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Rough Bout with Nature on Christmas Eve


Rough Bout with Nature on Christmas Eve
Photo Information
Copyright: Jim Pinkham (jpinkham) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 80 W: 4 N: 146] (661)
Genre: Landscapes
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-08-23
Categories: Seascape
Camera: HP Photosmart 945
Exposure: f/8.5, 1/111 seconds
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-09-21 21:37
Viewed: 959
Points: 2
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
This is a beautiful but formidable stretch of coast, just a stone's throw from the famous Portland Head Light. This jagged line of rocky ledge caught a ship in its maw on Christmas Eve 1886 -- another reminder of the power of nature and how fragile the efforts of humans within it, even to do something so seemingly simple (to some) as to try to sail upon the waters.

The original memorial of the wreck of the Annie C. Macguire -- shown here with little change but fresh paint -- was painted on the rocks at Portland Head Light by John A. Strout, a third-generation member of a long line of lightkeepers to serve at Portland Head Light.

On Christmas Eve in 1886, the keeper's family rescued all 13 people, including the captain's wife, from the wreck of the three-masted bark Annie C. Maguire, which inexplicably struck the ledge. Crewmembers said the light was plainly visible to them just before the accident. On New Year's Day 1887, a storm destroyed the ship after everything of value had been removed.

Strout painted the memorial on the rocks on his 21st birthday, the day he officially became an assistant keeper at the lighthouse.

*** I am indebted to several online sources, especially http://lighthouse.cc/portlandhead/history.html, for the information above.

Several deaths occurred here before the original commitment to build the lighthouse in the late 1700s. In more modern times, we've needed no help from nature to wreak havoc -- a German U-boat torpedoed a U.S. PE boat just nine miles southeast of this point a few days before the end of World War II, the greatest loss of American Navy personnel in New England waters of the entire war, according to a plaque at the site.
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Marking for tomorrow...I'll be back.
Bob

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