Two friends alerted us that a certain cribbage board was for sale on eBay, and being the only bidders, we are happy to say that after 77 years, this beautifully hand-crafted game is returned to the watch room on the 5th floor.
Made by (or for) USCG Keeper Peter Rondeau during the war in 1943, the finely made wooden board just needed pegs and cards, which were thoughtfully provided by our pal Lango.
What a wonderful way to spend a quiet hour surrounded by heavy fog this morning!
Miss Cuddy I, her hull damaged beyond repair, is sent to the scrap yard in Everett.
Not everything at Graves Light is happy and fun. Our trusty Miss Cuddy I went to the scrap yard. The former Coast Guard Defender-class boat ferried us all back and forth from the lighthouse until bad seas dragged her on her moorings to a terrible beating on Graves Ledge.
We removed Miss Cuddy‘s pilot house and turned her into a service barge. She spent all of 2019 doing the drudge work for the Oil House and footbridge.
This week we took her to a scrap yard in Everett. We gave the pilot house to a local tugboat operator and one of the engines to our roofer, and salvaged a bunch of small parts for her replacement, Miss Cuddy II. We had to strip the two big orange flotation collars off her hull.
At the scrap yard, she weighed in at 5,200 pounds of aluminum hull and other metal parts, including the old Coast Guard gun mounts.
It was a sad sight indeed to see her crunched up and tossed onto the scrap heap like an old toy. Afterward we saw Toy Story 4.
Miss Cuddy I sure did give us years of great service. Using her hull as a barge worked out great for ferrying the stone, copper, and steel parts for the reconstructed Oil House and footbridge.
“Twilight and evening bell, And after that the dark! And may there be no sadness of farewell, When I embark; For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crost the bar.”
– Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Miss Cuddy, in her prime, readies to go
Miss Cuddy awash on Grave Ledge as her moorings dragged
Miss Cuddy II tows Miss Cuddy I on the hour-long haul from Winthrop to Graves.
Winthrop Harbormaster Larry and his crew on Miss Cuddy I, now a barge.
Since then, she’s hauled about 19 tons of steel, stone, and timber to supply us with materials for summer projects.
These five pictures show the process.
The two-ton crane at Winthrop Town Pier lowers steel components of the footbridge.
Winthrop Harbormaster Larry and his crew on Miss Cuddy I.
Miss Cuddy II tows Miss Cuddy I on the hour-long haul from Winthrop to Graves.
Miss Cuddy I is fastened at high tide to Graves Ledge to unload her cargo.
Using a big two ton-crane at the Winthrop Town Pier, Harbormaster Larry and his crew gently lower the supplies into her hold. We secure the load and begin the hour long haul to Graves, where we fasten Miss Cuddy tight to the rocks at high tide and pull the supplies using a hoist and cable trolley system designed by Nelson Metals in Maine with Nelson Wire Rope near Philadelphia.
Why such a crazy scheme? Well, due to the topography of Graves Ledge, a traditional crane and barge rig can’t get close enough to set the pilings for the new footbridge, or set the granite blocks for the Oil House.
So we devised a low-impact, greener (much!) method of transport.
At the end of the season, we’ll haul away the scaffolding, tidy up the worksite, and (sniff!) cut up Miss Cuddy for scrap.
Good ol’ Miss Cuddy I!
(Yes, we now have Miss Cuddy II, another Defender-class boat.)
The two-ton crane at Winthrop Town Pier lowers steel components of the footbridge.
Winthrop Harbormaster Larry and his crew on Miss Cuddy I, with a cargo of lumber, plywood, and steel.
Miss Cuddy II tows Miss Cuddy I on the hour-long haul from Winthrop to Graves.
Miss Cuddy I is fastened at high tide to Graves Ledge to unload her cargo.
High and dry as the tide recedes, Miss Cuddy I is unloaded of her cargo that will become the footbridge from the Oil House to the Lighthouse.
Well we finally brought it out to Graves this week, in two pieces, and set it up on the first floor.
It’s an exact copy of the 1905 “Service Cabinet” used at Graves to organize the oil lamps and their gear. We have put the cabinet to its original use. As seen in the picture, it now stores genuine, antique, US Light House Service oil pitchers, wick maintenance kit, glass lamp chimneys, and other equipment.
