Light Hearted

The Flying Santa tradition traces its origins to a pioneering pilot named Bill Wincapaw. Wincapaw flew amphibious airplanes around the Penobscot Bay region in Maine. He often relied on the area’s lighthouses to get him safely home. To show his appreciation to the lighthouse keepers and their families, on Christmas Day 1929 he loaded his plane with a dozen packages containing gifts for the lighthouse families. He dropped the packages at some of the lighthouses in the Penobscot Bay region.

In the years that followed, Wincapaw expanded the flights to more of the Maine coast and to the other New England states. A few years later the Wincapaw family relocated to Winthrop, Massachusetts. Bill Wincapaw Jr. had a history teacher at Winthrop High School by the name of Edward Rowe Snow, a budding historian. Edward Rowe Snow took an interest in the Flying Santa and took part in the 1936 flights. After some years when the Flying Santa duties were shared by the Wincapaws and Edward Rowe Snow, Bill Wincapaw Sr. died in a plane crash in 1947.

From the Christmas season that year through 1980, Mr. Snow kept the Flying Santa tradition alive. His wife, Anna-Myrle Snow, flew along each year, and their daughter Dolly took part beginning the year she was born in 1951.

Dolly Snow Bicknell has been involved in lighthouse preservation as president of Project Gurnet and Bug Lights in Massachusetts. Dolly has been honored recently with a Keeper of the Light award from the American Lighthouse Foundation, and also a special award from the Hull Lifesaving Museum in recognition of her years on the board of directors of that organization and her work on behalf of many local charities. In this interview, Dolly discusses her personal experience as the daughter of the popular historian and longtime Flying Santa, Edward Rowe Snow, and about her own participation in the Santa flights.

The flights continue today, with Friends of Flying Santa visiting Coast Guard stations by helicopter.

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The Chance Brothers and Company glassworks began producing glass in 1824 at their facility in Smethwick, West Midlands, England. Before too long, the company became known as the best glass manufacturer in Britain. In addition to producing sheet glass, Chance Brothers perfected methods of manufacturing optical glass for telescopes. In 1848, Chance Brothers began working on the manufacture of Fresnel lenses for use in lighthouses. A first-order lens was created and displayed in the Crystal Palace at London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. James Chance worked with Trinity House to adjust the lenses already in British lighthouses so that they were more efficient.

The company’s lenses were eventually used in approximately 2500 lighthouses worldwide. The lenses were all sizes, including 13 hyper-radial lenses, which were the largest ever used. Chance Brothers also became involved in the production of prefabricated cast-iron lighthouse towers. In addition, they made lanterns and other components for lightships, and clockworks used to drive the rotation of lenses in lighthouses.

The Chance Brothers factory in Smethwick was officially closed in the early 1980s. Today, the Chance Heritage Trust is working to restore the remaining buildings at the nine-acre Chance Glassworks site in Smethwick. The plan is to convert the site to a combination of residential units, educational space, a heritage center, a café, and archives facilities. Mark Davies is the co-founder and chair of the Chance Heritage Trust.

Click here to read the Chance Heritage Trust’s magazine, CHaT

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Offshore from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the Gulf Stream collides with the Virginia Drift, a branch of the Labrador Current from Canada. This current forces mariners heading south toward a dangerous twelve-mile long sandbar called Diamond Shoals. Countless shipwrecks there have led to the nickname “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” A lighthouse was first authorized at Cape Hatteras in 1794, and the station began service in 1803. By the 1860s it was decided that instead of extensive repairs to the old tower, a new one would be built. The new tower went into service on December 16, 1870. At 198 feet, it’s the tallest lighthouse in the United States and the second tallest brick lighthouse in the world.

Cape Hatteras Light Station was transferred to the National Park Service in 1937. Over the years, efforts were made to stabilize the beach in front of the lighthouse as the ocean crept closer. After years of study and much debate, the lighthouse was moved 2900 feet from its original position in 1999. The keepers’ houses and other light station buildings were also moved. The National Park Service continues to manage the lighthouse and keepers’ quarters, as well as conducting public tours. This December 16 marks the 150th birthday of the 1870 tower, and the National Park Service is putting on a special event. You can watch the event on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s Facebook page and Dare County’s CURRENTtv.

