You are in luck! Fort Williams has 2 food trucks parked daily during the season to offer a taste of Maine. Skip to content. May 7, Catherine Escamilla. Boat cruises and tours mentioned below may offer many types of cruises.
While some may offer specific lighthouse cruises that pass by Portland Head Lighthouse, some will pass by the lighthouse as part of special charters, narrated wildlife and historic tours, while ferrying passengers, during sailing adventures, whale watching expeditions, fishing tours, and other types of excursions.
Weather is also a major factor in New England, especially on sailing excursions. Can also request special excursions. Portland, Maine Phone: E-Mail: info luckycatch. Check ahead of time. My page book, Lighthouses and Coastal Attractions of Northern New England: New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont , provides human interest stories from each of the 76 lighthouses, along with the coastal attractions and tours near each beacon, and contact info to plan your special trips.
You'll find over images inside as well. In the book you'll find more detailed information about the wreck of the Annie C Maguire and the Bohemian that occurred at or near Portland Head Lighthouse, along with lots more attractions. Do not reproduce without permission. All rights reserved. Privacy Statement.
Directions and Cruises. Previous Light: Cape Elizabeth. Next Lighthouse: Ram Island Ledge. This Region: Southern Maine. His genial disposition, his hearty laugh, together with his good stories of the sea, won him the admiration of all who met him. The tower was shortened by 20 feet in and the second-order lens was replaced by a weaker fourth-order lens.
Circa s. A new Victorian two-family keeper's house was built in , on the same foundation as the one-story stone dwelling. The old stone house was reportedly moved to become a private home in Cape Cottage.
The lighthouse station has changed very little since that time, except for a renovation during which many of the tower's stones were replaced. In his book Portland and Vicinity, Edward H. Elwell reported that a few years earlier a party had gone to Portland Head to watch the crashing waves during a storm. Two carriage drivers who had brought the group out ventured too far out on the rocks and were swept away.
Their bodies were recovered several days later. Maguire ran ashore on the rocks at Portland Head. The Strouts got a ladder to the vessel and helped all aboard, including the captain's wife, make it safely to shore. The Annie C. Maguire Museum at Portland Head Light. Click here for more on the wreck of the Annie C.
For a time, the buildings at Portland Head Light received serious damage from practice gunfire from neighboring Fort Williams. Lighthouse Service Bulletin of September 1, , reported that "windows were forced out, finish ripped off, roof torn open," and also reported "injury to the brickwork of the three chimneys of the double dwelling.
Casings were installed to protect the chimneys. Frank O. Hilt became principal keeper in Hilt, who was originally from St.
George, Maine, went to sea at a young age and eventually became the captain of the schooner Mary Langdon and other vessels. Beginning in , he served as an assistant keeper and then principal keeper at the isolated light station at Matinicus Rock. Hilt Maine Lighthouse Museum. He succeeded Hilt as principal keeper in Right: Robert Thayer Sterling, principal keeper Courtesy of Maine Lighthouse Museum. Sterling, who retired in , declared Portland Head the most desirable of all light stations for keepers.
On the first day of his retirement, Sterling fell in his yard and broke a rib. As a result, he had to put his plans to attend some Boston Red Sox games on hold.
Life at Portland Head Light was quite different from the popular image of the solitary lighthouse keeper. Constant tourists were a way of life. When Earle Benson was keeper in the s, a woman walked right into the keeper's house and sat at the kitchen table.
The woman insisted that Benson and his wife were government employees, and she demanded service. Electricity came to Portland Head Light in The light was dark for three years during World War II. The second-order Fresnel lens was removed in and replaced by aerobeacons. Severe weather has always plagued the station.
By , the tower was raised 20' and a 2nd order Fresnel lens was installed. A portion of this lens may now be seen at the Museum at Portland Head Light. Except for a period between and, this lens was in the lighthouse until Late on Christmas Eve in , the three masted bark Annie C. Maguire struck the ledge at Portland Head.
Keeper Joshua Strout, his son, wife, and volunteers rigged an ordinary ladder as a gangplank between the shore and the ledge the ship was heeled against. Captain O'Neil, the ship's master, his wife, two mates, and the nine man crew clambered onto the ledge and then to safety. The cause of the wreck is puzzling since visibility was not a problem.
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