Gay Head Light
Gay Head Light is a historic lighthouse located on Martha's Vineyard westernmost point off of Lighthouse Road in Aquinnah, Massachusetts.
History
1796–1838 – Gay Head Light – the first lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard
When the first Congress of the newly formed United States government met in 1789, one of its first acts was to assume responsibility for lighthouses and other aids to navigation along the country's coastline. For the next twenty-five years, design and construction of new lighthouses were authorized by Congress. The location, size, design, and construction of each lighthouse was considered of such vital importance, that the decision-making process involved the highest officials, including the President.In 1796, Massachusetts State Senator, Peleg Coffin, requested a lighthouse be installed on Martha's Vineyard above the Gay Head cliffs overlooking a dangerous section of underwater rocks known as "Devil's Bridge." Senator Peleg's request to his Congressman in Washington was substantiated by the maritime traffic navigating the waters between Gay Head and the Elizabeth Islands, which would eventually be reported in a late 1800s Massachusetts study at 80,000 vessels annually. As the state representative for Nantucket, Peleg Coffin also had the whaling industry interests of Nantucket in mind. The Gay Head lighthouse was authorized in 1798 by the United States Congress during the presidency of John Adams. This authorization was to help facilitate safe passage for vessels passing through the hazardous Vineyard Sound waters near the Gay Head cliffs.
In 1799, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts deeded two acres and four rods to the Federal Government for the purpose of building a lighthouse overlooking the clay cliffs and Devil's Bridge. During the same year, President John Adams approved a contract with Martin Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, to build a 47-foot octagonal wooden lighthouse tower on a stone base ; a 17 x 26-foot wooden keeper's house; a whale oil storage building, and various other outbuildings. This wooden octagonal lighthouse is illustrated in the ca. 1800 woodcut shown below left. Charles Edward Banks, who published "The history of Martha's Vineyard" in 1911 wrote, "This wooden tower lasted sixty years, and the site of it, nearer the brow of the cliffs than the present one, can be seen yet in a circular elevation of the soil.
The planned 1799 installation of a Gay Head lighthouse, along with a full-time lighthouse Superintendent and his family, represented the first "Whiteman" homestead established in Gay Head. During the planning process of designing and building the first Gay Head lighthouse in 1799, there was some concern expressed about the impact of a Whiteman settlement in Gay Head. William Rotch, a supplier of whale oil, wrote a letter to Congress on September 28, 1799. Rotch's letter recommended that Captain Owen Hillman, of Martha's Vineyard, be appointed lighthouse Keeper. Most of the letter, however, discussed the subject of how a certain aspect of Whiteman's culture may negatively impact the indigenous Wampanoag community. A section of Rotch's letter states: "As this light house is in a neighborhood of peaceful natives who are industrious and temperate, it is the fear of some of the most considerate that the Superintendent may injure them by selling them liquor and, feeling much concern for that people, we hope it will meet thy views to have him put under positive restrictions thereupon."
In the fall of 1799, Congress chose not to appoint Owen Hillman as Keeper. Instead, Congress chose Ebenezer Skiff as the island's first Principal Keeper. Skiff became the first white man of European descent to live in the town of Gay Head. On 18 November 1799, Ebenezer Skiff ignited the spider lamp inside the tower's lighting room, officially illuminating the Gay Head Light for the first time as an aide to navigation. The light was projected from lamp wicks fueled by sperm whale oil. Spider lamps were the principal source of light in U.S. lighthouses in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. They consisted of a pan of oil with a wick system that was first used in Boston Light in 1790. Spider lamps were known to produce fumes that burned the Keeper's eyes and obscured the light's glass with an oily smudge. The first Gay Head Light "...was a white flash, was produced by fourteen lamps burning sperm oil, and it is part of tradition of the place that there was quite as much smoke as flame resulting from the combustion of this illuminant. The Keeper was often obliged to wear a veil while in the tower, and the cleansing of the smudge on the glass lantern was no small part of his job." Gay Head Light was one of several early U. S. lighthouses to use a so-called "revolving illuminating apparatus" to generate a flashing white light signal. The revolving illuminating apparatus consisted of sperm whale oil lamps placed on circular service tables attached to a Pedestal rotated by wooden clockwork. According to complaint by the light's first Keeper, Ebenezer Skiff, during cold or damp weather, the wooden clockwork became swollen, which required that the Keeper turn the rotating lighting mechanism by hand. At times, Keeper Skiff hired local Aquinnah Indians at $1.00 per day to help maintain and rotate the Light. Ebenezer Skiff also became involved with teaching Gay Head Wampanoag children.
