The Portland Breakwater Light Station by Wayne Wheeler
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Reprinted from the U. S. Lighthouse Society's The Keeper's Log — Spring 2004 <www.uslhs.org> The Portland Breakwater Light Station By Wayne Wheeler n most countries lighthouses were first constructed to mark harbor entrances. The great Pharos lighthouse in Egypt marked the port of Alexandria. One of the first Roman light- houses lead mariners into Rome’s port of Ostia and in America the first colonial lighthouse was constructed at the mouth of Boston’s harbor. In fact, eleven of our colonial light- houses marked harbor entrances, only the Cape Ann Light Station on Thacher Island warned of an obstruction. As our system of aids to navigation evolved, additional aids were constructed to better define harbor entrances. They included small post lights, buoys and lesser light stations. The Portland Breakwater Light Station was one of those minor light stations and one that assisted mariners to navigate the shoal-laced approach to the harbor at Portland, Maine. In November 1831, a fierce northeaster wreaked havoc on Portland’s exposed harbor. The storm, coupled with a high tide, caused widespread damage in the harbor. Vessels’ mooring lines were parted, piers were destroyed and several buildings were carried away. The amount of damage caused local citi- zens, merchants and mariners to petition for a protective breakwater to protect the port from future storms. Congress authorized the Army Topographical Engineers to survey the harbor and recommend improvements. In 1833, a report was submitted which recom- mended the construction of a breakwater along the southern side of the of the inner harbor’s entrance. The suggested design was a seven-part rubble stone breakwater with a length of 2,500 feet. The structure was to The 1855 Portland Breakwater Lighthouse shortly after construction. be topped with ashlar stone forming a, more Lighthouse Society photo. or less, smooth surface. The rubble stone Reprinted from The Keeper's Log — Spring 2004 <www.uslhs.org> amounted to 46,000 cubic yards, with another owever, the breakwater never reached $400. The fixed, red light was displayed for the 3,500 yards of ashlar required for the top sur- its original design length. After 1838 first time on August 1, 1855. Dyer lasted two face. The Engineer’s LCOL John Anderson Hmost harbor improvement requests years before resigning. He was being replaced stated that the stone, “. can be obtained along the Atlantic coast were denied. At this by William Willard, who lasted three years and in any quantity . within a short distance, point the structure was 1,800 feet long and died on watch. B.F. Willard succeeded him from the shores of [several local islands]”. missing the coping stone on a 680 foot sec- (possibly his wife or son), but that individual His cost estimate was $44,417.08 , which in tion at the outer end and a 112 foot section proved unsatisfactory and was removed after today’s money equals about $1.3 million. His next to shore. Furthermore, the lighthouse only four months. estimate included, “ . a pier and beacon on had not been constructed as the engineers Although close to civilization, duty at the the outer end of the breakwater.” The beacon, were waiting for funding to complete the breakwater light station wasn’t always pleasant. a small lighthouse would mark the end of the breakwater before erecting it on the outer Because portions of the breakwater were breakwater and, also, assist mariners navigate end. The unlighted breakwater raised a hue unfinished, and didn’t have the ashlar cap- into the inner harbor.” and cry from local mariners who considered it stone, it was barely above high water. During Two years later Congress approved $10,000 more of a hazard to navigation than a harbor storms, waves breaking against the sides would for the breakwater project and construction improvement. In 1854 the newly installed send heavy spray over the breakwater. During began on the first, 400-yard section in July Lighthouse Board realized that the project particularly heavy storms the breakwater was 1836. The project was under the direction had already dragged on for 17 years and inundated. Getting to and from shore was a of local engineer Freeman Bradford. One- was apparently not going to be completed. soaking experience and sometimes impossible. third of the rubble breakwater was in place The mariners still needed a light to mark its In the winter, ice formed on the rubble stones by December of that year. Bradford wrote outer end. The Board submitted a request – which were difficult to walk even when the his district office that the first section would to Congress, “For a harbor light on or near weather was nice. be completed the following summer if his the