Notes:
(1) Isles of Shoals Light (also referred to as White Island Light) was built to mark the Isle of Shoals and guide navigation into Portsmouth Harbor. The Sixteenth* Lighthouse established in America.

      The Isles of Shoals consists of nine small rocky islands and numerous ledges located 7-miles off the coast of Portsmouth, NH to Gosport Harbor.  White Island, located in Rye, New Hampshire, is the southern tip of the Isle of Shoals which extends to Duck Island in York County, Maine.


      In 1614, Explorer Captain John Smith discovered the Isles and named the islands “Smythe Isles.”  Captain Smith noted the abundant fishing at the shoals when 60,000 fish were caught in 30-days.  Smith Isles was later changed to the Isles of Shoals because the water around the islands was teeming with “shoals” or schools of fish according to custom.  A fishing and trading outpost was established on Londoner’s (currently Lunging) Island between 1615 and 1620.  Early outposts were not credited as the first New England settlements because they only worked and traded, and did not “settle” in the New World.

      By 1641, 40 families living on Hog (currently Appledore) Island established a town that flourished through its fisheries, shipping and extensive trading with the Spaniards.  In 1670, the inhabitants moved to Star Island and built Fort Star for protection from native Indians.  From 1670 to 1776, the Isles industry rivaled other early ports like Boston for volume of exported goods.

      In 1753, Samuel Haley and his family settled Haley’s (currently Smuttynose) Island building a dock, breakwaters among several islands, a grist mill, salt works, a bakehouse, and blacksmith and cooper shops.  They left the island in 1776 when the Shoalers were ordered to evacuate the islands during the war.  After the Revolutionary War, the prosperous fishing and trading industry at the Shoals never recovered.

      Haley’s family returned to island after the war and his son, Captain Samuel Haley lit a lantern in the seaward window from the sunset to sunrise to guide the mariners into the harbor formed by the breakwater in the late 1700’s.  During the blizzard of January 14, 1813, the Spanish vessel, Sagunto**, was shipwrecked on Smuttynose Island.  Fourteen shipwrecked sailors struggled toward the light of Haley’s cottage before dying in the storm’s cold wrath (according to Poet, Celia Thaxter’s recounting the official Gosport town records in her 1865 poem, “The Spaniard’s Graves” and her 1873 book, “Among the Isles of Shoals”).  Captain Haley kept the lamp burning until White Island Lighthouse was built nearby.

      In 1820, a 87-feet high rubblestone Tower was built on White Island, 5.5-miles offshore from the coast of Rye, New Hampshire.  The Lighthouse was fitted with a revolving illuminating apparatus supporting Oil Lamps with reflectors to exhibit Flashing Red alternating with Flashing White lights.  According to some sources, an alternating Flashing Blue Light was included in the Light’s characteristic but was soon deactivated due to inadequate visibility.


      In 1835, Captain Henry D. Hunter inspected the Lighthouse and reported the station was in bad order and the “lanthorn” was old. The Tower was refitted with a new lantern and lighting apparatus in 1841.

      White Island Lighthouse marked the dangerous Isles of Shoals for navigation en route to Portsmouth Harbor and safely guided shipping into Gosport Harbor during the Grand Hotel Era.  In 1847, Thomas B. Laighton retired as Light Keeper and began a prosperous resort by building the Appledore House on Hog Island, which he renamed Appledore.  The summer hotel no longer exists.  In 1872, John R. Poore built a rival hotel, the grand Oceanic Hotel, on Star Island.  Since 1916, the hotel has served as the Star Island Religious and Educational Conference Center.

      In 1859, a 58-feet high cylindrical Tower was erected with 2-feet thick granite walls to protect the Lighthouse from blockade runners and later Southern gunboats during the Civil War.  The Lighthouse was fitted with a Second-order Fresnel Lens exhibiting a Flashing Red light alternating with Flashing White light every 15 seconds, 82-feet above sea level.  In 1906, the 1859 fog bell at White Island was replaced by a new bell and striking mechanism.