Ebenezer Skiff's original salary as Principal Keeper in 1799 was $200 per year. After a few years as Keeper of the Gay Head Light, Ebenezer Skiff realized that the job of keeping the sperm-oil-fired light was more arduous and time-consuming than anticipated. It also took many hours of labor to keep the glass surrounding the light clean of the smudge produced by the fumes. There was also the challenge of keeping the lantern glass clean of airborne deposits of clay particles from the nearby clay cliffs. After a few years of service, Ebenezer Skiff gathered the courage to write a letter requesting a pay increase to Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury.
Gayhead, October 25, 1805. Keeper Skiff's letter read as follows:
"Sir: Clay and Oker of different colours from which this place derived its name ascend in a Sheet of wind from the high Clifts and catch on the light House Glass, which often requires cleaning on the outside – tedious service in cold weather, and additional to what is necessary in any other part of the Massachusetts.
The spring of water in the edge of the Clift is not sufficient. I have carted almost the whole of the water used in my family during the last Summer and until this Month commenced, from nearly one mile distant.
These impediments were neither known nor under Consideration at the time of fixing my Salary.
I humbly pray you to think of me, and increase my Salary.
And in duty bound I am yours to Command.
EBENEZER SKIFF
Keeper of Gayhead Light House"
Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, reviewed Ebenezer's letter and saw the merit of Keeper Skiff's request for a pay increase. In the fall of 1805, President Thomas Jefferson increased Keeper Skiff's annual salary by $50 from $200 to $250. Skiff served as the Gay Head Light Principal Keeper for twenty-nine years. Between 1805 and 1828, Ebenezer Skiff received one additional $50 raise. Sometime between the years of 1810–12, Keeper Ebenezer Skiff oversaw the replacement of the original spider lighthouse optics by ten new Lewis Patent Lamps. During the testing phase of the Lewis Patent Lamps – they allegedly proved to burn brighter while using about half the oil required by spider lamps. The statement that Lewis-Patent lamps were an improvement over the Spider Lamps was questioned by mariners.
In 1820, the spring at the Gay Head Light went dry, requiring Skiff to submit a request for a cart and casks to use in fetching water from a distant spring. Stephen Pleasonton, Fifth Auditor at the Treasury, asked Skiff to provide a budget for the cart and casks. Upon receipt of the cost, Pleasonton authorized Ebenezer Skiff “...to procure a pair of wheels and water casks for the use of the Keeper of Gayhead Light House, provided the expense shall not exceed the sum you state, viz., fifty dollars.” In 1828, Ebenezer Skiff's son, Ellis Skiff, assumed the position of Principal Keeper at the Gay Head Light. Keeper Ellis Skiff's beginning annual salary in 1828 was $350, which at the time, was considered a relatively good annual income compared to other United States lighthouse keepers. Ellis Skiff served as the Principal Gay Head Lighthouse Keeper for seventeen years from 1828 to 1845.