The US Coast Guard provided us with the original plans from more than a century ago. Kennedy made this exact replica, to precise specifications, from the Coast Guard plans.
Well done, Kenny!
Kenny at the firehouse with the exact replica cabinet he built in Connecticut.
Hoisting the cabinet from the dinghy to the dock.
In its new and final home, the first floor of Graves Light.
Storing antique, original US Light House Service oil cans and lamp parts.
John builds the bronze lantern railing so that we can have an open area and still keep the beacon secure as a US Coast Guard aid to navigation.
Remember those bronze castings we made over the winter? John and John from Nelson Metal Fabrication machined them to perfection and fitted pickets and rails made up in their Portland, Maine shop.
John installs the bronze lantern railing. The solar-powered beacon is visible at top right.
Then they brought them out to Graves and hoisted them up the ladder and into the lantern room.
Three days later, the results are amazing.
Graves Light remains an active aid to navigation. We have to make sure that while we make as much use as we can of the lantern room, the topmost level of the tower, we have to keep the solar-powered lantern safe and free of obstructions. We also have to make sure it remains accessible to the Coast Guard for their maintenance visits.
Polishing a century of grime from one of the brackets of the original First Order Fresnel lens rotation mechanism.
Ever wonder how the giant First Order Fresnel lens rotated to produce that smooth, sweeping beam lf light?
The good guys at the US Coast Guard revealed the secret by sending us the old engineering drawings of parts of the original mechanism, which are still bolted to the 5th level ceiling.
Since that ceiling is being restored, we figured we’d take the mechanism down and clean it up, which we did this week at home.
Here’s how it worked: Every two hours the Keepers wound a 300-lb weight up a 50-foot tube using a hand crank. The weight was connected by a series of pulleys (pictured) and connected to a big clockwork device, which regulated the speed and drove a gear that spun the two-ton lens.
The system was converted to an electric motor long ago, but happily the Coast Guard left all the old stuff in place, which made it possible for us to tell the story.
Polishing a century of grime from one of the brackets of the original First Order Fresnel lens rotation mechanism.
The US Coast Guard provided us with this copy of the original drawings of the lamp rotation mechanism.
Here are some of the parts of the rotation mechanism, (illustrated in the original engineering drawings) as we salvaged them from the 5th floor ceiling.
Harley of the US Coast Guard climbs the ladder to do maintenance work on the navigation aids.
The US Coast Guard stopped by Graves Light recently to do a regular maintenance visit.
Even though Graves Light is privately owned, we have a commitment with the Coast Guard to provide regular access to maintain the beacon and fog horn.
Harley and Dave of the US Coast Guard maintain the solar-powered batteries in the Graves Light watch room.
Coast Guard AToN (Aids to Navigation) crew members Harley and Dave stopped by in their red Mustang outfits to do the maintenance work on the light and fog apparatuses.
(Coast Guard Dave is not to be confused with Light House Dave, who took the pictures.)
They patiently showed us the operation of the various devices and back-up devices used to make the lighthouse operate reliably for mariners.
The first picture shows Harley climbing 20 feet up from the rocks to the dock, with our granite blockhouse, called the Oil House, in the background.
In another picture, Harley and Dave are 80 feet up in the Watch Room, and Dave is topping off the primary batteries with USCG-distilled water. The light and fog apparatuses are solar powered, and the energy is stored in the batteries.
And 100 feet up in the Lantern Room, Dave replaces burnt-out bulbs in the automatic bulb changer.
Dave of the Coast Guard maintains the lantern in the Lamp Room, 100 feet up.
Thanks for the tour, Harley and Dave!
We’re glad to serve the Coast Guard any way we can.
Graves Light is a historic landmark. At the outermost entrance to Boston Harbor and the tallest lighthouse in the Boston area, Graves Light is privately owned but continues to serve as a navigation aid run by the US Coast Guard.
The new owners welcome the adventurous public to enjoy the sights of Graves Light, but warn that there are no electrical, water, sanitary, first aid, or other facilities of any kind available to the public at the lighthouse or on Graves Ledge.
Graves Ledge is dangerous. Submerged rocks present a navigation hazard. We insist that visitors enjoy the ledge and lighthouse from the safety of their boat or kayak.
Meanwhile, follow us through this website, Facebook, and on Twitter @GravesLight.
