Light Hearted

Annamaria Mariotti was born in Camogli, in northern Italy, and she still lives and works there. She is the author of many books, articles, and stories related to the sea. Her passion for lighthouses began with the Capo Sandalo Lighthouse on the Italian island of San Pietro and with the Lighthouse of Genoa. She’s visited many lighthouses in Italy, on the Atlantic coast of the United States, in Canada, and in the Caribbean.

Her lighthouse-related books include: Tales of lighthouses and other sea stories, The evolution of lighthouses from the origins to the Kingdom of Italy, and The Lighthouses of Tuscany. Most of her writing has been in Italian, but in 2005 she published The World’s Greatest Lighthouses in English, as well as in other languages. The World’s Greatest Lighthouses, which was reprinted in 2011 and 2018, features photographs of the most picturesque lighthouses in the world along with text that describes each structure’s location, architecture, construction, history, technology, and stories of lighthouse keepers.

In 2006, the General Command of the Harbor Offices, Coast Guard, and the Mediaset Group awarded her the NAVIGARE INFORMATI Award “For her constant commitment to the dissemination of maritime culture in our country.” She’s also the founder and former president of an Italian lighthouse organization, and she’s lectured frequently in Italy and the United States.

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, located offshore from the southern tip of the peninsula where Annapolis, Maryland, is located, is the last surviving screw-pile lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay. The light station was established in 1838 and the current lighthouse was built in 1875. Today, the City of Annapolis owns the lighthouse. The City leases it to the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.

A lifelong Chesapeake Bay sailor, David Gendell is the cofounder of SpinSheet, an Annapolis-based Chesapeake Bay sailing magazine. He’s a U.S. Coast Guard–licensed captain, an accomplished racing sailor, and an earnest fisherman. David’s new book Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse: A Chesapeake Bay Icon, published by The History Press, comes out on October 12.

In addition to covering the history of Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, the book covers the history of the point, the shoal, and the previous stone lighthouse, as well as the Port of Baltimore. The final section of book is devoted to the ongoing preservation efforts at the lighthouse. A portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse preservation efforts.

Greens Ledge is one of several treacherous formations near Norwalk Harbor in Connecticut. Congress appropriated $60,000 for the establishment of a light and fog signal at Greens Ledge in 1899, and the 52-foot lighthouse was finished in 1902. Greens Ledge is a cast-iron tower on a cylindrical cast-iron concrete-filled foundation, typical of offshore “sparkplug” lights built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Male keepers lived inside the lighthouse tower.

Over the years, especially after the hurricane of September 1938, Greens Ledge Light developed a slight tilt. The lighthouse was automated in 1972 and the last Coast Guard keepers were reassigned. Under the provisions of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, the lighthouse was auctioned in 2016.

The high bid was placed by a group of local residents that included Tim Pettee, Alex Pettee, Brendan McGee, and Shannon Holloway. They formed a 501 (c)3 organization, the Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society. The Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society launched a fundraising campaign that’s raised over $1.7 million through private donations for restoration.

Upon completion of restoration, the Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society plans to host educational tours, and plans have been developed for improved boat access.

Tim Pettee is the president of the Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society and his son, Alex, is the treasurer.

Shona Riddell, who lives in New Zealand, has been writing for as long as she can remember. Both of her parents were writers, and Shona’s first article was published in 2000 in the New Zealand Herald. She was hooked, and in 2002 she completed a Graduate Diploma in Journalism from the Auckland University of Technology.  Since then she’s worked as a magazine writer, web writer and editor, and as content marketer for several companies.

Shona’s latest book, Guiding Lights, shares the stories of lighthouse women from around the world and through the centuries, including heroic female keepers, isolated families, dedicated caretakers – and the lingering ‘ghosts’ of old lighthouses. The book includes more than 100 photos, paintings, and portraits, and also extracts from poems, books, and old newspaper clippings. The book is published by Exisle Publishing and is being released in October.

Shona spoke from her home in Wellington, New Zealand, to Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont in late August for this interview.

From the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, Nantucket was the world’s leading whaling port. But the island’s east and south coasts remained devoid of lighthouses well into the 1800s, in spite of the high volume of shipping traffic passing the island and the presence of dangerous shoals offshore. Finally, in the late 1840s, a bluff at Sankaty Head in the village of ‘Sconset on the island’s southeast coast was chosen as a lighthouse site. A 53-foot brick lighthouse was built and a second-order Fresnel lens was installed. The station was automated and destaffed in 1965. In 1990, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that Sankaty Head Light would be in danger of falling over the eroding bluff within ten years. A move was completed in the fall of 2007. The ’Sconset Trust is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the lighthouse and its grounds.