1838–1854
Circa 1838, a new 10 parabolic lens was installed. At the same time, the lantern was lowered 14 feet to get the light under the fog. It was also in 1838 that Lt. Edward W. Carpenter did a structural inspection of the Gay Head Light. He noted that the light made one complete revolution every four minutes; that the light and premises were in good order, and that the light was visible for more than twenty miles. In 1838, the lighting room was lowered again the same year by 3 feet during a major rebuilding of the lantern and deck by a New Bedford blacksmith. Another significant improvement between 1799 and 1838 was the installation of a Benjamin Franklin pointed tip lightning rod on top of the lighthouse. Benjamin Franklin appreciated the value of lighthouses to society and is quoted as saying, "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." Lightning strikes to the Gay Head Light are physically documented by the cracked cast iron lightning rod ball displayed on the grounds of today's Martha's Vineyard Museum. The changes to the Gay Head Light; its buildings and grounds, and the presence of the lightning rod are clearly illustrated in the 1839 woodcut print shown lower right.Harmful lightning strikes to America's early lighthouses were not uncommon. Considering that the tall lighthouses were usually the only structures of any height for several miles, it made them susceptible to multiple lightning strikes storm after storm. In June 1766, the New York Mercury reported:
"The 26th Instant, the Lighthouse at Sandy Hook was struck by Lightning, and twenty panes of the Glass Lanthorn broke to pieces; the chimney and Porch belonging to the kitchen was broken down, and some people that were in the House received a little Hurt, but are since recovered. ‘Tis said the Gust was attended with a heavy shower of Hail." The Sandy Hook Lighthouse was built in 1764, was octagonal in shape, and was made of local rubble stone.
In 1842, the octagonal wooden lighthouse constructed in 1799 at Gay Head was reported by the civil engineer, I.W.P. Lewis, as being "decayed in several places," and that both the lighthouse and its nearby Keeper's house needed replacement. In his capacity as a civil engineer, Lewis submitted reports on several lighthouses along the Northeast Coast, including Brown's Head Light; Portland Head Lighthouse; Owls Head Lighthouse and others. Lewis' wrote his noteworthy report about the Gay Head Lighthouse after also inspecting the Cape Pogue, Tarpaulin Cove lighthouses. All three wooden lights "...were found in a state of partial or complete ruin and all require rebuilding." Lewis wrote his report about the Gay Head Light after visiting it in the fall of 1842. In his report, Lewis wrote that the Gay Head Keeper's house was "shaken like a reed" during storms. However, in spite of Lewis' negative report, replacement of the Gay Head Light and Keeper's dwelling was postponed. In 1844, the octagonal wooden light tower was moved back 75 feet from the eroding clay cliffs by John Mayhew of Edgartown at a cost of $386.87. When Lewis was traveling and inspecting lighthouses in 1842, America had 246 lighthouses and 30 lightships.
The early 1850s was a time of transition from the old lighthouse oversight regime under Auditor Stephen Pleasonton, to the new Congressional appointed Light House Board. During this transition phase, there were two simultaneous agendas to improve the light at Gay Head. One agenda was by the long-reigning and outgoing head of the lighthouse oversight service, Stephen Pleasonton. The other agenda was by the new, Congressional appointed, Light House Board.
In 1852 America had a total of 332 lighthouses and 42 lightships. It was in 1852 that Congress transferred oversight of the nation's lighthouses from Pleasonton to the professional Light House Board. However, in 1852, due to previous efforts undertaken during Pleasonton's reign – the Congressional Light House appropriation bill approved $13,000 to refit and improve the existing 1799 wooden Gay Head Light.
With the $13,000 already approved for improvements at the old wooden Gay Head Light, the newly appointed Light House Board found itself fulfilling Pleasonton's agenda for improvements in 1854. On May 26, 1854, the Gazette of Martha's Vineyard reported: "We learn that the Light House Board are about to remove the old lantern and lighting apparatus from Gay Head Light and to erect thereon a new lantern glazed with large-size plate glass. In this is to be placed 13 new lamps with the largest sized reflectors...The business of lighting our sea coast is in the hands of an active and efficient board of officers and great improvements are now being made..." By July, 1854, the $13,000 was spent and the new lantern apparatus installed in the wooden lighthouse tower. In July, 1854, the Gazette reported, "The old lantern...has been replaced by a new one which revolves in about 3 minutes and 58 seconds, with an interval between each flash of 1 minute 59 seconds. The new Light is of much greater power."
In 1854 the newly established U.S. Lighthouse Board moved forward with their plan to replace the "renovated and improved" wooden tower with a redbrick tower supporting a First-Order Fresnel Lens.