breakwater at Portland, three-thousand, Being close to the water and out at the end request for $30,000 to finish it – and begin five-hundred dollars.” It was approved on of the breakwater, the tower was often soaked the next four sections – was appropriated. Like August 3, 1854. and constantly in need of repairs. Wood rotted many government projects over the years, the In January 1855, plans were drawn up and iron portions rusted. Portland breakwater project had some serious for an octagonal wooden tower with sloping Late in 1865, Col. Graham of the Army cost overruns. In 1837, Freeman requested wooden sides on top of two courses (layers) Corps of Engineers recommended extending and was awarded an additional $25,000 and of ashlar stone at the breakwater’s outer end. the breakwater out another 400 feet. His then $26,366 the following year. These funds The plan called for the focal plane of the 6th $105,000 estimate was approved by Congress resulted in the breakwater extending out one- order Fresnel lens to be 25 feet above high in June the next year. However, shortly after third of a mile along the ledge. In November water. Construction began in March 1855 and this the project was halted because Col. of 1837 it was evident that the breakwater was the structure was completed in July. Graham died and his successor, Brig General doing its job in keeping heavy swells, during The first keeper of the breakwater light was B.S. Alexander had other plans for the high tides, from sweeping over the ledge. W. A. Dyer who was given an annual salary of breakwater extension. Alexander conducted a new survey of the harbor and eliminated many of his predecessor’s ideas. As a result the new estimate was only $60,000 – slightly more than half the cost of Graham’s proposal. But the Washington bureaucracy held up the project, directing a new study of the harbor before proceeding with the breakwater. LCOL George Thoms relieved Alexander and although the harbor improvements and breakwater extension project were still pending, he was able to receive permission to proceed with capping the unfinished por- tions of the breakwater. Thoms entered into a contract with three Maine companies and the stonework commenced in the summer of 1867. It was completed in 1868. Several years later, the Lighthouse Service replaced the keeper’s residence. In 1871 the Lighthouse Board reported, “The old dwelling has been taken down and a new one erected on the same foundation.” Reprinted from The Keeper's Log — Spring 2004 <www.uslhs.org> he construction of the breakwater The new tower is unique and different from was changed to an occulting red light (fixed extension didn’t begin until 1872. It any lighthouse tower constructed in America. red varied by a flash every 40 seconds) . A Twas completed in September 1873 and It is modeled after the Choragic Monument of year later, a much-anticipated 58-foot-long during this entire period the old lighthouse Lysicrates, a 2,400-year-old structure located handrail went up along the breakwater from continued to function as the breakwater near Athens, Greece. The cast-iron tower was the station toward shore to assist the keeper light, although some distance from the end one of first of this type first manufactured in during inclement weather. By 1886, the of the structure. the United States. handrail extended the entire 1,990 feet of In June 1874, Congress appropriated $6,000 The new tower is slightly shorter than its the breakwater. to replace the old tower as it had become, “ . wooden predecessor, standing 26 feet high. Until 1889, the keeper of the lighthouse . decayed and unfit for further service.” The Around the perimeter are six, cast-iron lived ashore, walking out to tend his light new tower would be a cast iron structure, lined Corinthian columns. Palmettes – a Greek each evening. But in that year the Service with brick. The Lighthouse Board reported, roof edge decoration – were installed around contracted for the addition of a dwelling “This structure will be completed this year, the edge of the lantern room dome and the connected to the tower. The Annual Report during the course of its construction a light gallery deck. of the Lighthouse Board for 1889 states, “This has been exhibited from a temporary wooden In late June 1875, keeper Stephen station contained no provision for a dwelling tower, located at the outer extremity of the pier Hubbard lighted the lamp for the first time. for the keeper, and it was only accessible to As soon as the breakwater has been completed He was the seventh keeper of the Portland him by shore from the breakwater, which is it will be necessary to occupy the pierhead by Breakwater Light Station and the first of the 1,900 feet long, at much discomfort, and even a permanent tower, and an appropriation was new tower.