      In 1986, the Lighthouse was automated and the 170,000-candlepower Second-order Fresnel lens incandescent oil-vapor Light was replaced by a modern FA-251 Rotating Beacon.  The present Optic is a solar powered 190 MM lens.  During foul weather, an automated air diaphone horn blasts for 3-seconds every 30-seconds.

      Since 1997, Seavey Island has been used by the New Hampshire Audubon Society for a Tern Restoration Project with protection for nesting seabird colonies at Seavey and adjacent White Island.

*According to U.S. Coast Guard sources, the Lighthouse was first established in 1790 yet to date, research has not located any details about a lighthouse built in 1790.  This may refer to a Lamp kept lit from sunset to sunrise by Captain Samuel Haley to guide ships into Smuttynose Harbor (formerly Haley’s Island) in the late 1700’s.

** There are conflicting accounts as to which Spanish ship was wrecked off Haley’s Island. Both the Sagunto and the Cadiz 400-ton galleon, Conception, sailed up the coast from the West Indies to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for dried fish.  According to historian Samuel Adams Drake, the Sagunto made safe harbor at Newport, Rhode Island before the storm but the Conception disappeared during storm and is believed to be the vessel wrecked on Cedar Island Ledge.

(2) Emergency light of reduced intensity when main light is extinguished.

(3) In 1839, Thomas Laighton was appointed lighthouse keeper. Research has not located earlier documents listing the First Keeper of the Lighthouse erected in 1820.  Thomas Laighton in partnership with Levi Thaxter began the resort business at the Isles of Shoals in 1847.  Keeper Laighton was the father of Celia Thaxter, a prolific New England poet who wrote several poems describing her life at the remote Lighthouse.  The following poems provide some insight to the life of a Light Keeper and his family:

Sandpiper

The Wreck of the Pocahontas

(4) White Island is owned by the State of New Hampshire (1993) and is managed by the Department of Parks and Recreation.  In 1998, Don Stevens, a diving school manager, of Atlantic Aqua Sport signed a 10-year lease to operate a Diving School in return for maintaining the Keeper’s house.

      The Lighthouse tower, owned by the State of New Hampshire, has severe deterioration with major cracks spreading along the brick wall caused by the continuous action of salt, ice, waves, wind, and sunshine.  The cracks were first noticed in 2000 and recently, seventh graders of North Hampton School created a web site to save the Lighthouse.


     Restoration costs were originally estimated to be $290,000 and the Lighthouse Kids, organized by Sue Reynolds, a seventh grade teacher, have raised $11,500 and Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire acquired a matching grant of $250,000 in federal funds for the restoration of the White Island Lighthouse on April 30, 2003.

      In June 2004, Engineers from Louis Berger Group of Manchester surveyed White Island to locate the best place to construct a flexible boat landing that will resist the shifting boulders on the rocky island and the forces of the sea.  All preceding landing sites were destroyed by storms.  Due to state funding approval, White Island Lighthouse must survive another severe New England winter before the tower cracks can be repaired.

      On June 22, 2005, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch authorized the restoration of the endangered White Island Light Station after receiving $110,000 from the Lighthouse Kids.  Over the past five years, the Lighthouse Kids have raised donations from merchandise sales, foundation grants, private fund raising, and corporate fund raising.

      Restoration of White Island Lighthouse, Keeper’s House, and landing will begin this summer and continue over the next two years as the Lighthouse Kids continue to raise another $440,000 estimated to complete the project.

      For more information or help save White Island Lighthouse,
visit the “Lighthouse Kids” .

(5) White Island is best viewed by a Lighthouse cruise provided by several Cruise companies:
     Isles of Shoals Steamship Co.
     A 4-hour Scenic Lighthouse Cruise with views of Portsmouth Harbor Light, Whaleback Light,
     White Island Light, Boon Island Light, and Cape Neddick Light.

     Portsmouth Harbor Cruises
     Isles of Shoals Cruise in sight of Portsmouth Harbor Light, Whaleback Light, and White Island Light.

Notable Sentinel Navigation
Back to Previous Light: Plum Island Light
Forward to Next Light: Portland Head Light

or Regional Navigation