The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society actively supports all North Carolina Lighthouses. Bett Padgett has served on the organization’s board of directors since 1999, and is serving her second stint as president. Bett is a North Carolina native who taught guitar at NC State University for 29 years. She continues to teach music, and she also writes and performs original music. John Havel is a New Jersey native who’s lived in North Carolina for more than 40 years. His love for Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and its history led to John becoming a board member of the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, and he serves as the historian for Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

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The Nantucket South Shoals extend many miles south of Nantucket Island, which is south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The shoals were a great hazard to shipping, with more than 500 shipwrecks in the area. The first lightship was stationed at the Nantucket New South Shoals in June of 1854. The name eventually changed from “Nantucket New South Shoals” to just “Nantucket Shoals” lightship station (1896-1983). The LV-112, built in Wilmington, Delaware, went on station in 1936. It was the largest lightship ever built in the United States. The LV-112 was removed from the Nantucket South Shoals in 1975. From 1975 to 1983, Nantucket WLV-612 and WLV-613 replaced LV-112 and alternated until Nantucket Shoals lightship station was discontinued in 1983.

After its active days, ownership of the LV-112 changed several times. In 2009, the nonprofit United States Lightship Museum, or USLM, became the new steward. In recent months the LV-112 has been in drydock in Chelsea, Massachusetts, undergoing restoration work.

Bob Mannino is the president of the United States Lightship Museum. For most of his life, Bob has been involved in historic preservation and related educational programs, maritime and non-maritime, as an avocation. A retired marketing communications and public relations professional, Bob began his historic research and preservation endeavors by chronicling New England’s historic shipwrecks and other historic maritime events.

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North Manitou Island is in northeastern Lake Michigan, about 12 miles west-northwest of Leland, Michigan. A lighthouse was first established on the island in 1896. A few years after the lighthouse on the island was established, it was decided that an offshore light was needed to mark a shoal in the busy six-mile-wide passage between the southern point of North Manitou Island and the mainland. The Public Works Administration funded construction and work on North Manitou Shoal Lighthouse began in 1933. The light went into service in 1935.

When the light was automated in 1980, it was the last offshore light in the Great Lakes to be destaffed. It was virtually abandoned after automation. The lighthouse was auctioned by the GSA in 2016. The high bidders were a group of four Michigan families and they founded a nonprofit organization, the North Manitou Light Keepers. They intend to restore the station and to eventually open it for public tours and overnight stays. Dan Oginsky is president of the North Manitou Light Keepers.

Bob Trapani, Jr. is the executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation. He’s also a writer and photographer. What started as family adventures exploring the coast of Maine evolved into something more, and in recent years Bob has launched a new effort called “Moments in Maine.” He’s published a new book called Rockland Breakwater: A Journey Through the Seasons. In this collection of stunning photography, Bob captures a very special place in Midcoast Maine through four seasons of the year. Rockland Breakwater is a place where you can go to sea without leaving land.

Stonington, Connecticut, grew into a thriving port known for its shipbuilding, sealing, and whaling. By 1819, the town had as many as 15 vessels engaged in fishing along with some engaged in coastal trade. In May 1822, Congress appropriated $3,500 for a lighthouse at the east side of the entrance to Stonington’s harbor. The stone lighthouse was first lit in 1824. In 1840, a new lighthouse was built further back from the eroding shore. A new 25-foot cast-iron lighthouse was erected on a breakwater in Stonington Harbor in 1889, rendering the old lighthouse obsolete.

The fortress-like stone lighthouse was acquired by the Stonington Historical Society in 1925. They converted the interior into a six-room museum of local history.

It’s considered the oldest lighthouse museum in the U.S. Visitors get to ascend the 29 steps to the lantern room for a spectacular view.

Aimee Newell is the executive director of the Stonington Historical Society. She comes to Connecticut from Pennsylvania, where she was executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society and also an adjunct professor of history at Wilkes University.

The promontory known as Admiralty Head, on the west coast of Whidbey Island in Washington, juts out into the east side of the entrance to Admiralty Inlet, a busy passage that leads to Puget Sound. Admiralty Head’s light station went into service in January 1861. It was originally known as Red Bluff Lighthouse.

Because of the development of Fort Casey in the early 1900s, the lighthouse had be built in a different position in 1903. The new building’s striking architecture is often referred to as “Spanish-style.”

With changes in the shipping lanes, the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1922. The lighthouse was opened as part of Fort Casey Historical State Park in the early 1960s.

