Notes:
(1) Straitsmouth Island Light was built to mark the entrance to Rockport Harbor.

      As early as 1800, Cape Ann inhabitants began cutting Rockport Granite into blocks of stone.  Due to the fine quality of the granite, the Granite Quarries expanded and surpassed Rockports’ fishing industry by the 1820s.  Rockports’ granite industry became successful because Granite Quarries were located along the coast a short distance from the pier where the finished stone was loaded onto specially designed granite carrying ships.  Eventually, the famous Rockport Granite was transported by sailing ships around the world.

      In 1835, a 19-feet high brick Lighthouse exhibiting a Fixed White light and a brick Keeper’s house was constructed to guide mariners of the fishing and granite industries into Rockport Harbor.  The Lighthouse also served to guide shipping through the narrow channel between Straitsmouth Island and the rocky ledges, named Little Salvages and Dry Salvages, yet in 1842, I.W.P. Lewis, Civil Engineer to the U.S. Light-house Survey, noted the Light was built 500-feet from the location needed for this function.

      From 1830 to 1844, numerous shipwrecks occurred near Straitsmouth Island during storms.  After the devastating gale of October 1844 that nearly destroyed every boat at Pigeon Cove, Avery Ledge, located 1,700-feet offshore from Straitsmouth Island, was marked by a Bell Buoy for the safety of navigation.  A Lighted Bell Buoy, Flashing Red every 4-seconds, currently warns mariners of the dangerous ledge.

      During the 1850s, the Oil Lamps were refitted with a Sixth-order Fresnel Lens.  In 1878, a new 1-1/2 story Keeper’s house was built and the present 37-feet high brick Tower replaced the original deteriorating tower in 1896.

      In the late 1800s, a estimated seventy thousand vessels passed Cape Ann annually.  In 1885, A $5 million federal project was started to create the “Sandy Bay National Harbor of Refuge,” a 1,600-acre protected port for mooring 5,000 sailing ships, by constructing a V-shaped 1-mile long Sandy Bay Breakwater located 1.5 miles from Rockport Harbor.  The deep water of Sandy Bay with good anchoring ground was ideal for creating a large safe haven between Portland and Boston, where vessels could seek shelter during storms.  The Babson Farm Quarry located at Halibut Point, so-named because sailing ships had to “haul about” to clear the rocky headland during the eighteenth-century, provided 1.5 million tons of granite for the Breakwater from 1895 to 1915.  The project was never completed due to World War I and the end of the “age of sail.”


      On August 30, 1899, the coasting schooner, Edward R. Rich, was shipwrecked on the Sandy Bay Breakwater after leaving the Cape Ann Granite Company dock loaded with Paving Blocks for Boston.  On October 3, 1902, the mackerel fishing schooner, Frederick Tudor, ran aground on the submerged Breakwater.  Sandy Bay Breakwater, considered to be a man-made hazard to navigation, is still visible from the end of Bearskin Neck, Rockport.

      According to divenewengland.com, Sandy Bay Breakwater is a “spectacular dive site within view of Rockport harbor.”

      In 1932, Straitsmouth Island Lights’ Characteristic was changed from a Fixed White light to Green.  In 1941, Straitsmouth Island, excluding the Lighthouse, was sold as private property.

      In 1967, the Lighthouse was automated and the Fresnel lens was replaced by a modern optic.  During the same year, Frederic Gibbs donated the island, including the Keeper’s house, to the Massachusetts Audubon Society as a wildlife sanctuary.

      Today, Rockport continues the heritage of a quaint New England coastal fishing village.  Rockport is also home to one of the nation’s oldest artist colonies that has inspired painters since Winslow Homer who lived at Ten Pound Island Lighthouse for a year in 1880.  The summer artist colonies are located at Rocky Neck in East Gloucester and Bearskin Neck in Rockport.  You can view Straitsmouth Island Light from the breakwater at the end of Bearskin Neck.

(2) Straitsmouth Island was donated to Massachusetts Audubon Society on Dec 5, 1967 and is part of the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary for bird and wildlife. Unfortunately, the Keeper’s House has been allowed to deteriorate with bird nests throughout the historic structure.

      The Light Tower is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard.

(3) Straitsmouth Island Lighthouse is best viewed by a Lighthouse cruise provided by several Cruise companies:

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