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American Lighthouse Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 565
Rockland,
Maine 04841
Phone: 207-594-4174
Fax: 207-596-1091
info@lighthousefoundation.org
The American Lighthouse Foundation is a
Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization dedicated to the
preservation of America's historic
lighthouses & lightships and
their heritage.
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A Battle at Whale Rock
By Jeremy D’Entremont
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Most lighthouse keepers were dedicated, competent, and
reliable, but there are stories that remind us that not everyone was
suited for life at offshore stations. In some cases, the isolation and
difficult living conditions exacerbated pre-exisiting psychological
tendencies. Certainly, |
Courtesy Jeremy D'Entremont
An early 1900s postcard of
Whale Rock Lighthouse.
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if two men with
conflicting personalities were paired up at an offshore station, the stress
of everyday life compounded the conflict.
Rhode Island’s Whale Rock Lighthouse, off the turbulent mouth of the West
Passage of Narragansett Bay, was not a popular assignment for keepers. The
lighthouse, established in 1882, was a typical cast-iron “sparkplug” type
tower on a cylindrical caisson, similar to many built from the early 1870s
into the early 1900s. The exposed, isolated tower was an atrocious place to
live, and 16 different principal keepers came and went from 1882 to 1909.
There were always one or two assistants assigned to the station, and the
turnover among assistants was even greater.
Judson Allen, after a few months as assistant, became principal keeper in
September 1895. Henry Nygren arrived as assistant keeper during the
following March. Articles in the New York Times and the Boston
Globe described an incredible violent clash between the two men in
August 1897. It was a drama Hollywood would be hard pressed to match.
It seems likely that this was only the latest battle in a war between Allen
and Nygren that had been going on for a while. Things boiled to a heated
peak on the evening of August 13. It isn’t clear how the fight |
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Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont
All that’s left of Whale Rock Lighthouse
today is part of its base. The
cast-iron superstructure of the lighthouse was
destroyed in the great hurricane of
1938. Walter B. Eberle, a 40-year-old assistant
keeper, died in the storm.
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started, but
Nygren later claimed that Allen assaulted him first with a knife,
causing two gashes in his forehead. The Globe account had Nygren
grabbing Allen by the throat and being fought off with an oar, followed
by the hurling of a bucket at Allen’s head. The Globe also
claimed that Nygren had “filled up on liquor.”
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Allen went up to the lantern to tend the light and turned around to see
Nygren rushing at him with a knife. According to the Times, after
Nygren slashed Allen’s coat, the two men ended up wrestling on the floor for
possession of the weapon. Nygren was the bigger man, but Allen managed to
kick the knife down the stairs.
As Nygren rushed down the stairs to regain the knife, Allen grabbed a rope
and used it to make an escape over the side of the lighthouse. Nygren
threatened to cut the rope, but Allen quickly reached the rocks below. As
Allen pushed off onto the moonlit sea in a rowboat, Nygren appeared with a
shotgun and fired two shots at the principal keeper.
His hands bleeding from his descent on the rope, Allen rowed for his life as
the assistant hotly pursued him in a second boat. According to the Globe,
Nygren continued to threaten Allen, yelling, “Oh, I’ll murder you! I’m
after you!” Allen reached shore, commandeered a horse, and galloped to the
next farmhouse he saw. Nygren abandoned pursuit and retreated to the
lighthouse.
Two men from a local lifesaving station went out to the lighthouse on the
following evening. They waited in the shadows while Nygren “smashed
crockery, threw the utensils for housekeeping overboard and danced wildly,”
according to the Globe. The men decided – understandably – not to
risk entering the lighthouse. Nygren was finally apprehended and brought
ashore in irons the next day. Officials of the Lighthouse Board soon
dismissed him from government service.
Next time you daydream about the romantic life of a lighthouse keeper,
remember Judson Allen and Henry Nygren.
This story is excerpted in part from the upcoming book by
Jeremy D’Entremont, The Lighthouses of Rhode
Island, to be published in spring 2006 by
Commonwealth Editions.
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