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Show i MINOT LSLOGE' LIGHTHOUSE. fhe Historic Storm Which Wiped the Ctrip-inal Ctrip-inal Structure Out of Existence. The lighthouse on Minot's ledga stands within the stiadow of a tragedy. It is the second structure erected upon the ledge. The first lighthouse and the lives it held were claimed by the sea. Begun in 1817 and completed in November, No-vember, 1848, it was overwhelmed in April, 1851. Its, destruction was the most tragic event in the history of our lighthouse establishment. The structure struc-ture was an octagoual tower supported upon wrought iron piles strengthened by braces. The piles penetrated five feet into the rock. On the braces, 34w feet above the rock, the keeper had constructed con-structed a platform for the storage of bulky articles and had fastened to the lantern deck, 63 feet above the rock, $ 5) inch hawser, which he had anchored an-chored to a seven ton granite block. Along this hawser articles were hoisted up to the platform and there landed. These improvements were convenient and fatal, not, however, to the keeper who made them, for he was on shore when the storm which has become historic his-toric for its fury burst over the coast. On Monday, April 14, 1851, thera was a strong easterly gale blowing. At that time there were on the tower two assistant keepers and a friend of the principal keeper. The visitor became frightened at the first indication of a storm, and in response to a signal from the tower a boat put off for Cohasset and took him ashore. On Tuesday the wind swung around to the northeast, the most dangerous quarter from which the elements can hurl themselves upon Minot's, as they then rejoice in the accumulated ac-cumulated fury of miles of wind torn eea. By the 16th it had increased to a hurricane, and the tower was so completely com-pletely buried in the heavy seas that nothing of it could be seen by the group of anxious watchers at Cohasset. About 4 o'clock in the evening of the 16th the platform was washed ashore. Then - Zj I A . . . . 1 1.-1.-1 risen to within seven feet of the tower. At nightfall it was seen that the light was burning. It was observed at fitful intervals until 10 o'clock that night, when it was finally lost to. eight. At 1 o'clock on the morning of Thursday, April 17, just at the turn of the flood, when the outstreaming tide and the in-rushing in-rushing hurricane met at Minot's, a violent tolling of the lighthouse bell was heard. After that no sound rose above the din of the storm. About 6 o'clock in the morning a man walking along the shore saw a chair washed up a little distance ahead of him. Examining Exam-ining it, he recognized it as having been in the watchroom of the tower. After this discovery no one had any doubts of the tragedy which had been enacted behind be-hind the curtain of the storm. When it lifted, naught was seen over Minot's ledge but the sea, its white crests streaming triumphantly in the gale. It is believed by those competent to judge of such matters that the destruction destruc-tion of the tower was due to the surface which the platform constructed by the keeper offered to the waves and to the strain of the hawser upon the structure. Every time this hawser was struck by a sea it actually tugged at the tower. There seems also little doubt that the sum appropriated by congress for the building of the lighthouse was insufficient insuffi-cient by about two-thirds for such a structure as the perilous situation called for. Gustav Kobbe in Century. |