Notes:
(1) Bakers Island Twin Lights were built to mark the approach to Salem Sound which leads to Salem Harbor.

      Naumkeag was settled by Roger Conant, from the Plymouth colony, in 1626 and John Endecott in 1628 as a fishing outpost of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Interestingly, Naumkeag is a Indian word meaning peaceful fishing place and the founding fathers renamed the fishing port, Salem, from the Hebrew word, “Shalom” meaning peace on June 29, 1629.

      During the colonial period, Salem became a thriving seaport established by trading fish in the Atlantic triangular trade.  Salem was a important center of privateering during the Revolutionary War.  After the war, Salem became a prosperous International Trading Seaport leading the nation with imports from the spice trade.  Salem became the world’s premier center of the pepper trade reexporting 7.5 million pounds a year and an aid to navigation at Bakers Island was needed to protect the profitable cargoes of pepper.

      On July 28, 1791, a Daymark was erected to mark Bakers Island and the approach to Salem Sound.  Bakers Island caused numerous shipwrecks as well as the other six islands, dangerous ledges, and hazardous shoals in Salem Sound called the “The Miseries.” 

      According to the Preface of The American Practical Navigator, Nathaniel Bowditch relied upon his dead reckoning to sail his ship and sighted the Eastern Point of Cape Ann to confirm his position and sailed past Bakers Island and the hazardous “Bowditch’s Ledge,” named after his great-grandfather who had wrecked his ship on the rock more than a century before and he anchored safely in the harbor of Salem.  As a result of his daring feat, Bowditch's reputation quickly spread along the coast as the “practical navigator.”

      Nathaniel Bowditch was Salem’s famous practical navigator who corrected the errors of John Moore’s Nautical Almanac.  To help mariners determine longitude, Bowditch’s New American Practical Navigator (the “seaman’s Bible”) was first published in 1802 and current editions of his manual remain in general use today.  The seaman’s Bible improved the accuracy of American navigation.  Bowditch’s Bible and Lighthouses contributed to America’s enduring success on the seas.  During 2002, Salem celebrated the Bowditch Bicentennial.

      In 1796, the Day beacon did not prevent three shipwrecks and the loss of sixteen men.  In response, the Salem Marine Society petitioned Congress to erect a Lighthouse on the northern end of Bakers Island to prevent the loss of property and lives of their fellow citizens.  Congress appropriated $6,000 for the construction of the Twin Lighthouses.

      Two Towers were erected 40-feet apart on the top of a 2-story Keeper’s House and First Lit on January 3, 1798.  Due to the dangerous obstructions in Salem Sound, a harbor pilot was also stationed on the island to pilot vessels through the Sound into Salem Harbor.  Joseph Perkins piloted the U.S.S. Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” safely into the harbor during the War of 1812.  Two British warships were pursuing Old Ironsides near Bakers Island.  In 1815, Joseph Perkins was appointed Lightkeeper at Bakers Island Twin Lights.

      In 1816, one Twin Light was extinguished causing a problem for mariners who had trouble distinguishing Bakers Island Light from Boston Light as noted by the increased number of wrecks.  As a result, new Twin Towers were built and First Lit in October of 1821 and described as follows:

The different Tower Daymarks (Tall Conical and Short Octagonal) helped Mariners to distinguish Bakers Island Twin Lights from Cape Ann’s Twin Lights on nearby Thacher Island.  Due to their difference in height, the Twin Towers were nicknamed “Mr. and Mrs. Lighthouses.”  A separate seven room Keeper’s house was also constructed.


      In 1843, I.W.P. Lewis, Civil Engineer to the U.S. Light-house Survey, noted the importance of the Twin Lights to the numerous ships en route to Salem Harbor with valuable commerce when he criticized the poor state of the illuminating apparatus and the leaky Towers with rotten woodwork.  Only minor repairs were made until 1855 when the optics of the Southeasterly (main) Lighthouse were refitted with a Fourth-order Fresnel lens.

      In the early 1870s, a Fog Bell with striking mechanism was installed in a Bell Tower.  A new 1.5-story Victorian Keeper’s House was built in 1878.  A Fog Signal building was built to house a hot-air engine for powering an Air Siren in 1907 and island residents protested the loud intrusive noise.  To reduce the sound, the new siren was focused to the sea through a megaphone.  The present automated Air Horn was installed in 1959.

      On June 30, 1926, the smaller Northwesterly (beacon) Tower was deactivated and removed.  Twin Lighthouses were no longer needed to distinguish Light Stations in the same vicinity as flashing characteristic technology improved.  In 1938, Bakers Island Light was converted to electric power and later automated in 1972.

      In 1993, the Coast Guard repaired the Lantern Room and the Tower was restored by stonemason Martin Nally in 1996.  Stones that fell 45-feet from the top of the tower were refitted and the huge cracks in the rough stucco surface caused by repeated freezing and thawing were repaired.  The Coast Guard installed Solar panels to power the light in 2000.

(2) Directions:
      Bakers Island Light is best viewed by boat yet there several distant vantage points from the mainland:

Close View: MA-127 North towards Gloucester, turn east onto Harbor Street. Follow the Harbor Street loop to Boardman Ave, Manchester-by-the-Sea;

Distant Views: Salem Willows Park and Winter Island, Salem; and Marblehead Neck.

Directions from MA 1A North in Salem to Winter Island:
Turn Right onto Webb Street, turn Left onto Fort Avenue, Turn Right onto Columbus Square/Winter Island Road, and stay straight to go onto Winter Island Road (marked by a “Winter Island Marine Recreation Area” sign).

Directions to Salem Willows Park from Winter Island:
Exit Winter Island and turn Right onto Fort Avenue, and drive to the end at the Park.


      As with many New England Lighthouses, a private boat or a Lighthouse cruise offers picturesque scenic views of the Bakers Island Light, Salem Sound, and Salem harbor:

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(3) Emergency light Fl W 10s and horn of reduced intensity when main light or horn is extinguished. Lighted 24 hours.

(4) The Optic was refitted with a Fourth-order Fresnel Lens in 1855 and the original Fresnel Lens is on display at the Shore Village Museum in Rockland, Maine.