The Spectacular Casco Bay, Portland, Maine
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The Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse
Ram Island Ledge is a jagged finger of rock one-quarter mile long, marking the northern entrance into Portland Maine’s outer harbor. The ledge runs southwest off nearby Ram Island, and has long been one of the most feared spots by local mariners.
The first navigational aid marking the site was an iron spindle placed at the southern edge of the ledge in 1855, although it was only of practical use during daylight. In 1873 a fifty-foot-tall wooden tripod replaced the spindle. This was a definite improvement, but the force of the open ocean frequently assaulted the exposed structure, and it was washed away at least three times.
On the evening of February 24, 1900, the 440-foot steamer Californian left Portland just before midnight in a brisk southeast wind and splatters of rain. Less than an hour later, the ship, bound for Liverpool, England, was hard aground on Ram Island Ledge. Captain John France had let his vessel drift slightly off course, and before he discovered his error, the ship hit the reef straight on, scraping forward and coming to rest in a small hollow in the reef.
Fortunately, the twenty-one passengers and crew were all safely rescued, and the ship’s cargo was also unloaded. The ship remained stranded on the reef for six weeks before it was finally pulled free. The hull was badly damaged, but it was patched up, and after repairs in Boston, the steamer returned to service.
Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard
This high-profile near-disaster focused public attention on the hazard posed by the reef. The next year, the inspector and engineer of the First Lighthouse District, after noting the increase in the grain trade from approximately one million bushels in 1895-1896 to over 14 million bushels in 1900-1901, included the following paragraphs in a report to the Lighthouse Board recommending an additional navigational aid to assist vessels calling at Portland.
[The vessels’] course leads them between Ram Island Ledge and Jordans Reef which are three-quarters of a mile apart. But Witch Rock, upon which there are only four fathoms at mean low water, stands about 1,000 yards directly in front of this passage, in the middle of the fairway and in the track of these deep draft ships, to which it is a grave peril; for they cannot take a safe berth from it on either hand without danger from Jordans Reef on the one side or Ram Island Ledge on the other.
Considering the excellence of this port, the class of ships engaged in its growing commerce, and their great peril from these three ledges, in an otherwise excellent fairway, we recommend that a light and fog-signal be established on Ram Island Ledge, to guide ships in safely between Witch Rock and Ram Island Ledge. A Congressional Act of June 28, 1902, authorized the construction of a lighthouse and fog signal on Ram Island Ledge at a total cost of $166,000 and appropriated an initial $83,000 for the project. Work was delayed until the following spring, as plans had to be prepared and accessing the rocks that were under water two-thirds of the time would have been almost impossible during the winter. In the meantime, more ships were lost on the reef. On September 22, 1902, the British three-masted schooner Glenrosa wedged itself on the rocks after its captain was misled by the sound of the foghorn at Portland Head Light into thinking his ship was steering down the middle of the channel. The crew was able to stay aboard for the night and row to shore at daybreak, but the ship was a total loss. Less than three months later, the schooner Cora & Lillian suffered a similar fate.
Title to the ledge was obtained on March 10, 1903 through the payment of $500 to two Cape Elizabeth families, and later that month a $33,679 contract had been signed with the Bodwell Granite Company of Rockland to supply the granite stones for the lighthouse from its quarry on Vinalhaven. The plans for the lighthouse called for a granite tower twenty-eight feet in diameter at the base, seventy feet in height to the surface of the lantern deck, and consisting of 699 blocks set in thirty-five courses.
Photo: © 2007 JSfouche
Work at the site finally began on May 1 of 1903, when the foundation rock was leveled and cut down to three feet above mean low water. A staunch timber bulkhead, one hundred feet in length, was bolted to the ledge seaward of the site to offer some protection for the workmen. The first stones, weighing nearly four tons each, were landed on the ledge and set on July 9. Work continued until September 30, when sixteen courses had been finished and two cisterns constructed inside the base of the tower.
Work on site resumed in April of 1904 and the last course of stone was in place by July. The tower, which was lined with enameled bricks, received its thirteen-ton, sixteen-foot-tall lantern room that fall after it had arrived in Portland via rail from Atlanta, where it had been fabricated. Weather and supply problems delayed the completion of the lighthouse, and it wasn’t until April 10, 1905 that the third-order Fresnel lens, imported from Paris, France, was finally lit for the first time.
During the spring and summer of 1905, an iron landing pier, not included in the original plans for the lighthouse, was built adjacent to the tower to facilitate the landing of men and supplies during rough weather. Constructed using surplus funds, the pier stood eighteen feet high and measured seventy feet long and twenty feet wide. An oil house and fog bell were also added to the lighthouse during 1905.
