Massachusetts - Scituate Lighthouse

This lighthouse is located at Scituate, MA. The Lighthouse Service contracted for a 24-foot octagonal granite tower, backed with rubblestone, at the north side of the entrance to Scituate Harbor in 1811. The new light soon caused as much confusion as it provided help to the mariners. Skippers spied Scituate's fixed white signal, thinking they were approaching the Boston Light. To differentiate the two stations, the US Lighthouse Service officials added a 14-foot section of brick work to elevate Scituate's Light. Then they installed a second beacon, fixed red, in the east side of the tower wall. But the crimson beam was feeble, and from any appreciable distance offshore the two colors blended into one. The ship wrecks continued. The solution lay in the construction of the Minot's Ledge Lighthouse. As soon as the spindle legged Minot's went into service, Scituate Light was turned off. But when the former went down in the great storm of 1851, the Scituate beacon was reestablished and remained lit until the replacement structure for Minot's was finished in 1860.

The Scituate Lighthouse was put up for sale in 1916 and purchased by the Town of Scituate the following year. After providing periodic maintenance to both the tower and keeper's house, civic leaders made the Scituate Historical Society the light's caretaker in 1968. That same year the organization succeeded in having the treasured landmark added to the National Register of Historic Places, and later the light relighted as a private light. At the time of my visit here in 2001, this was an active lighthouse.

A special note about the 1811 Scituate Lighthouse. Simon Bates was the initial keeper. During the War of 1812, Bates' two daughters, Rebecca and Abigail, by themselves, saved the town from possible destruction at the hands of a British warship. In September 1814, the man of war La Hogue anchored and several boatloads of soldiers put off for shore. Watching the enemy movement from the tower, the Bates girls, alone at the station, sprang into action. Grabbing a drum and fife, the children dashed into nearby cover and began playing with all the gusto they could muster. The shrill notes and rhythmical beat soon reached the ears of the startled British commander, who must have surmised that American troops were marshaling to meet his landing party. He promptly sounded a signal ordering his long-boats back to the ship. The La Hogue sailed away, the town was spared, and the Bates girls have since been fondly remembered by towns people as "The American Army of Two". Although the name Bates is synonymous with mine, research did not reveal any relationship to Simon Bates.