Refer to page 29 of Lighthouses Short and Tall for North Point Lighthouse
As authors of Women Who Kept the Lights, we’re pleased to introduce you to one of our female keepers. (Earlier on page 31 you met Kate Walker at Robbins
Reef.) Keepers were instructed to report all problems to their District Superintendent, and Georgia Stebbins dutifully did
so. She also wrote to ask whether she was required to board workmen who were needed at her station. Her father had kept the
light before her. She was uncomfortable having strange men sleeping in her house when she was all alone.
Sperm oil, which comes from the sperm whale, became expensive in mid-century, and many lighthouses switched to lard oil.
Kerosene proved a much cleaner illuminant, and many lighthouses switched to kerosene in the 1880s. An incandescant oil vapor
lamp was very similar to the Coleman lantern that many people take camping.
