar Island is on the South Fork of Long Island, New York, on the approach to Sag Harbor, which was a busy whaling port in the first half of the nineteenth century. A wooden lighthouse was established on Cedar Island in 1839, and it was replaced in 1868 by the granite lighthouse and keeper’s… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 293 – Michael Leahy and Joe Livolsi, Cedar Island, NY
The town of Scituate, Massachusetts, on Boston’s South Shore, developed a significant fishing industry by the late 1800s. A stone lighthouse tower was built at Cedar Point, and it began service in April 1812. A major restoration of the lighthouse has taken place over the past two years. Much work on the lighthouse has been… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 292 – Restoration of Scituate Lighthouse, MA
Located a mile offshore from Newport, Rhode Island, is Rose Island Lighthouse, which began service in 1870. It consists of an octagonal lighthouse tower rising from the west side of a mansard roof on top of a one-and-one-half-story wooden keeper’s dwelling. The light lost its importance as a navigational aid with the construction of the… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 291 – Sean O’Connor, Rose Island, RI
Suellan Wedmore‘s poetry has appeared in many publications and she has won numerous awards, including first place in both the Writer’s Digest Rhyming and the Non-Rhyming Poem contests. The poems in Suellen’s book A Fixed White Light enter the lives of six of courageous and mostly forgotten female lighthouse keepers, giving readers the opportunity to… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 290 – Suellen Wedmore, poems about women lighthouse keepers; Melanie Correia, New Bedford Whaling Museum
The lighthouse tower at Pemaquid Point in the town of Bristol, Maine, was built in 1835, which makes it one of the oldest on the New England coast. The historic fog bell building at Pemaquid Point was badly damaged by storms in January – the same storms that damaged more than 20 light stations in… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 289 – Remembering Buddy Grover at Absecon, NJ; repairs at Pemaquid Point, Maine
