Thacher Island: Ann’s Eyes

There is a mystique about lighthouses. I’m not sure if it is their proximity to dangerous places, their sense of watchful guardianship, their histories, or simply the fact that they are relatively rare. I see people walking around in jackets, sweatshirts, and t-shirts with pictures of lighthouses all over them and the local gift shops routinely sell out of miniature lighthouses. People are fascinated by them.

I took this on a recent summer evening from Nautilus Road.

Out here on Gloucester island we have six of them and none more lovely than the twin towers built on Thacher’s Island. I think it is safe to say I have seen them virtually every day for the past ten years and I still look for them when I am driving up Nautilus Road or around the back shore. I love the sight of them in the shifting play of daylight and the wink of their lights, known as Ann’s Eyes, at night.

I have been reading Eleanor C. Parson’s Thachers: Island of the Twin Lights which I got from the Sandy Bay Historical Society. It is a comprehensive history of the island beginning with a shipwreck there in 1635, through the building and re-building of the towers, into the present. A good read rich with pictures and sketches.

I have been to Thacher Island a couple times for visits and it is a beautiful place, much larger (50 acres) than you would think from land. The South Tower is still a working lighthouse and closed to the public but the North Tower, which once housed a herd of wild goats, has been cleaned up and is available for exploration. A bright, steady light burns in the tower at night.

(At left, the South Tower photographed on a trip to the island a few years ago)

The interior of the lighthouse surprised me for the beauty of the tile and ironwork there. I wondered that such a remote place, visited by so few people would have been built with such craftsmanship but that was how things were done back then. The original towers were built in 1771 and rebuilt as the 184 foot stone towers we see today in 1861.

In Ms. Parson’s book she tells the story of Maria Bray whose husband Alexander was a keeper there. On December 21, 1864 Alexander and one of his assistant keepers rowed into Rockport for provisions and medicine for the other assistant keeper who lay in bed with a fever. Maria was left on the island with two small children. A bitter storm grew throughout the day and Alexander and his keeper were prevented from returning. Maria was left alone to tend both lights. She climbed the 148 steps to the lightroom of the North Tower and replenished the oil in the lamp, then descended, walked the 300 yards to the South Tower in howling winds and driving snow, climbed it and refilled the lamps. She repeated this task three times - once every five hours - until her husband and the assistant returned safely to the island.

(At right, I took this photo of the South Tower through a window on one of the landings inside the North Tower.)

Having climbed the North Tower once I can tell you it is not something I would do again and cannot imagine doing it six times in one day in bitter cold. But Maria knew that keeping those lights burning was the only hope ships at sea would be safe - and the only hope her husband had of returning to her and their children.

In Mark’s book F/V Black Sheep he tells of bringing the Sheep pack from Nova Scotia alone after he bought it. Crossing 200 miles of the open Atlantic by himself he lost navigation midway into his trip and had to rely on his knowledge of bird flight patterns and dead reckoning to get back to Cape Ann. He was past the time he thought allowable to make the trip and had no idea where he was when he saw the two lights of Ann’s Eyes in the distance. As mariners have for over two hundred years he brought the Sheep around until the two lights lined up as one. Following that trajectory he was soon steaming past Good Harbor Beach were he grew up and has lived all his life.

Ann’s Eyes are beautiful on their own but even more so because they have guided so many safely home.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. You can help keep the Thacher Island Lighthouses in good repair by joining the Thacher Island Association. Thanks.