Minot's Ledge Light

Lighthouse in Massachusetts, US

Minot's Ledge Light, officially Minots Ledge Light, is a lighthouse on Minots Ledge, one mile offshore of the towns of Cohasset and Scituate, Massachusetts, to the southeast of Boston Harbor. The current lighthouse is the second on the site, the first having been washed away in a storm after only a few months of use.

In 1843, lighthouse inspector I. W. P. Lewis compiled a report on Minots Ledge, showing that more than 40 vessels had been lost due to striking the ledge from 1832 to 1841, with serious loss of life and damage to property. The most dramatic incident was the sinking of a ship "St John" in October 1849 with ninety nine Irish immigrants, who all drowned within sight of their new homeland. It was initially proposed to build a lighthouse similar to John Smeaton's pioneering Eddystone Lighthouse, situated off the south west coast of England. However Captain William H. Swift, put in charge of planning the tower, believed it impossible to build such a tower on the mostly submerged ledge. Instead he successfully argued for an iron pile light, a spidery structure drilled into the rock. The first Minot's Ledge Lighthouse was built between 1847 and 1850, and was lighted for the first time on January 1, 1850. One night in April 1851, the new lighthouse was struck by a major storm that caused damage throughout the Boston area. The following day only a few bent pilings were found on the rock. The two assistant keepers who had been tending the lighthouse at the time had died at their posts.

Until 1863 the design and construction of lighthouses was the responsibility of the Corps of Topographical Engineers; this resulted in a rivalry with the longer established Army Corps of Engineers, which built fortifications and had responsibility, as it does today, for waterway improvements. The Chief Engineer of the Army Corps of Engineers, Joseph G. Totten, personally took charge of the project to design and construct a permanent lighthouse on Minot's Ledge. Totten's design was as simple as it was effective. With extensive experience building fortifications, Totten fully appreciated the permanency and strength of granite constructions. He designed the lighthouse so the first 40 feet of lighthouse would be a solid granite base weighing thousands of tons. To secure the lighthouse to the ledge, he had several massive iron pins emplaced so that the lighthouse would be literally pinned to the ledge by its own weight. Working on the ledge could take place only in conditions when it was exposed at low tide and the sea was calm, so construction took years. Work started on the current lighthouse in 1855, and it was completed and first lit on November 15, 1860. With a final cost of $300,000, it was the most expensive light house that was ever constructed in the United States to that date. The lighthouse is built of large and heavy dovetailed granite blocks, which were cut and dressed ashore in Quincy and taken to the ledge by ship. The lighthouse was equipped with a third order Fresnel lens. The light signal, a 1 4 3 flashing cycle adopted in 1894, is locally referred to as "I LOVE YOU" (1 4 3 being the number of letters in that phrase), and it is often cited as such by romantic couples within its range. Minots Ledge Light was automated in 1947.