Foreword
PART I: Early lighthouse administration and construction
Early lighthouse administration
Lighthouse construction
Maine's earliest lighthouse: Portland Head
Other early
towers
Seguin Island
Whitehead Island
Franklin Island, West Quoddy Head, and Wood Island
Sidebar: Early keepers earned less than $1 a day
Disaster on Libby Island
Choosing contractors
Twin lights
Requests
for higher salary
Problems with illumination at Browns Head Lighthouse
PART II: Offshore stations: the challenges to builders and keepers
Boon Island Lighthouse and its keepers
Problems at Moose Peak Light Station
Competing claims on Baker Island
Problems
with contractors on Mount Desert Rock
Locating a lighthouse on Saddleback Ledge
Other early offshore stations
Pumpkin Island
Pond Island
Whaleback Ledge
PART III: The U.S. Light-House Board (USLHB) revamps the system
A new approach to administration
Sidebar: Number of Aids in the First District under the USLHB
Lighthouse construction
under the Light-House Board
Cast-iron construction
Four spark plugs
Crabtree Ledge
Goose Rocks
Lubec Channel
Spring Point Ledge
Lighting the Kennebec River
Additional stations built or rebuilt under the USLHB
Evolving technology
Lamps and Lenses
Illuminants
Fog signals
Manana Fog Signal Station
Lighthouse tenders: lifeblood of the system
Buoy depots
Light stations constructed in the twentieth century
Rockland Harbor Breakwater
Fort Popham
Ram Island Ledge
Isle au Haut
Whitlocks Mill
Portland Lightship
Lifesaving
PART IV: Keepers: Who they were, how they lived, what they said
Keeper appointments
Sidebar: Determining a keeper's salary
Records required of lighthouse keepers
Light-House
Board personnel
Instructions to keepers
Family stations
Log Accounts of Burnt Coat Harbor Light Station
Keepers at Eagle Island
Keepers on Curtis Island
Forty-five years
at Marshall Point Light
Character building on Egg Rock
Lighthouses as tourist attractions
Education at lighthouses
Notable keeper Marcus
Hanna at Cape Elizabeth
Keeper dismissals
Female keepers
Isaac H. and Abbie Burgess Grant
Gunfire at Portland
Head
Keeper compatibility
PART V: Lighthouses under the Bureau of Lighthouses, 1911-1939
Introduction of radio
Flying Santa
Lobster fishing
The Great Gale of January 27-28, 1933
Great Duck
Two Bush
The Cuckolds
Boon Island
Grindle Point
Spring Point Ledge
Modern conveniences
Discontinued lights
Epilogue
Appendix: Maine's Light Stations
Bibliography
Index