Rob Benchley is now the modern-day keeper of Sankaty Head Lighthouse. Rob is an accomplished photojournalist who has been the staff photographer for three island newspapers, and his photography has also been featured in the New York Times and the Boston Globe. His books include Scallop Season, a Nantucket Chronicle, co-written with Jim Patrick; Sconset, co-written with Richard Trust; and Keeping the Light, about the historic move of Sankaty Head Lighthouse in 2007. Rob and his wife, Carol, a retired Nantucket schoolteacher, live in a house they built together in ‘Sconset with a view of Sankaty Head Lighthouse.

Hilton Head Island, part of South Carolina’s Lowcountry region, is widely known for its twelve miles of pristine beaches and its golf courses. The Hilton Head Rear Range Lighthouse overlooks the award-winning Arthur Hills Golf Course at the Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort. The range light station was decommissioned in 1932. In the mid-1980s, the lighthouse was incorporated into the new golf course.

In 1985, the lighthouse was restored along with an oil house and cistern, and the grounds were opened to the public. Greenwood Communities and Resorts has completed a new renovation, which included repainting and the replacement of doors and windows. Clark Sinclair has been a member of the Palmetto Dunes staff since 1983 and has been teaching golf since 1986. He’s also a point person for the lighthouse.

Mike Leonard lives in Yarmouth, Maine. His work is frequently seen in books, magazines, annual reports, brochures, textbooks, in television segments, and nationally on the Weather Channel. Mike offers workshops on digital photography, which you can read about on his website at phototourismbymike.com

In this first installment of Photo Tips with Mike Leonard, Mike gives some helpful hints for better digital photography of lighthouses — or any other subject.

Light Hearted Index of Episodes

With its long coastline and about 790 islands, Scotland has been home to a large number of lighthouses. The Northern Lighthouse Board, founded in 1786, currently operates and maintains 206 lighthouses across Scotland and the Isle of Man. Automation of lighthouses began in Scotland as early as 1894, when the Oxcars Light in the River Forth had its two lightkeepers withdrawn. Fair Isle South was the last of Scotland’s manned lighthouses to be automated, on March 31 1998.

Ian Duff worked as a keeper at 13 Scottish lighthouses between 1976 and 1992. He spent about five years at Skerryvore, a remote station off the west coast of Scotland. Skerryvore is the tallest lighthouse in Scotland at about 156 feet. It was designed by Alan Stevenson and was completed in 1844. Ian also spent about five years at Duncansby Head Light Station at the most northeasterly point of the British mainland.

Ian has remained involved with lighthouses since his retirement as a keeper. Today he is the president of the Association of Light Keepers, or the ALK, an organization that provides a forum for everyone interested in lighthouses, lightships, and maritime aids to navigation.

Light Hearted Index of Episodes

The U.S. Lighthouse Service constructed the Staten Island Lighthouse Depot on the former site of the New York Marine Hospital. The depot, which began operation in 1864, was the key manufacturing, storage, supply, and maintenance center for the Lighthouse Service’s Third District. Activity at the depot included experimentation on lamps, illuminants, and Fresnel lenses. Under the Coast Guard in the 1960s, budget cuts led to much of the workload being transferred elsewhere. By 1965, the Staten Island Depot was closed.

In 1998, the former site of the U.S. Lighthouse Service Depot was selected as the location of a National Lighthouse Center and Museum. After a number of years of inactivity, a new Board of Trustees and a group of Museum Advisors and Friends revived the museum. Linda Dianto has served as president and is currently the Executive Director of the museum. For more than a decade, Linda has devoted her energies to the cause of developing the National Lighthouse Museum.

Split Rock Lighthouse, one of the most picturesque lighthouses in the United States, is located on a 127-foot-high cliff on the northwest shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. By the late 1960s, the Coast Guard deemed the lighthouse obsolete and it was discontinued as an official aid.

Today the light station is the centerpiece of Split Rock Lighthouse State Park, operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The Minnesota Historical Society administers the 25-acre historic lighthouse site. The station has been restored to its early 1920s appearance, and the site is operated as a living museum.

Lee Radzak became the lighthouse site manager in November 1982. Lee and his family ended up spending almost 37 years living at the light station —one of the longest stints for any modern-day keeper anywhere in the United States. When he retired, an extensive search for a new site manager led to the hiring of Hayes Scriven, who moved to the site with his wife, Jenny, and their two children in late 2019. In this interview, Lee and Hayes compare notes on life at one of America’s most iconic light stations.

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The Aleutian Islands are a chain of 14 large volcanic islands and 55 smaller islands that form a dividing line between the Bering Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. Scotch Cap Lighthouse was established at the southwest corner of Unimak Island, the largest of the Aleutians, in 1903. It was the first station established on Alaska’s outside coast.

In 1940, a new concrete-reinforced lighthouse and combined fog signal building replaced the original structure. On April 1, 1946, a massive earthquake struck the North Pacific, spawning a tsunami that traveled north to the Aleutian Islands. The lighthouse was destroyed, and five Coast Guard keepers were killed.

For the past two and a half years, author Peter Kaufman has been researching and writing about the 1946 Scotch Cap disaster. His work will be published as a book. He talks about the disaster and his research in this interview.