Cape Elizabeth Light
by Brian MacLean
Title
Cape Elizabeth Light
Artist
Brian MacLean
Medium
Photograph
Description
Cape Elizabeth Light also known as Two Lights is a lighthouse in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Only the eastern tower of the two that made up the light station until 1924 is active. The western tower is deactivated, but it is still standing and is privately owned. The facility is adjacent to Two Lights State Park, a 41-acre state facility which allows a view of and access to the grounds of the lighthouse. Until recently, the light used a second-order Fresnel lens.
Cape Elizabeth Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Two Lights on December 27, 1974.
The area is known as "Two Lights" due to the history of the station. It was originally built in 1828 as two rubble stone towers 300 yards apart. Steam-driven warning whistles were installed in the twin towers in 1869, the first used in North America. In 1874, both structures were replaced by conical towers made of cast-iron, each 67 feet high and 129 feet above sea level. Despite its twin beacons, Cape Elizabeth witnessed many shipwrecks. In January 1885, during a raging snowstorm, keeper Marcus A. Hanna made a daring rescue of two seamen from the schooner Australia, which had run aground on a nearby ledge. The two men had taken to the rigging and were coated with ice, unable to move. The captain was drowned as a huge comber washed the deck. Keeper Hanna, securing a heavy iron weight to the end of a stout line, attempted time and again to reach the men with it. Suddenly a towering wave struck the schooner and smashed her against the rocks, putting her on her beam ends.
Keeper Hanna again threw his line and watched it land on the schooner. One of the seamen managed to reach it and bent it around his waist. Then he jumped into the sea and the keeper, with great effort, pulled him up over the rocky ledge. The keeper now heaved the line a second time and finally it reached the second seaman who wound it around his icy body. Then he too jumped into the ocean. Just as the keeper's strength was exhausted in trying to haul ashore the second man, help came in the shape of the keeper's assistant and two neighbors, who helped haul the man to safety.
Uploaded
July 20th, 2016
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