William C. Tapley was appointed the first head keeper of Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse and held the position until 1929. During his tenure the lobster fishermen of Casco Bay petitioned the Bureau of Lighthouses to prohibit keepers from engaging in the lobster business. The fishermen felt the keepers had an unfair advantage as they lived right on the fishing grounds and could haul their traps during brief lulls in the weather, when it wasn’t possible for regular fishermen to visit their traps. Inspector Jno. McDonald investigated the claims and found the fishermen were making far more money than any lighthouse keeper. In response to an inquiry into the matter by the inspector, Keeper Tapley wrote: “I have never owned or hauled a lobster trap, I have not time and do not care to fish. My time is occupied in and around my station, and I prefer to be a light-house keeper rather than a fisherman. The two occupations do not go well together.” Officially, lighthouse keepers were permitted to haul lobster traps as long as it didn’t interfere with their work at the station.
In late 1958, an underwater power cable was laid between Portland Head and Ram Island Ledge, allowing the lighthouse to be automated. The last resident Coast Guard personnel were removed from the station on January 14, 1959. The beacon was converted to solar power in 2001, and in October of 2005, care of the lighthouse was licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation. The original third-order Fresnel lens has been replaced by a modern 300mm optic, showing two white flashes every six seconds, while an automatic foghorn blasts once every ten seconds when needed.
Crescent Beach State Park, on Cape Elizabeth, Maine
A Notice of Availability, dated September 2008, announced that Ram Island Ledge Lighthouse was excess to the needs of the United States Coast Guard and would be "made available at no cost to eligible entities defined as Federal agencies, state and local agencies, non-profit corporations, educational agencies, or community development organizations for educational, park, recreational, cultural or historic preservation purposes." After no acceptable applications were received, the lighthouse was placed on the auction site of the General Services Administration on June 30, 2010. The first bid was received a few days later, but the bidding did not heat up until the property entered the "soft closure" period in early September, when a new bid had to be received each day in order to extend the auction.
Wanting to keep the lighthouse in Maine hands, Bob Muller, a Brunswick businessman with a background in IT and high-tech image mapping, launched a website to attract a few thousand prospective "owners," who were willing to pay $49 for a stake in the lighthouse. The bidding, however, soon eclipsed the amount of money Muller was able to pool, and it seemed the auction would come down to a battle between Portland real estate developer Arthur Girard and Dr. Jeffrey Florman, a neurosurgeon from Windham. Through their bids, these two men elevated the price of the lighthouse by over $100,000. On Friday, September 10, the two men flipped a coin to determine which of them would remain in the auction and likely become the owner of the lighthouse.
After winning the coin toss, Florman submitted a bid of $180,000 to top Girard's last bid, but other parties, who had yet to bid on the property, were still lurking. On September 13, a bidder with the interesting codename of "arakiran" offered $185,000 for the lighthouse, and the following morning "redtide" submitted a bid of $190,000 just minutes before 9 a.m. Had the bid come in after 9 a.m., the auction would have been extended another day, but as no other bids were received between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST on September 14, "redtide" won the auction. Turns out "redtide" was another codename for Florman, who had been submitting previous bids as "MAINE."
Florman is not a lighthouse buff and does not own a boat, but rather purchased the lighthouse out of a simple desire to preserve a historic property. No commercial use of the lighthouse is planned.
An old church on Cape Elizabeth. Most of the tombs were members of the Jordan family.
Above: Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) on a rocky ledge overlooking the Calendar Islands in Casco Bay. Queen Anne's Lace is a wild carrot in the carrot family (Apiaceae), and thus cold tolerant enough to withstand a few more weeks of freezing weather. The islands of the Bay are so-named because it was first reported in 1700 by Colonel Wolfgang William Römer, an English military engineer, that there were "as many islands in the Bay as there are days in the year."
Tall stands of Poison Sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) near the bay have already lost many of their leaves though peak foliage will not be for weeks.
Check out the Maine Foliage Page for updates on when and where to find the best Fall Color.
Two Lights State Park, Cape Elizabeth
The parks name originated from the twin lighthouses located nearby at the end of Two Lights Road. Build in 1828, these were the first twin lighthouses on the coast of Maine.
Many shipwrecks occurred along the rocky coast of Maine, some, like the Annie C. Maguire are memorialized (above) and a very old photo of the wreck (below), with the Portland Head Light very nearby.
Bug Light Park on the Portland Breakwater
Bug Light Park, the eastern terminus of the Greenbelt Walkway, offers expansive views of Portland Harbor and the skyline of Maine’s largest city. The nearly 9 acre park was the site of major shipbuilding activity during WWII. An estimated 30,000 people were employed here from 1941-1945 building liberty ships for the New England Shipbuilding Corp. and the South Portland Shipbuilding Corp. Although far less bustling today, Bug Light Park is a popular destination for picnicking, boating and kite flying. A busy boat launching area and a liberty ship memorial are at opposite ends of the park. In between is a paved walkway along the shore and out to Bug Light itself.
Portland Breakwater Lighthouse was built in 1875 and is one of Maine's most elegant lighthouses. Though modeled on an ancient Greek monument, it was built with plates of cast iron. It was dubbed "Bug Light" due to its small size.
The South Portland Historical Society and Museum can be found near the entrance to Bug Light Park.
