Whale
Rock Light
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Courtesy of the
National Archives
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Location: Entrance
to West Passage of Narragansett Bay
 1882 - present --Lat
41 26 42 N - Long 71 25 24
W
Established: 1882
Lighthouse Constructed:
1882
Destroyed: 1938
Original Illuminating
Apparatus: Lighthouese: Fourth Order Fresnel Lens (1906)
 Skeleton tower: 375mm lens (1939)
 200mm lens (1950)
Current Illuminating
Apparatus: None
Height: Lighthouse:
Light 73 feet from top of
pier (1906)
 Skeleton tower: 30 feet
- Light 59 feet above low water(1939)
None (2005)
Status: No longer exists
Light Characteristic:
Lighthouse: Fixed Red
(1906)
 Skeleton tower:
Flashing Green every 3 seconds (1939)
 Flashing Green every 6 seconds (1950)
None (2005)
Range: Lighthouse:
11¼ miles (1906)
 Skeleton tower: 7 miles (1950)
None (2005)
Whale Rocks at the entrance to West Passage of Narragansett Bay
claimed at least eight ships and six lives before the Lighthouse
Board recommended building a light on the rock in 1872. In its
annual report for that year, the Board described it as a "a
reef of rocks awash at all stages of tides, and a dangerous obstruction
to navigation ... " Congress ignored the Board's recommendation
for nine years.
In 1881 Congress finally appropriated $35,000 to build Whale
Rock Light. Building the light wasn't easy. Work could only be
done at low tide and calm seas. Only the light's foundation was
finished before autumn storms forced construction to stop. The
light was completed in 1882 and lighted on October 1 of that
year.
On September 21, 1938 Whale Rock's keeper Daniel Sullivan went
ashore to get supplies. The assistant keeper, Walter Eberle,
was left in charge of the light. The former navy man had been
with the Lighthouse Service for just a year. While Sullivan was
ashore the 1938 Hurricane hit Rhode Island and prevented him
from returning to the light.
Whale Rock Light was hit repeatedly by waves that grew bigger
as the storm grew stronger. Eberle probably took refuge in the
lighthouse's top floor. Keepers at similar lighthouses in the
area rode out the storm in the top floor, as the sea smashed
out the sash windows on the lower floors, but did not break the
port holes on the top floor. After hours of this punishment,
the metal lighthouse reached its breaking point. A huge wave
hit the lighthouse and tore off the lantern, watch room and the light's top two stories, killing
Eberle. His body was never found. He left a wife and six children.
The bottom two floors collapsed into the base, shortly after
the hurricane ended. An examination of the remains of the lighthouse
found books, shoes, clothing, and a made-up bed still intact.
Over the years there'd been speculation that Whale Rock Lighthouse
wasn't fastened to its base. One keeper even put this belief
into the lighthouse's log. Some local residents believed this
was the reason the lighthouse was destroyed. On November 9, 1938,
the 2nd District Associate Engineer visited the remains of Whale
Rock Lighthouse to find out why it was destroyed. During the
examination of its concrete base, he discovered the lighthouse
wasn't fastened to the base. He found "no evidence of anchor
bolts or any other means by which the cast iron tower plates
were actually held the masonry pier, except for the brick tower
lining, which appeared to be 8" thick at the bottom, and
the mass of the entire tower." This wasn't the reason the
lighthouse was destroyed, though. The engineer found some of
the bolts holding the lighthouse's cast iron plate together were
corroded. This weakened its structural integrity. The repeated
pounding of the waves on September 21 jarred the corroded bolts
loose and tore the top off.
On September 28, 1938, a type
9-38-W buoy was placed 300 yards east from Whale Rock. This new
navigation aid was named Whale Rock Lighted Whistle Buoy 3. The people of Jamestown complained that
it emitted "a most mournful depressing sound." They
wanted it changed to either a lighted gong or bell buoy. The buoy was later changed to a gong buoy. In
1940 what remained of the lighthouse was removed from the base.
A skeleton tower and light was placed on the base. It was later
removed.
Today all that remains of the light is the remnants of the base.
In 2004 David Robinson, an undersea archeologist with the Public Archeology Lab
in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, located the metal remains of the
lighthouse. He said, the seabed was scattered with "millions
of pieces of metal, some as big as desks. He will return to site
in the spring of 2005 to survey and document the site with video
equipment.
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