When lighthouse keeper Dennis Dever flicks on a switch 15 minutes before sunset, illuminating Boston Light and the surrounding harbor, he is following a tradition that began in 1716.
Dever is the last in a succession of lightkeepers that began with George Worthylake, who drowned with his family when his boat overturned on the way back to the island in November 1718. Benjamin Franklin wrote a poem about the tragedy.Now, it's not tragedy but technology that threatens to force Dever to leave his post on this rocky, picturesque islet. Boston Light, one of the few remaining manned lighthouses in the country, is scheduled to be the last one automated next year.
"It'll be the last page in a long chapter of American history," said Dever, the 29-year-old son of a onetime lighthouse keeper. "This country was built on lighthouses, showing boats where to go. It's sad to think that after 273 years, there won't be a keeper here."
Only six other lighthouses in the country are still manned and they are scheduled to be automated within the next several months, according to Wayne Wheeler, of the San Francisco-based U.S. Lighthouse Society. The lighthouses are located in Egmont Key, Fla.; Coney Island, N.Y.; on Block Island in Rhode Island; on Goat Island off the Maine coast; and on the Kennebec River near Bath, Maine, where there are two.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., has introduced legislation that would retain Boston Light as the last manned lighthouse and keep it from being automated.
Dever, a petty officer 1st class in the U.S. Coast Guard who has supervised a crew of two at Boston Light for the past 18 months, acknowledged, "I wasn't happy at first when I got here but then I learned to like it."
Although he's at home with his wife of five years only one week each month because of his schedule, Dever said he has come to love life at the lighthouse.
The sunny, whitewashed buildings by day give way to often eerie nights. Ghosts, perhaps the souls of shipwreck victims or the mysterious "Lady in Black," are said to stalk the island.
Dever and his crew, Dave Sandrelli and Al Ux, live in a comfortable, two-story, gabled house on one end of the island. There is no sign of dust or clutter in the neat, carpeted living room where bow windows overlook the pounding Atlantic and the lights of downtown Boston, 11 miles away.
"I feel an attachment to the old keepers," said Dever. After arriving at the lighthouse, he found the names of old keepers scratched in rocks all over the island. Dever has since etched his name on a a piece of granite outside the house.
Dever named the island's black cat, Ida Lewis, after a lighthouse keeper in Newport, R.I., who made hundreds of rescues during her 32-year tenure in the mid-1800s.
The island dog, 13 years old, is named Farrah, a holdover from a Coast Guard crew who were fans of the old "Charlie's Angels" TV series, which starred Farrah Fawcett. It is a Boston Light tradition, according to Dever and his crew, to paint Farrah's toenails pink.
The island is dominated by the 89-foot lighthouse, where 76 wrought iron steps lead to the tower. There, two 1,000-watt bulbs postioned behind a five-ton Fresnel lens consisting of 336 glass prisms are bent into thin pencil beams of light that flash every 10 seconds. The light is visible for 27 miles. At night, looking up from the bottom of the tower, the beams of light radiate out into the sky like bicycle spokes.
Depending on what day it is, Dever or one of his men rises early and turns the light off 15 minutes after sunrise. When it's cloudy or foggy, of course, the light is left on.
Through the years, all variety of human drama has been played out on the island.
There was romance. In 1853, Harbor Pilot Albert Small proposed to the keeper's daughter Lucy Long, at the top of the tower. She accepted.
Shipwrecks were common. One of the worst occurred in November 1861 when the square rigger Maritana broke up on rocks near the island in a snowstorm. Bodies from the wreck washed up on the island for months and at least one sailor is buried somewhere on the island.
There was skulduggery. Around 1845, the lighthouse keeper Tobias Cook made cheap cigars that sold as expensive Spanish imports in Boston until he was discovered.
There was even a birth. Georgia Norwood, born at the light in April 1932, was the inspiration for Ruth Carmen's book "Storm Child." Two years ago, the Norwood family held a reunion at the lighthouse.