The Isles of Shoals, a cluster of nine islands located several miles off the seacoast of New Hampshire, were described by Robert Thayer Sterling in Maine Lighthouses and the Men Who Keep Them as "a low lying group apparently composed of masses of tumbled granite bleached white by the unceasing beating of the storm king and the glare of the blazing sun."

The islands were frequented by European fishermen for years before Capt. John Smith explored them in 1614. Smith named the islands "Smith's Isles" after himself.

According to some accounts, fishermen named the islands after their resemblance to a school, or shoal, of fish. Others say the name originated beacuse of the "shoaling," or schooling, of fish, especially mackerel and herring, around them.

The area remained an important fishing center for centuries. The first lighthouse in the Isles of Shoals was established on White Island in 1821. It was a stone tower, later encased with wood and shingled.

The lighthouse's original characteristic was unusually patriotic, with red, white, and blue flashes. The blue flash was soon discontinued because of its poor visibility.

In 1838, this was nearly one of the first American lighthouses to have a Fresnel lens installed, but it was decided that the tower was too low for a satisfactory test of the lens. A new lantern and lighting apparatus were installed in 1841.

During the following year, engineer I.W.P. Lewis inspected the station and reported, "The whole construction of the apparatus bears the mark of rude workmanship." The lamps and reflectors weren't replaced by a more efficient Fresnel lens until 1855.

In 1839, Thomas Laighton (1805-1866) became keeper. He and his brother Joseph had bought three of the islands in the Isles of Shoals including the largest, Hog (later known as Appledore), and Smuttynose.

The first White Island Lighthouse, circa late 1850s

U.S. Coast Guard photo

Thomas Laighton was a former postmaster and representative to the New Hampshire legislature, and he had recently lost a run for selectman in Portsmouth. Laighton and his wife, Eliza, moved to White Island with their two children, Oscar and Celia. In 1841 a baby, Cedric, was born to the Laightons at the lighthouse.

Laighton's daughter, Celia, later gained widespread fame as Celia Thaxter, poet and author.

In her book, Among the Isles of Shoals, she described the family's arrival at White Island:

It was at sunset in autumn that we were set ashore on that loneliest, lovely rock, where the lighthouse looked down on us like some tall, black-capped giant, and filled me with awe and wonder. At its base a few goats were grouped on the rock, standing out against the red sky as I looked up at them...

Some one began to light the lamps in the tower. Rich red and golden, they swung around in mid-air; everything was strange and fascinating and new.

Celia (Laighton) Thaxter

 I lit the lamps in the lighthouse tower,

For the sun dropped down and the day was dead.

They shone like a glorious clustered flower,

Ten golden and five red.

 

Like all the demons loosed at last,

Whistling and shrieking, wild and wide,

The mad wind raged, while strong and fast

Rolled in the rising tide.

 

The thick storm seemed to break apart

To show us, staggering to her grave,

The fated brig. We had no heart

To look, for naught could save.

A new 58-foot brick lighthouse tower was built on White Island in 1859. The new tower was fitted with a second-order Fresnel lens.

A duplex keeper's house built in 1878 was removed by the Coast Guard in the 1950s.

There was an amazing rescue one winter in the mid-1800s at White Island Light.

John Bragg Downs was temporarily acting as keeper, with a friend as his assistant. The two men were at the lighthouse when a severe blizzard hit, with blinding snow and heavy seas covering the island. One night, much to their shock, there was a knock at the door.

White Island Light c. 1870s

When they opened the door, the men discovered a lone sailor, dressed in tattered rags and bleeding from many wounds. The man had somehow come ashore from a brig wrecked on the rocks.

After a great deal of effort, Downs ventured out on a ledge and managed to get a line to the rest of the crew on the vessel. He then tied the line around himself. Downs wedged himself into a crevice, and every man managed to get ashore from the sinking ship.

Rick Bennett and Kevin Madison were among the last Coast Guardsmen at White Island. In the summer, the men would visit the inhabitants of the other islands nearby. Storms sometimes made it very difficult for the crew to land at White Island.

Kevin Madison says that although the 1986 automation of White Island Light was sad in a way, it was also very interesting. The Coast Guard crew spent three months working with a civilian crew from Portland on the automation process.

After the automation, the Coast Guard keepers were removed. A couple of years later, the huge Fresnel lens was replaced by aerobeacons. The present VRB-25 optic is solar-powered.

Hurricane Bob and the ferocious "Perfect Storm" of October 1991 washed away the walkway from the tower to the house, as well as the old fog signal tower.

In 1993, White Island became the property of the State of New Hampshire. For a period beginning in1998, a local diving school operator, Don Stevens of Atlantic Aquasport, had an agreement with the state to bring divers to the island.

These solar panels provide power for the light

Members of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire conducting a tern count on Seavey Island

More recently the house has been used by personnel of the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, who have implemented a tern restoration project on adjacent Seavey Island.

Over the years, the lighthouse tower developed major cracks in its exterior, mostly on the northeast side that bears the brunt of storms.

The good news is that seventh grade students in North Hampton, New Hampshire, along with a teacher, Sue Reynolds, have worked to save the lighthouse. You can see the website of the "Lighthouse Kids" here.

On April 30, 2003, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire announced that a matching grant of $250,000 in federal funds from the Save America's Treasures program was awarded for the restoration of the White Island Lighthouse.

On June 22, 2005, the Lighthouse Kids presented New Hampshire Governor John Lynch with a check for $110,000. In accepting the check, the state authorized the Division of Parks and Recreation to expend the money for conservation and restoration of the White Island Light Station.

Some of the cracks on the tower's exterior in 2002

Some of the "Lighthouse Kids" on a trip to White Island, June 20, 2002

The Lighthouse Kids measure the cracks in the lighthouse on October 10, 2002

Local businesses pitched in to help the Kids

The work was done during the summer of 2005 by Ricci Construction of Portsmouth, NH, J. B. Leslie Company of South Berwick, Maine, and F. A. Gray Company of Portsmouth.

The keeper's house was reroofed and painted, and rotting woodwork was replaced. The renovations stopped water leaks that had plagued the house in recent years.

More than 1,000 bricks were replaced in the tower during the 2005 restoration. The brick courses were strengthened with the addition of stainless steel ties, and the entire tower received a protective layer of stucco. The glass block windows in the tower were replaced by windows that are more like the original ones.

A northeast storm in mid-April 2007 did much damage on the island. The walkway was demolished, and the solar panels for the light were swept away. Hopefully, this setback won't prevent a full restoration of the station in the coming years.

In early 2008, the rotating VRB-25 optic that had been in use at White Island for several years was replaced by a VLB-44 light emitting diode unit (LED). It's one of the first lighthouses in the U.S. to have this type of light; you can read more about it here.