Today, the nonprofit group Keepers of Admiralty Head Lighthouse and the Admiralty Head Docents Program preserve and interpret the lighthouse.

Wayne Clark is the president of Keepers of Admiralty Head Lighthouse, and last year he received a volunteer of the year award from Washington State Parks.

Patrick Hussey and Dick Malone are interpretive docents.

Left: Dick Malone (Whidbey News-Times)

Lighthouse Hearted episode index

With a large harbor on Buzzards Bay, Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, developed as a center for shipbuilding, whaling, and coastal trade. Congress appropriated $5,000 on March 3, 1837, for a lighthouse at Neds Point, at the north side of the entrance to Mattapoisett’s harbor. The lighthouse was first lighted in March 1838.

The Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse in 1952. In 1958 the site, except the tower itself, was sold to the Town of Mattapoisett. The lighthouse became the centerpiece of a beautiful park that was developed at Neds Point. The light became active again, with a new acrylic optic, in 1961. In 1993, the local Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla adopted the lighthouse.

Recently, four Auxiliarists founded the Friends of Neds Point Lighthouse this year as a way to raise funds to restore the lighthouse. Sal Giglia and Bill Cody are two of the Auxiliarists who started Friends of Neds Point Lighthouse.

Graham, Washington, is about 15 miles southeast of Tacoma. In 2002, a 25-foot-tall faux lighthouse was built on the property of Arnie Andrews and his wife, Velta. Arnie had health setbacks, and climbing to the top of his lighthouse to change the light bulb became impossible. This past July 15, a medical alert was triggered at the Andrews home, and a crew from Graham Fire and Rescue immediately showed up.

It turned out that there was no medical emergency, but what happened next is pretty special. One of the responders was Andy Faubion, who is interviewed in this episode.

Round Island Lighthouse, in the Straits of Mackinac, is one of the most photographed lighthouses in Michigan. Thousands of people see it each year from the ferries that pass from Mackinac Island to Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. Round Island itself is about 378 acres and is uninhabited. It’s part of the Hiawatha National Forest. The lighthouse was constructed in 1895. It was decommissioned and abandoned in 1947. The abandoned lighthouse fell victim to the weather and vandals.

The Round Island Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed in 2009 as a non-profit organization to aid the preservation and restoration efforts for the lighthouse. Today, the lighthouse is threatened by historically high water levels in the Mackinac Straits, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron converge, and there is a pressing need to install more protective rocks around the building.

Matt McMullen first fell in love with Round Island Lighthouse when he did a Boy Scout work project 25 years ago. He has been working at the lighthouse each summer since 1996 and is now chairperson of the Round Island Lighthouse Preservation Society.

Ralph Krugler is the historian for the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society in Florida. He has spent several years researching the history of the light station, its keepers, and related subjects, and he’s put together an extensive book on the subject. He’s also on the board of directors of both the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society and the Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation. In this first installment of a series on Florida lighthouse history, he tells the story of  Judge B. Isler, one of Hillsboro Inlet’s most interesting keepers.

Note: My apologies to native Michiganders for mispronouncing “Mackinac” in this episode. I know now that Mackinac and Mackinaw are pronounced the same way — “Mack-i-naw.” Who woulda thunk it? – Jeremy D’Entremont

In 1825, an act of Congress authorized the building of a breakwater off of Cape Henlopen in Delaware to create a protected harbor. The new harbor that was created was called the National Harbor of Refuge. In 1907 a lighthouse at the southern end of the outer breakwater went into service. The original structure was replaced by a 76-foot-tall cast-iron lighthouse in 1926 and automated in 1973.

The Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation was founded in 1998 and became the steward for Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse when a lease was signed with the Coast Guard in 2002. The foundation began offering seasonal tours, and in September 2004, ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the organization.

About $3 million in repairs to the breakwater was carried out in 2011. In recent years the breakwater has continued to deteriorate, and major repairs are needed. Rick Ziegler is the president of the Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation. He’s had a long fascination with lighthouses, and he got his first tour of Harbor of Refuge Light in 2004.

Mike Leonard lives in Yarmouth, Maine. His photography is frequently seen in books and magazines, and in television segments. His work has been seen nationally on the Weather Channel and on the National Geographic Wild program. In this second installment of “Photo Tips with Mike Leonard,” he discusses the use of memory cards in digital photography.