Digest>Archives> Nov/Dec 2014

Recalling Life at Whaleback

By Jeremy D’Entremont

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Jim Pope.
Photo by: Jeremy D’Entremont

Former lighthouse keeper Jim Pope is shown here at the Whaleback Day event at Portsmouth Harbor Light in New Hampshire this past September. A native of Kittery, Maine, Jim Pope was one of the last Coast Guard crewmen at Whaleback Lighthouse before automation. Whaleback Lighthouse sits in Maine waters a short distance from the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse.

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Whaleback Lighthouse as is appears today. ...

When Pope arrived at Whaleback Lighthouse at the age of 19 in 1959, the men had 24-day stints on duty followed by six days off. Jim shared his stories of life at a rugged, wave-swept lighthouse with visitors to the event. Here Jim is holding an illustration of Whaleback Lighthouse in the days when a cast-iron fog signal tower stood next to the lighthouse tower. The horn once ran for 18 straight days during a foggy stretch in 1961. 

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Whaleback Lighthouse showing when the old fog ...

Pope enjoyed fishing around the tower, and he occasionally shot ducks from the lighthouse’s windows. When it was time to get supplies, he rowed to shore in the station’s 16-foot skiff and borrowed the car of a Kittery resident to make a run to the nearby A&P grocery store. In the off hours, Pope and the others passed the time playing cribbage or watching a television that hung from the ceiling. After his time in the Coast Guard, Pope went on to a long career as a local tugboat captain.

This story appeared in the Nov/Dec 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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