Notes:
(1) Bird Island Light was built to mark Bird Island Reef, Centerboard Shoal, and the entrance to Sippican Harbor when Marion was part of the town of Rochester.

      By 1819, Rochester (Marion since 1852) became a prosperous seacoast and shipbuilding town with sea captains trading with Europe and the Orient as well as sailing on prolonged whaling voyages.  Whales were a valuable resource to the expanding economy of colonial America and the new Republic.

      Whaling was a prosperous maritime industry providing energy oil used for private lighting (betty lamps), smokeless sperm whale oil used for illuminating Lighthouses (American Lewis Patent Lamps or European Argand Lamps), and “train oil” used to maintain leather.  In addition, whale oil obtained by rendering the whale blubber was also used in the manufacture of wool, leather, and soap.  Spermaceti, a thick liquid from the head of sperm whales, was also used to make high quality, smokeless and odorless candles.

      Bird Island and Bird Island Reef, located 2,450-feet offshore from Butler Point at the end of Sippican Neck, is dangerous low-lying obstruction to shipping entering Sippican Harbor.  In 1819, a 29-feet high rubblestone Lighthouse was built on Bird Island exhibiting a Revolving White light illuminated by ten oil lamps and 14" reflectors.  The revolving illuminating apparatus exhibited a flash every 72 seconds.


      Bird Island Light, the second Lighthouse erected in Buzzards Bay, was as powerful as the Lighthouse at Gay Head.  In 1820, a severe winter storm forced Lightkeeper William Moore and his family to evacuate their 20-foot by 34-foot stone home and seek refuge in the Lighthouse for several hours while the island was under water.  According to legend, Light-keeper Moore was banished to Bird Island as punishment for privateering yet records show Moore earned a salary of $300 annually and letters to the Massachusetts Superintendent of Lighthouses reveal Keeper Moore conducted experiments to keep whale oil from freezing during the winter months.

      Keeper Moore’s wife was stricken with consumption and sought relief by tobacco snuff and drink that was provided by the Sippican villagers.  After Mrs. Moore mysteriously died and was buried in the sand of Bird Island, whimsical legends arose about Keeper Moore’s life and later Lighthouse Keepers were haunted by the ghost of his wife “rapping at the door during the night.”

      In 1842, John Clark who was appointed keeper in 1834, complained about the numerous inconveniences at the Light Station.  The Light-house was in a “bad state” with a leaky Tower and rotten woodwork.  The keeper’s house was damp and drafty, and the 1819 cistern used to collect rainwater for drinking was empty.  A two-mile trip by boat was necessary to supply drinking water.  I.W.P. Lewis, Civil Engineer to the U.S. Light-house Survey, also noted major repairs were necessary.

      In 1843, the Federal government authorized constructing a 600-feet long stone sea wall with a 25-feet long wharf extension to protect the island and the Light Station.  The severe storm of November, 1866 damaged the seawall and swept over Bird Island flooding the cellar of the Keeper’s house.

      On May 14, 1852, Marion became a separate town and Bird Island Light was refitted with a Fourth-order Fresnel Lens and new Lantern Room according to the 1863 annual report of the Light-House Board.


      On September 8, 1869, Bird Island was flooded again by a unusual severe storm that caused widespread devastation in New England.  According to reports, Bird Island Light Station became a “perfect wreck” after the storm surge destroyed a 280-feet long section of the sea wall washing away the outbuildings.

      In 1888, the Keeper’s house after years of storm damage became uninhabitable and beyond repair.  During the razing of the old 1819 stone shelter, a secret hiding place was uncovered and contained a pouch of tobacco with a note from the first Light-keeper Moore.  According to H. Edmund Tripp, Marion Town historian, Keeper Moore’s note states: “This bag contains tobacco, found among the clothes of my wife after her decease (sic).  It was furnished by certain individuals in and about Sippican. May the curses of the High Heaven rest upon the heads of those who destroyed the peace of my family and the health and happiness of a wife whom I Dearly Loved.”  The note is additional evidence revealing the pirate and prisoner legends about Keeper Moore were fiction and may have been told to explain the numerous curses of the solitary living on the isolated island.

      In 1889, a new wood-frame Keeper’s house was built and the Lantern Room and deck of the Lighthouse was replaced in 1899.


      The “curse of Bird Island” continued when Lighthouse Keeper Charles A. Clark Jr. almost lost his brother who shot himself while the gun he was cleaning discharged in the same year Keeper Moore’s note was discovered in 1888.  After the Clarks left the island, Peter Murray was immediately appointed Light-keeper.  His youngest son, 11-month old Gerald became sick with pneumonia in February of 1890 and Keeper Murray raced to extinguish the light as a sign of emergency.  Another winter storm battered the island and formed ice floes in the harbor preventing the arrival of Doctor to help their baby who died and was buried on the mainland.  The Murrays also never returned to Bird Island.

      The importance of Bird Island Light and Wings Neck Light, located across the bay, was increased with the opening of the Cape Cod Canal on July 29, 1914 due to the expanded shipping in Buzzards Bay.  Both Lighthouses marked the safe shipping channel between them to the Canal.  On June 15, 1933, Bird Island Light was decommissioned due to the new deployment of lighted buoys marking the main shipping channel to the Cape Cod Canal.  The Lighthouse was replaced by Buzzards Bay Lighted Gong Buoy 10, Aid No 16060, Fl R 4s to improve marking the Centerboard Shoal and Bird Island Bell Buoy 3 to improve marking the reef.  Bird Island Light became a daymark used by pleasure craft entering the harbor.

      The Great Hurricane of 1938 washed away all support buildings on Bird Island during the devastating tidal wave surge leaving only the Lighthouse tower still standing.  Amazingly, the original 1819 rubblestone and lime mortar Lighthouse Tower has survived numerous devastating storms over the years with repairs as needed to keep the Light in service.

      In 1940, Bird Island was sold and became private property until 1966 when the town of Marion acquired the island.  The Bird Island Lighthouse Preservation Society was founded by Charles Bradley in January of 1994 to restore and maintain the Lighthouse as a welcoming signal to ships from around the world.

      The Lighthouse was restored by International Chimney Corporation with funds from a Federal Grant and private donations.  The Marion Board of Selectmen provided $3,000 for the installation of a solar-powered flashing Light optic in 1997.  Bird Island Light was relighted as a private aid to navigation at 9 p.m. on July 4, 1997 in a ceremony attended by 3,000 people.

(2) The Optics were refitted with a Fourth-order Fresnel Lens in 1852.

(3) From 1940 to 1966, Bird Island was private property.
Since 1966, the Town of Marion has owned Bird Island and from May to August, the Island is a nesting ground for endangered Roseate terns.

(4) Directions from Route 3 S, south of Boston, MA:
     After MA-3 S becomes US-1 S, take exit 4 onto MA-24 S toward Brockton (18.3-mi).  Drive to exit 14A onto I-495 S toward Middleboro/Cape Cod (19.7-mi), take exit 1 onto I-195 W toward Wareham/New Bedford (4.9-mi), and drive to exit 20 onto RT-105 S toward Marion/Mattapoisett.

     Merge onto Front Street/MA-105 (0.7 mi), turn Left onto US-6/Wareham Road (0.7 mi), turn Right onto Creek Road (0.3 mi), and turn Right onto Point Road.  Drive to the end of Point Road just before the Kittansett Club, a private golf club, for a distant view of the Lighthouse from the seawall.