Portland Head Light
and
Fort Williams Park
Cape Elizabeth is the home of Portland Head Light, one of New England's most iconic structures. Situated along the spectacular shores of Fort Williams Park, at 1000 Shore Road, the popular landmark is owned and managed by the Town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The Park is open year round from sunrise to sunset. Here I stitched together 52 images to make this one panoramic portrait of the lighthouse on a very cool and calm day.
I don't know the provenance of this image found on pintrest but it pictures the lighthouse more how we often see it, with angry waves and lots of snow.
Next Stop. Bar Harbor. Here I'm holding the sunset on Bar Island, unaware that the tide is about to come rushing back in. Ooops. Always check those tide notices before you go hiking out onto any of Maine's nearshore "islands."
We've Read:
Follow the evolution of these fascinating butterflies on this site.
Thomas Iser
Painter-Performer-Photographer
OK. We're not really sure what Mr. Iser does, it looks like performance art,
but he is pretty entertaining doing it. See more photos below from his instagram feed.
Fall Begins
Thursday September 22, 2016:
5 Questions and Answers about the autumnal equinox
Summer heat has overstayed its welcome for many in September. But if you’re looking forward to cooler weather, Thursday’s autumnal equinox is a reminder that fall is finally on our doorstep.
The 2016 fall equinox arrives Sept. 22 at 10:21 a.m. Eastern. What happens on the equinox — and why are day and night not quite equal? Check out these five questions (and answers) to learn more.
1. What happens on the equinox?
Like the spring equinox in March, the autumnal equinox marks an astronomical turning point of the seasons.
Since the Earth is tilted on its axis of rotation by 23.5 degrees, the Northern and Southern hemispheres receive different amounts of amounts of sunlight throughout the year. On the equinox, however, the orbital plane of the equator becomes geometrically aligned with the center of the sun so that neither hemisphere is tilted away or toward the sun (visualize Earth’s axis going into the screen in the image below):
From our Earthbound perspective, the sun appears directly overhead along the equator, and day and night are roughly equal in length (emphasis added — see No. 4).
2. Where does the sun rise and set on the equinox?
The fall equinox is one of only two days each year when all points on Earth — apart from the polar regions — see the sun rise due east and set due west along the horizon. Until the winter solstice in December, the sun continues to rise and set farther to the south.
As the sun takes a shorter, lower path across the sky, we experience more darkness than daylight, and cooler temperatures as a result.
3. How fast are we losing daylight around the equinox?
Rapidly! Though the days have steadily been getting shorter since the
summer solstice, the earlier arrival of dusk becomes especially noticeable by September. That’s because the Northern Hemisphere loses daylight at its fastest pace around the September equinox. The District loses 2 minutes and 30 seconds of daylight each day, while cities across the northern tier lose close to three minutes or more.
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The rate of daylight change depends on your latitude, or distance from the equator. In Miami — located just north of the tropics — daylight dwindles by only 90 seconds a day. At the opposite extreme lies Fairbanks, Alaska. Located just 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle, residents there see nearly 7 minutes of daylight loss around the September equinox — not exactly uplifting!
4. Why are there more than 12 hours of daylight on the equinox?
Though equinox means “equal night” in Latin, both of Earth’s hemispheres get slightly more than 12 hours of daylight on the equinox. In the District sunrise on the fall equinox is at 6:56 a.m. and sunset at 7:04 p.m., bringing a total of 12 hours and 8 minutes of daylight.
There are two reasons for this. One is atmospheric refraction. This optical phenomenon bends the sun’s light as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere and causes the sun to appear slightly higher in the sky than it actually is. The other is how we define sunrise and sunset. The sun appears as a disk, not a single point. Sunrise is defined as the moment the sun’s upper edge appears on the horizon, while sunset doesn’t occur until the sun’s upper edge disappears from the horizon. Together, these factors add about 10 minutes of daylight to the equinox, depending on one’s distance from the equator.
The map below — by Alaska-based meteorologist Brian Brettschneider — shows when we can expect equal daylight and darkness. In most of the lower 48, the exact 12-hour day occurs three or four days after the fall equinox.
5. Why does it get dark so quickly around the equinox?We observe the sun setting much earlier as September progresses, but what about how quickly it gets dark? If you’re an astute observer, you may have noticed that daytime transitions to night a bit faster than it did a month or two ago. Indeed, the fastest sunsets of the year occur around the two equinoxes.
This happens because the sun crosses the horizon at a
slightly steeper angle than it does on the solstices. As a result, we see the sun appear and disappear from the horizon more quickly. The difference is almost imperceptible closer to the equator, but is much more pronounced at higher latitudes, such as the cities across the northern tier, Canada and Alaska:
Notice that at all times of year, twilight lasts longer the greater your distance from the equator (compare Seattle vs. Miami, for example). Yet each location sees faster sunsets — and shorter twilights — around the spring and fall equinox. In March, we usually don’t notice the shorter twilight because the days are already getting longer. In September, on the other hand, we are more likely to observe not just how much earlier it gets dark, but also how quickly nighttime falls.
As we plunge into the darker months of the year, it’s won’t be long before
temperatures fall as well. So if you’re ready for crisp mornings, pumpkins and hot cider, the fall equinox is a day to celebrate.
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